I find local news stations to be annoying. Here are some points.....

* Having two anchors, usually a male and a female, which start out on the big news story, with usually the male anchor starting the story and then the female anchor finishes.

Male: "Today in downtown, a man runs through the street naked!"

Female "Twenty six year old John Doe was captured ...."

Why does it take two people to do one news story? what is the point of that?

* This crap..."Channel One was the first on the scene with the report of the naked man...." To me, it is just self aggrandizing. Am I supposed to be impressed by this somehow? "Chopper One is high above the city following the naked man, and we are the only news station to show you live penis to penis coverage!"

* In your city, is local news like always on? In my hometown, the CBS affiliate basically covers all their open slots with news. Early morning, mid morning, noon, 4 PM, 5 PM, 6 PM, 10 PM, and even has a dedicated 24 hour a day local news station. I mean, what is the point of that? Nothing much happens in Memphis except people getting shot, government corruption, BBQ and Elvis.

* Newscasters announcing their schedule.. "Hello, this is Emily Dorn, Amy Wong has the night off." Personally don't care, unless I am married to Amy Wong and wonder where the hell she is.

* Every other story is BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS, a man is running down the street naked! BREAKING NEWS...Donald Trump's hair is real! BREAKING NEWS...McDonalds makes you fat!

* The weather seems to be of monumental importance. Occasionally when the weather gets violent or icy, it is important. Usually it isn't. Driving around in their $100,000 weather wagon with satellites and cables and all that mess. I dunno about other cities, but in Memphis, this is called a "Weathergasm" where the news station goes full mode like the Kennedy assassination over an inch of snow. They used to make the weatherman stand outside "This is Mr. Weatherman, as you see, it is -10 below with 25 MPH winds and ice...(his mind: like you don't know this, and the station manager can kiss my behind!)

* Now, I have noticed that when a reporter does a "live report" they are basically holding a camera phone on themselves, you can tell because it is always shaky.

* In a major story, like say Casey Anthony where all the reporters from the competing stations are in a scrum with cameras and microphones yelling at the person asking "Do you have any comment?" "Anything you like to say?" knowing damn well that person isn't going to say anything and wants to punch them in the face.

* When someone is talking with the microphone to the camera, I do not want to see their side view. Why do they do that? is it some sense of realism? Note, it looks cheap and amaturish.

* The news station pushing some damn charity or crap or trying to show that they "care" about the community they "serve". I lived in a city in the 1990's, broke as a joke and renting a room from someone and had no internet to speak of and my main pleasure was TV, and one Monday night when I wanted to watch King of Queens (the Leah Remini in tight jeans walking about show) Everybody Loves Raymond and Becker (Shawnee Smith jiggling show)....when my programs were premempted by some telethon crap for the local stations news charity. I would think the network would disallow this but didn't. Sort of a moot point now since one can basically watch what they want when they want.

So, do you watch local news? Do you like one newscast over another? Or does local media make you want to pull an Elvis and shoot the set with a shotgun?

I find that female anchor after reaching the age of 45ish either gets demoted to the 5:00 O'Clock hour or is fired - contract not renewed! The replacement is from outside the station and usually in the late 20s or early 30s! The male archor stays till retirement around 64 years old!

Weather female persons never reach 50 year old even if the look like they are mid 30s! They are fired or get to do special interest reporting and work only occasionally!

Many news broadcast have fixed camera positions that have self controlled movable camera lens that are controlled in the production room! There use to be two or three camera person, now there are none in new re-modeled news stations. Many are going with the lower table, no seats environment too!

Many reporters now go it alone without a camera person and use an iPhone or similar miniature video camera to do recorded broadcasts but on live! they have a camera person still! I guess it does not look professional and hard to get cued for live broadcast.

* Newscasters announcing their schedule.. "Hello, this is Emily Dorn, Amy Wong has the night off." Personally don't care, unless I am married to Amy Wong and wonder well the hell she is.

Especially when the anchor who was off is one of the anchors who was billed. WLS in Chicago handled that quite properly on one broadcast of Eyewitness News in 1983. It was a special expanded edition for the mayoral election of 1983. WLS V/O Al Parker's opening was thus:

"This is Eyewitness News with Joel Daly, Dick Johnson for Fahey Flynn, Dr. Dave Eiser's weather, Al Lerner on sports, and the Eyewitness News team."

The reason why, IMO, it was done properly is because Dick Johnson was in the studio co-anchoring with Joel Daly, and I think that when one anchor is in the studio replacing another, the replacement anchor should be billed like this was, instead of billing the original anchor who is/was not there.

