 Use topical investigations to
increase sampling
Veteran consultant Tom Dolan advises taking key stories that viewers already know
something about and then developing more information, better angling and more enterprise
on those stories. Newscast
expanded
at 10 p.m.
KOAT-TV, Albuquerque, expanded the 10 p.m. weekday newscasts to an hour, and quickly saw
audience growth. The plan was explained by Mary Lynn Roper, President and General Manager.
Officers
raiding meth labs: Many are ill from exposure
Former Utah narcotics officers, who put their lives on the line when they raided illegal
meth labs a decade or two earlier, have died or are battling unusual illnesses.
The chemicals used to make the meth are deadly.
The story was investigated by the team at KSL-TV, Salt Lake City. Reporter Debbie
Dujanovic found 58 police officers who had investigated meth labs in the previous two
decades.
News Director Con Psarras explained how they put the project together, and told us,
"We only found a few officers who didn't have a serious health problem. When compared
to the average rates of illness and cancer among that age group, the statistics were
indicative of a pretty big problem."
Of the 58 officers, 40 were sick or dead.
High
on meth, speeding, killing --- and still driving
A log truck driver kept on rolling, in spite of overloading his truck and causing a fatal
accident. The driver was off the road for only about one week after the accident.
KING-TV's Chris Ingalls found there was no penalty, no suspension of his license, nothing
---he just went right back to driving. There should have been three strikes against him.
He was speeding. His truck was overloaded. He tested positive for meth.
Changing the culture: A 24-Hour web
channel
Web sales more than doubled in one year at WIBW-TV, Topeka. General Manager Jim Ogle
shared with us the strategy that is working for his team.
Web
Video Journalist Hired
A photographer has become talent and is producing stories for the Web site of WPRI-TV,
Providence. He shoots, writes, and narrates the pieces. News Director Joe Abouzeid and his
team explain how it works.
When
Help Doesn't Arrive In Time
Have a serious heart attack on the streets of Cleveland and the chances of being
successfully recuscitate are slim. WJW-TV's Tom Merriman broke this.
Meanwhile, they don't have enough ambulances in Cincinnati. WCPO-TV's Hagit Limor
reported that story.
Financial
Fitness
Boot Camp
A major project combining financial information and advice aired on WCNC-TV, Charlotte.
News Director Mary Alvarez and reporter Anna Crowley explained how it was executed.
Broken
School Buses
Kept Rolling
Safety violations in the Indianapolis school bus fleet were so severe that the state
police began an immediate investigation after they were contacted by WTHR-TV. News
Director Carolyn Williams and investigative reporter Bob Segall explained how they
executed their project.
Rare
Interviews, SWAT Team Tapes Give Depth to School Shooting Anniversary Special
A deranged, armed drifter entered a Colorado high school. He took seven students hostage.
A special on the hostage drama was produced by KMGH-TV, Denver.
It featured interviews with people who had never talked about it publicly.
"If we were going to do something, we wanted to do something significant and
impactful, and that meant we needed to get a lot of players involved," said News
Director Byron Grandy.
Columbine:
Viewer Sensitivities Were Key
The live images were monitored carefully when two young men killed 12 other students, a
teacher and themselves at Columbine.
Patti Dennis, KUSA-TV's News Director, told us, "We had pictures coming in from
hospitals that I told them absolutely, positively, I did not want to see on our air. I
forbid it!"
Pick
debate winners instantaneously
If you can learn something about which candidate viewers feel did the best in a debate you
will be offering information beyond a simple summarization of their carefully rehearsed
statements. Innovative projects were explained by Jim Boyer, News Director of
KOMO-TV, Seattle and Natalea Brown, News Director of WJZ-TV, Baltimore. Here are
ideas that are alternatives to the usual mix of campaign officials, professors, and
man-on-the-street interviews for debate reactions.
Strengthen your
politics online: Website gives stations depth
Your station's website can be an effective vehicle for providing extensive political
information that can be accessed by viewers/users when they have an interest in the
campaigns. The NextGenPolitics website was developed initially by Hertz Research.
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TV News Investigations: Summertime Issues
Officials' Gas Guzzling Cars,
Dirty Pools and Dog Bites
Here are several good enterprise stories that were done recently.
Official cars: Should the mayor be riding in a
gas guzzler?
WJW-TV, Cleveland
The pain at the pump is bad enough, but drivers were upset to learn they are also paying
record gas prices to fill up the gas guzzlers driven by local mayors. Investigative
reporter Bill Sheil looked at what kind of cars the politicians are driving on the
public's dollar. The first step was a mass e-mail by investigative producer Mark DeMarino
to all of the mayors in the market's central county.
Dirty and dangerous swimming pools are exposed.
