Why do people in smaller markets get punished by idiotic news anchors? (1 Viewer)

[Hugh M]

I know the answer.

But, for the love of God. I have heard more than enough senseless remarks made by these people. I think the market I'm in is near 100 in the US. I've seen alot worse when I was near Cheyenne WY though. Now that was terrible. But even these folks on the stations here forget to check what they're saying often.

For instance, a local handicapped elderly man dies in a fire today and the last remark the news anchor makes is "The damage was estimated at $800,000." Now I can see this info being mentioned, but surely not the closing remark.

There's alot of this. I can't remember the others exactly, but usually it is a major oversight which leads to some rude impression to the viewer.

I think the biggest example is when local radio people try and be funny and end up being not funny, and rude at the same time. Like mentioning the missing Intern and then laughing about it. The girl is missing! Not Funny!

just my rant, but these people are on the news, you figure they would be checked the same as any other. I guess not. Network affiliate or not, usually these are the least experienced of the bunch. We'll just have to look the other way when they laugh instead of show some sympathy.

 

[Mark Philp]

It's very simple. Most small market tv stations don't pay nearly as much as the bigger ones. Many stations just hire a warm body right out of college. You'd be surprised at how many "kids" are willing to work for $7 or $8 an hour. If they're pretty good it won't be long before they move up the line to a bigger market and a better paying jobs. Not to say that there aren't some really good anchors at some smaller stations but in general they seem to be outnumbered.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

They recruit locally?
Regards,
Joe
(In a small TV market)

 

[EugeneR]

If you think you wouldn't get senseless remarks in a big market, you're sadly mistaken. Believe me, you don't know what a senseless remark is until you've heard a local anchor have to go unscripted and give running commentary about a car chase for two hours. Having a half a brain is clearly not a requirement for an anchor.

 

[Dave Reichert]

I had quite an experience with this. I've always lived in major markets, Boston, L.A., Portland, and now Denver. My grandma lives in Mankato, MN, a town of about 35,000 people and they actually have their own TV stations! They serve quite a bit of southern MN though so it's kinda understandable. Anyways, several years ago we were visiting and there was a tornado warning. You could tell the weather guy was new cuz tornado warnings are pretty commonplace in that area during the summer months. This guy/kid was treating the tornado warning like the second coming of Christ! I remember him vividly describing what you should do if you were near the tornado. He was saying to go into the basement, usual stuff, if you didn't have a basement you should go into the bathroom and put a mattress over the bathtub (I know it makes sense, but a little too coffin like for me) or duck down in between the toilet and the bathtub. This went on for about 20 minutes! He kept repeating the same thing over and over and actually started physically acting out how you should duck down to protect yourself. I really doubt there was anybody within 100 miles of that tornado that had never experienced a tornado warning before and didn't know what to do. If I remember right, this particular twister never even touched down so luckily it didn't cause any damage, unlike one some time later about 10 miles up the road in St. Peter that damn near leveled the whole town.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

That was a good one, Dave! Maybe he was saying all of that for his wife and kids - who knows?

I know that the bigger markets get better reporters, but they screw up too. I recently saw a national network anchor talk about an anthrax letter, and added that "Inside the letter was a letter too."

I'd say - what were they thinking? - but they couldn't have been thinking at all.

Glenn

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

Big markets don't guarantee that network anchors won't be pinheads, just look at Peter Jennings.

 

[Hugh M]

well,
I guess on the flip side there is a benefit to small market news in that some actual positive news is reported on a daily basis. Sure, if they had more bad news they would report it. But its good to see something aside from crime on the news, at least once in a while.
I realize that the big news anchors mess up as well, but nothing like you'll see in a small market. Always mistakes, from the engineers all the way to the people in front of the camera. And I usually don't mind until it is something rude that happens.
anyways, like I said, I know the reason why small markets receive this punishment. I have the LA stations on cable, so I can always tune into see their polished supermodel faces whenever I want.
Its funny someone mentioned Denver, I almost considered that a small(er) market when I lived there. Alot of people in the area, but once you go a little ways away, nada. I always enjoyed that part.
just remember, no gnews is good gnews.

 

[andrew markworthy]

If you think hearing local presenters is bad, try being interviewed by them. I've got to say that our local BBC radio station is excellent, but elsewhere local radio presenters can reach the level of the sublime in their lunacy. My particular favourite was being interviewed by a Scottish radio station about my specialism, which is the psychology of ageing. The presenter started with 'how old are you?'. At the time I was in my mid-thirties, and told him so. Then he asked 'aren't you a bit young for this kind of work?'. I thought it couldn't get any worse, but a couple of minutes later out of nowhere he asked me for my tip for the big horse race the following Saturday. I replied that I didn't follow horse racing, only to be asked if most psychology of ageing researchers didn't gamble.

I must stress that I know some good, intelligent radio presenters who are paragons of professionalism, but there are some instances where I'm convinced that the radio station has taken a passing down and out, their brains addled with years of consuming meths and boot polish, cleaned them up, and put them in a studio.

 

[Scooter]

One of THE best anchor-ette stories I heard was when I worked at WABC. The head of ENG there told me of a a girl in St. Louis who somehow wound up in NY. What trailed along with her, much to her dismay, was a tape of her involved in banter with her male co-anchor during The Pope Across America Tour in the mid 90's. As the 2 are commenting on the St. Louis stop, she states:

"You know, he is SUCH a nice man. Wonder why he's not married?"

'Nuff said!

 

[John Besse]

Get your news from Naked News and you'll never be bothered by this again!