Here's this opening, from a video of news openings from WLS in Chicago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo4FfiH2Hf4&t=1m44s

One of my biggest gripes is the teasers that are done before it airs. They bait you with a story then force you to sit through the entire newscast and it's almost always the last thing they mention.

One of my biggest gripes is the teasers that are done before it airs. They bait you with a story then force you to sit through the entire newscast and it's almost always the last thing they mention.


I was just about to post that!!!!!! And it's usually very brief and not as important/newsworthy as they let on to be! :mad:

* In your city, is local news like always on?

YES!!!!! And they keep repeating the same stuff over and over even if it isn't that important!!!

One of my biggest gripes is the teasers that are done before it airs. They bait you with a story .

My complaint is along those lines. They'll use scare tactics, like coming on earlier in the day and saying stuff like "Something in your house may be killing you right now. We'll tell you what it is at 11"

I hardly ever watch the local news unless I've heard of something exciting happening, then I'll watch it. Right now in my county, we've got a murder trial and a federal case of voter fraud going on. So I watch the news to keep up to date on that. I only watch the local weather when there's something bad coming, like snow, ice, thunderstorm. I've gotta watch tonight, because we got rain, sleet and snow for tomorrow!

I hate when the weather lady says it's going to rain during rush hour with all her teeth showing:lol:

I only watch my local news to watch the weather lady. She makes me smile.

It is me, the OP.

How many of your newscasters are from the area? Who were raised there, versus people passing through to another job? When I was growing up, a lot of the news anchors were from my city, many of them going to the local high schools or colleges or were from a town less than 100 miles away.

I am getting older (49 next month) but notice that a lot of the people now are much younger, late 20's to early 30's, and none of them are from the local area, and since my city is what I would think of as a "mid market" city with a not so great economy, I can see a lot of these "kids" moving on to something better. Still got a few "old timers" around who have been there for 25 to 30 years, but I think the business has gotten a lot more competitive, and they do not pay the money it did. But, like I said above, the local news has expanded so much that there is more work out there available, or the people who do work are working longer than they used to.

I think broadcasting is one of those jobs that looks fun, but really isn't. Not to mention that the locals know who you are. There is one girl on the NBC affiliate who looks like a younger version of Tina Fey (and married), and I cant help thinking yahoos staring at her and bothering her. Dunno.

The Nicholas Cage film "The Weatherman" I think is a good synopsis of that trade.

Double Post!

I have the push notification on my phone for all breaking news from one local channel WABC Eyewitness News. My phone dings for everything - a lost puppy, a snowflake fell from the sky, the pope got into a car, etc. They even notified me when Celine Dion's brother died:rolleyes:. At first I was annoyed but now I just find it funny. They are always trying to be the first to report anything. Their broadcast is equally funny because every story is started with "Breaking News" and some dramatic music.

One of my biggest gripes is the teasers that are done before it airs. They bait you with a story then force you to sit through the entire newscast and it's almost always the last thing they mention.

AND then it seems to be a short version with details left out. News these days is extremely depressing and I honestly try to avoid most of it.

It is me, the OP.

How many of your newscasters are from the area? Who were raised there, versus people passing through to another job? When I was growing up, a lot of the news anchors were from my city, many of them going to the local high schools or colleges or were from a town less than 100 miles away.

I am getting older (49 next month) but notice that a lot of the people now are much younger, late 20's to early 30's, and none of them are from the local area, and since my city is what I would think of as a "mid market" city with a not so great economy, I can see a lot of these "kids" moving on to something better. Still got a few "old timers" around who have been there for 25 to 30 years, but I think the business has gotten a lot more competitive, and they do not pay the money it did. But, like I said above, the local news has expanded so much that there is more work out there available, or the people who do work are working longer than they used to.

I think broadcasting is one of those jobs that looks fun, but really isn't. Not to mention that the locals know who you are. There is one girl on the NBC affiliate who looks like a younger version of Tina Fey (and married), and I cant help thinking yahoos staring at her and bothering her. Dunno.

The Nicholas Cage film "The Weatherman" I think is a good synopsis of that trade.


Yeah!! Like they seem plastic, like they are just there for a job. Not really caring what is going on in that area, or even in the world for that matter!!! :confused: Seems a lot of them lately just want to be seen, (like discovered, and trying to go onto bigger and better things/acting gigs or something) their heart isn't really in the news!!!! :confused:

In the old days, the newscasters really were into their job, and took the news more seriously!;) And I think lately and more the women than the men, are just trying to be glamour girls!!! :confused:

AND then it seems to be a short version with details left out. News these days is extremely depressing and I honestly try to avoid most of it.

Especially endless dreary political stuff, as on FOX "News"!