WCNC-TV, Charlotte
Half of the swimming pools in the county flunked their first inspection of the summer.
Investigative reporter Stuart Watson revealed that problems ranged from medical issues to
safety hazards. Some pools had violations so dangerous, they were closed immediately.
Dog bite zones: Hot spots were identified
KNSD-TV, San Diego
July is the top month for dog bites in San Diego. With kids out of school and
playing outdoors, they are especially vulnerable to attack. Statistics showed which breeds
bite the most and the neighborhoods where the most attacks happen. Anchor and reporter,
Artie Ojeda, has helped to create a franchise of "zones" pieces, in which he
builds stories around public statistics, sorts the data and posts the numbers online by
zipcode or neighborhood. For a full
explanation of how he does it, see: tvrundown.com/archives/0708.htm.
Subscribers, please continue in
our online archives. Thank you.
Another summer idea:
Testing the Waters
KOIN-TV, Portland
The quality of lake water was tested.
A lab tested the water that was with the fish, the meat of the fish, and the guts.
"The point we tried to get across was that if you think government agencies are out
there doing testing to make sure the lake you swim in is safe, you are wrong," said
reporter David Schmitke.
Good advice included: Don't swallow lake water. If you are fishing, wash your hands after
you are done handling the fish. Make sure the fish are cooked thoroughly. KOIN did this
project in 2000.
Tornadoes
Drive Record Web Traffic For Live Blogging, Viewers' Photos
Live weather blogging proved so popular that response far surpassed the initial
expectations.
Valuable local information flowed in from people as they simultaneously received the
specific details of the storm and connected with an authoritative source. The general
manager at WIBW-TV, Topeka, Jim Ogle, told us, "As they interacted with us as the
storm approached their area, they would write things like, 'You don't know how much it
means to me to be able to hear this from you first person."
Big Companies' Problems
Affect Whole Community
Kmart Crashes, Executives Fly
High
As hundreds of Kmart stores closed and thousands of workers lost their jobs, an
investigation by WXYZ-TV, Detroit, raised serious questions about how the company's
managers were spending its money in 2002. While clerks earning $10.35 an hour were
being asked to make sacrifices to save the company, executives were flying in a fleet of
private jets, driving luxury cars and living in palatial homes.
The station's General Manager, Grace Gilchrist, told us, "These compensation packages
seemed to be so out of tune with the ethics the company was built on that it struck a
chord with us. This behavior was also very puzzling to the shareholders and to the
employees."
Exposing Outrageous Perks: Workers Take
Cuts, Execs Fly High
Auto industry executives were flying high in company jets on personal business, while jobs
were slashed and workers were being asked to take cuts in salary and benefits. It was
examined in 2006 by WXYZ-TV, Investigative reporter Steve Wilson documented the use of
corporate jets by executives --- and often their families ---for purely personal trips.
Trip after trip after trip, the camera rolled as the executives climbed aboard to travel
to their second homes or on vacations.
Delphi Bankruptcy: Echos of K-Mart,
Enron and WorldCom
A big auto parts maker was in major financial trouble. There were two money shots in this
investigation from WXYZ-TV, Detroit: the excessive use the corporate jet when the company
was bankrupt and the CEO being driven around in a luxury foreign car.
Following the Lost Jobs: Maytag Moves to
Mexico
An in-depth look at where the jobs went when a major employer closed a plant was produced
by WQAD-TV, Moline.
"We decided to go to Mexico and follow those jobs to see what happens to them --- why
the company moved there and how much money they are saving," explained News Director
C.J. Beutien.
New book
Reinventing Local Media:
Ideas For Thriving In A Postmodern World
Here are real solutions to the real problems facing contemporary media companies, many lie
outside the comfort zone of media boardrooms.
This 500-page book brings together the writings and analysis of Terry Heaton. He is
currently a Senior Vice President of Audience Research and
Development. After 28 years in local television news, Heaton has been reporting on new
media and the impact on television news for several years.
Book is a valuable tool for staff development
Don't Get Distracted:
Stay Focused on Your Core Product
 An
updated edition of a valuable newsroom resource has just been published.
Delivering viewer- centered information is the focus of The Producing Strategy, Version
2.0, by veteran consultant Larry Rickel and longtime successful anchor Ed Sardella.
Their premise: everyone in the newsroom is a producer. We must all be involved
in strong storytelling and making the newscast a special experience for the viewer.
Don't abandon your power base while upgrading your new media, says Rickel.
As broadcasters move onto new platforms, it is more important than ever to stay
focused on the role the TV newscast plays in your four-screen strategy.
Please continue here, Rickel and Sardella
explain their theories, and the value of their book.
 Learn Successful Television
Reporting
A top reporter explains how to produce memorable stories.
KGO-TV's Wayne Freedman has won 44 Emmys.
