What's going on at KCRA?

[McCovey Cove Returns]

I saw a lot of openings at that place, including News Director? I thought they were a powerhouse in Sacramento. Looks like they're adding some shows, but judging by the openings (mainly producers), is there a change of philosophy among management or with Hearst-Argyle? I know they recently let an anchor go as well.

[Been There]

Not sure, but there seems to be a lot of exits and entries in recent days. The revolving door in HR has been moving non-stop according to Newsblues (http://www.newsblues.com).

I do no that viewers will be seeing it all in High Definition (http://www.kcra.com/hd/index.html). Their promo department has been pimping the move to HD like it was the second coming. I happened upon one of their 11pm weekend shows a few weeks ago and the camera angles for the anchors in the studio consisted of exactly one static shot which was a wide shot of the anchor desk. The camera appeared to be about 3 feet off the floor, and it was a good 20 feet or more away. Needless to say, the anchors (Kevin Riggs and some gal) were reading hard copy because they would have needed binoculars to read the prompter.

For those of you who are too young to remember, KCRA was once the station of record not only in Sacramento but throughout the state in the 1970s and 80s. The other NBC stations in the state had a huge advantage when it came to coverage in that neck of the woods because of their dominance. I believe even KGO-TV (an ABC owned station) in San Francisco shared video with KCRA for a while due to the fact that KOVR (an ABC affiliate back then) was getting stomped so badly. For those of you old timers from Denver or Minneapolis-St. Paul, I would equate KCRAs dominance of the Sacramento market right up there with KUSA and KSTP back in the day. It is sad to see that they are now just another cookie cutter operation with big personnel turnover.

[ February 02, 2007, 07:46 AM: Message edited by: Been There ]

[Lazlo Toth]

it seemed to go downhille after the Kelly Bros. sold it.