Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

Skip to main content
Newspapers.com by Ancestryprint logo
Free Trial
Sign in

KHNL: New kid on the block struggles for higher ratings

'The Honolulu Adveruser Monday, December 1, 1997 New kid on the block struggles for higher ratings illustrate government waste. "Everybody remembers Lyle Galdeira doing his walking,' said newly promoted executive producer Dave Patterson. "The philosophy was, 'We have to be different to get people to watch.' " "We watched," said KITV-4 anchor/reporter Tina Shelton, snapping her fingers like a flamenco dancer. "It looked kind of good. It was well produced. "We were scared. But after a couple of days, it was, 'The emperor has no clothes.' It was all promotion and no content." KITV city hall reporter Keoki Kerr remembered thinking, "If this works, then 1 maybe it's time for me to get out of the TV business because it was so flashy and h had so little That was then Those days are gone at KHNL. New news director Chuck Parker, who has worked for both KGMB-9 and KHONChannel 2, has toned down the quick cuts and frantic approach. A Mainland consultant is helping reshape the broadcast by emphasizing clear communication and good story telling. Consultant Mackie Morris, vice president of Frank N. Magid Associates, insists he's not in Hawaii to make KHNL's format look like it's produced for Anytown USA. "I have to adjust myself to the locale rather than bring a boilerplate approach," said Morris, who lives in Plano, Texas, and speaks with a drawl thicker than barbecue sauce. But KHNL remains last in the ratings despite lead-ins from NBC's powerful line-up of shows, including "ER.' "At first, we tried to be a different news," said John Fink, president and general manager. "When you come out as the last guy in, where there's already a Coke and Pepsi, you try to be 7-Up. ... We've made some changes in content, we've made some changes in personnel and Cory Lum/The Honolulu Advertiser Dave Patterson, left, KHNL's new executive producer, discusses the evening's story line-up with news director Chuck Parker at the station's assignment desk. we've made some changes in management in the last nine months. The research indicates that we are ahead of what the ratings would indicate and we are providing what the people want to see and hear." Telling the story, and more At KHNL, Parker has a mostly young staff that has plenty of state-of-the-art toys and a mandate to tell good stories. If there's a major story - like the Palolo house fire in October that killed seven people - KHNL hits it with multiple reports that look at as many angles as Parker and his producers can devise. There was the predictable companion story on who the victims were, and reaction from neighbors and the children's school. But KHNL also did a story on common fire hazards in the home. And the producers found an NBC report on what the inside of a house looks like during a fire. Patterson's three children were also going the final installment on a newsroom monitor. "This is real life. This is what TV's all about." The people parade Legislative reporter Julie Ogata returned to the newsroom after watching a new technique for brain surgery. Her story was supposed to air that night, but Parker and Patterson needed her to help follow anchor/reporter Barbara Wallace's sweeps series on Hawaii inmates in Texas prisons. It was an agonizingly slow news day and Parker and Patterson stood at the chesthigh assignment desk struggling for something to lead their 6 p.m. broadcast. They had Wallace and Ogata talk to people involved with Hawaii prisons to put together two separate stories on what happens next. "How do we make it our lead?" Patterson said. "That's something I've still got to work out." Five hours later, Wallace sprinted into the newsroom in stocking feet after anchoring the 5 p.m. show. The 6 p.m. broadcast was half an hour away and Wallace's story was still too long. "Now I have to go and seriously chop down my package," she said. "And we still have to figure out how to make this seamless," Ogata said. With 10 minutes to air time, Wallace finished her editing, set out a tub of guacamole and chips for the staff and settled into a chair in the newsroom to introduce her story for the 6 p.m. show. "Everything runs very smoothly now," Gerasole said as Wallace sprinted in the background. "It's a pretty welloiled machine. Reporters aren't being yanked back and forth off and on stories or they find out too late that something wasn't covered." While Parker tries to redefine KHNL's approach and settle down the staff, the parade of personalities continues. Gerasole and his wife, Heidi Umbhau, were reassigned in August from their main anchor duties, although Umbhau now works the weekend desk. Sports anchor Robert Kekaula was fired in October after a newsroom scuffle with executive news producer Alex McGehee, who also was let go. A new managing editor through fire prevention week at school and so the station did a story on fire escape routes. If there isn't major news for the day, Parker and his staff don't pretend there is. They give reporters ideas that are based on news, let them come up with feature stories that address the bigger issues and look for people who are being affected. In one week, former anchor Vince Gerasole, now a reporter, " was assigned to cover a Land Board proposal for dealing with beach erosion. Gerasole didn't mention the Land Board proceedings until the middle of the story. Instead, he focused on beach erosion at Lanikai and talked about a tourist couple's reactions to what they had been told was the country's best beach. The next day, he was given a four-day-old press release about a health department grant to study the diverting of petty criminals into programs instead of jails. He wanted to use the announcement of the study to look at the debate over diversion Instead the grant, the story Honolulu diversion the street. the issues grant as a answers. programs. of merely focusing on Gerasole introduced with footage of the Police Department's program at work on Then he talked about and mentioned the way of finding A series full of hope There have also been more ambitious stories. Duncan Armstrong followed a 3-year-old girl, Paige Ann Teves, from July to November to see how she and her family dealt with her cancer. Armstrong is one of KHNL's so-called "video journalists," a photographer who sometimes does his own reporting. He produced a five-part series on the Teves family for the November sweeps ratings period. It was a depressing subject, but the series turned out amazingly full of hope. "I was at their home in the wee hours of the morning, I was at the hospital at all hours," Armstrong said, as he played And today, Elisa Yadao takes over as managing editor, the No. 2 position in the newsroom. Her appointment caused a few staff members to question whether the station is creating a conflict of interest with Yadao's previous role as Bishop Estate's key spokeswoman in the biggest story of the year, the investigations of the estate, whose land and wealth touch nearly aspect of Island life. Yadao said: "They're very good people at Channel 8 and there are many people with whom I had the pleasure of working at KGMB and I'm actually excited. It's going to be very enjoyable to be part of a young team and to be able to help build something." She joins a loose newsroom. It's a place with plenty of air, space and light, where people are allowed to have fun. Lists of everybody's birthdays hang in some of the editing bays, along with a master phone directory titled "Phone Numbers That Are Mildly Important." Employees are broken down by categories such as "Da Techs" and people are listed not by name and title but as "Lyle, Man & Myth," "Supa Dave," and "Promo Goddess Jill." And the new news director the man Armstrong said "will lead us into the future" - has a simple, yet direct title. "Mr. Parker To You." Tomorrow: The once-mighty KGMB-9 struggles with a new approach.
Article from 01 Dec 1997Honolulu Star-Advertiser(Honolulu, HI)
•
CLIPPED BY
sammibrie

Topics to Browse:

Get started searching Newspapers by searching a keyword, name, or phrase…

PeopleTopicsLocationsOther

More Clippings by tags, date and location

Loading

Loading

Loading

Loading

Trending Clippings

Loading

Loading

Loading

Loading

View All Clippings
[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2026 Movatter.jp