We feel that this
book is a must buy for reporters or students who are serious about their careers.
Online talent
service opens to non-represented talent
Collective Talent, the
online talent resource by Michaels Media, has opened its service to non-represented
talent.
When the service was first unveiled, it was designed to be supported
primarily by talent agents.
That approach made sense because the majority of talent in larger markets are represented
by agents. The biggest agencies can represent several hundred people.
School
security: Gaps are common
Children and their classrooms can be targets for anyone from an estranged parent to a
sexual predator to even a person with some sort of terrorist agenda. A document
purportedly written by Osama bin Laden encouraged his supporters to go after all
Americans, especially women and children. In Detroit, WDIV-TV indicated areas for
improvements. archives/0309.htm
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City
Government Security Farce
Many metal detectors don't work. If a detection buzzer does go off, often people pass
through anyway with no inspection. The guards have little training on handling emergencies
and firing their weapons under pressure. It was all exposed by WTTG-TV, Washington. |
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Copyright 2008, Standish Publishing Company. This
material is for your personal use as a subscriber, and may not be reproduced or
transmitted to other parties of any kind.
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Hurricane!
The news executives and staffers who were there explained how they served
their viewers, and survived.
When A Flooding Disaster
Strikes: Who's in Charge?
In Sacramento, KCRA-TV news documented serious weaknesses in the emergency response
system. News Director Bill Bauman told us how they executed this major project.
Sign
Up Today!
The Rundown has reported weekly on local
television news, programming, and community service projects since 1981. This material now
fills a massive hard copy archive of 7,000 pages --- easily the largest record of hometown
television's activities. Key articles are available in our online archives.
Two
reporters, four stories, one big award
The judges awarded a Peabody to the investigative unit of WFAA-TV, Dallas, for the overall
quality of its work. The station won for four separate stories submitted by investigative
reporters Brett Shipp and Byron Harris.
The Peabodys do not recognize categories, nor are there a set number of awards given each
year. Although the entries were submitted separately, Executive News Director Michael
Valentine said it was the caliber of the work by the unit as a whole that made it a
winner.
Students
drinking contaminated water
Youngsters are being exposed to lead every day in Los Angeles. The surprising source ---
the drinking fountains at their schools -- - was revealed by KNBC-TV's Joel Grover.
Schoolhouse Outrage:
Filthy Bathrooms
Schools in Southern California were checked to see how sanitary --- or unsanitary --- the
bathrooms were. KCBS-TV investigators spent three months and visited
more than 50 buildings, some of them more than once. Many bathrooms were locked or
unavailable to students. Many were missing essential supplies.
Roughed Up At Recess: Violence On The
Playground
Teachers stood by doing nothing while bullies beat up other children on the school
playgrounds. News team members at WITI-TV, Milwaukee were surprised that it was so
blatant and out of control. They
followed up with a project that offered solutions for parents and educators.
Room 104:
The Overcrowding Crisis
By focusing on students and teachers, an initially boring subject was brought to life.
Viewers could see how children are shortchanged when the instructor is simply lucky to
keep control, never mind teaching and helping individuals having problems. This was a
duPont winner for WABC-TV, New York.
Juvenile
sexual offenders attending schools
Not only are juvenile sexual offenders attending schools, often the school officials don't
know it. The offender changes schools, but his record may not follow him. In St.
Louis, KSDK-TV investigated.
Public
Safety Workers Face On The Job Hazards
Many people who keep the public safe have been injured or sickened because of workplace
accidents or exposure to harmful substances.
Prisoners:
Escaping and Not Pursued, Inmates Housed at Secret Locations
Two investigations showed how important it is keep track of how corrections officials are
--- or are not --- doing their jobs.
Intelligence
Report Breaks News Every Day
WLS-TV, Chicago showcases investigative stories on a daily basis. Many news executives
have been working to get their investigative units on air more frequently.
Into
Child Porn? No Problem, Have A Nice Day
Most men who are arrested in Wisconsin for Internet sex crimes do not go to prison. Three
years of cases were analyzed by WITI-TV, Milwaukee.
Airport
Restaurants:
What's on the Plate?
For your airport meal: Spoiled food and big rats. There was a lot to reveal when
restaurants were visited by investigators from WAGA-TV, Atlanta.
It's
Hard To File A Complaint Against Police In South Florida
Only 3 of 38 departments had complaint forms available when undercover checks were run by
investigators at WFOR-TV, Miami.
Free 45-page Report
Hostage
Crises:
Do You Let Gunmen Control Your Air?
When an upset, armed individual is threatening to kill
someone, the police commanders supervising the emergency response and the news executives
in charge of covering the confrontation have many sensitive decisions.
Here's how broadcast executives have dealt with these dangerous emergencies.
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