FOX News: local version

[Cringer]

So being home now I am seeing TV I have never before seen. I didn't even know our local FOX channel had news. So, lately they seem to be 'pushing the envelope' in a way.

-A few days ago they have a story about a body being found in the river. They then proceed to show the body floating in the water. They then show the body with a rope hooked to it and guys pulling the body up the river bank.

-Tonight they have a story about a 5 year old who sexually abused other kids at a private religious school here in the Valley. They show an interview with some of the victims lawyer, in which the lawyer is talking about fingers going in the rears of little kids and genitals touching the fronts of kids.

-Also tonight, the second part of a special report on online predators, complete with pictures of naked men online with only the penis blurred out.

I don't mind this kind of stuff, but still find it rather surprising especially on a 9 PM news show. Is local FOX news like this everywhere, or are we just special to have some twisted minds down here? I have never seen anything like this on the local ABC, CBS, or NBC news.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Atlanta's Fox affiliate is actually one of the old line stations in town (ex-CBS affiliate) so they might be a little more staid than others but:
-- The body recovery might have shown up locally on any of our stations, when it was floating probably not
-- the sexual abuse story would have been hyped to the heavens by any of our stations, probably not detailed quite as graphically as you describe
-- sounds like a classic Fox5Atlanta News 11pm story (now 10pm news)

[Groundhog]

Sounds kinky.

[Cringer]

Atlanta's Fox affiliate is actually one of the old line stations in town (ex-CBS affiliate) so they might be a little more staid than others but:
-- The body recovery might have shown up locally on any of our stations, when it was floating probably not
-- the sexual abuse story would have been hyped to the heavens by any of our stations, probably not detailed quite as graphically as you describe
-- sounds like a classic Fox5Atlanta News 11pm story (now 10pm news)

Ok, that was another option I guess. I have just been a little sheltered when it comes to local news being in a 'smaller' area (the tv channels here cover an area with over 1 million people but still no big city really in the area), and being on a truck for so many years.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Out of curiosity, a few questions come to mind.

-- I get a little lost on what constitutes "late local news" in some markets in the Central time zone, so ... is this 9p newcast on Fox an hour earlier than the other network affiliates in the market, or is everybody running at the same time? If they're running aginst other networks primetime programming, they're likely to be heavy on weather & headlines in the first ten minutes, followed by something trashy or shocking or whatever in order to better compete with entertainment programming.

-- Is this newscast relatively new to the market, or have they been running news for a good long while? If they're new, they'll often try to be more spectacular.

-- If they've been doing this newscast for a while, are they mired in last place? If so, shock stuff is more prone to being used frequently as desperation sets in.

[Cringer]

Out of curiosity, a few questions come to mind.

-- I get a little lost on what constitutes "late local news" in some markets in the Central time zone, so ... is this 9p newcast on Fox an hour earlier than the other network affiliates in the market, or is everybody running at the same time? If they're running aginst other networks primetime programming, they're likely to be heavy on weather & headlines in the first ten minutes, followed by something trashy or shocking or whatever in order to better compete with entertainment programming.

-- Is this newscast relatively new to the market, or have they been running news for a good long while? If they're new, they'll often try to be more spectacular.

-- If they've been doing this newscast for a while, are they mired in last place? If so, shock stuff is more prone to being used frequently as desperation sets in.

I can see some good points made through your questions. To answer the questions though...

-FOX is the only 9 PM news, the other three are at 10 PM. So yes, going against some primetime programs.

-It is somewhat new, maybe about a year or so old. (New FOX affiliate, with the old one actually being a station based on the Mexico side of the border with no news show at all). Our NBC news is actually newer, and it shows. The FOX broadcast team blows them away. FOX doesn't go with a lot of weather early on, but they do follow the trend of having a somewhat hot weather girl which only one other station down here has moved to.

-Not sure of the ratings. If you know of a public site that lists such info I would love to know what it is.

[Mustang]

I can't stand to watch the news on TV (any station)

Most of it is over-hyped sensationalism (Dryer Sheets, how to protect yourself from the dangers!!! LIVE AT 6!!!)

[path12]

I can't stand to watch the news on TV (any station)

Most of it is over-hyped sensationalism (Dryer Sheets, how to protect yourself from the dangers!!! LIVE AT 6!!!)

You gotta watch those dryer sheets. I know a guy who had that damn thing stuck in his shirt, went to pump some gas, set off a static spark and BOOM!

Nasty shit.

[Critch]

The local Fox news here would quickly skim over those stories to get to the important stuff:

-we got 1 inch of snow or freezing rain
-the Redskins did something remotely interesting
-a competitor on American Idol is from the DC area.

[Cringer]

Last night we saw the local FOX News anchorwoman at Target. She was as good looking in person as on TV. She was in the checkout in front of the one I was at, and then she was right in front of me on the way out of the store so I got a good shot of her ass. The boobies were a little smaller then I thought, but still nice. I wanted to bang her.

She was with two chicks who are not on the news with her. If she had been with the Weather girl I would have shot my wad in my pants right there at the checkout. Those two chicks making a sandwich out of me is a huge fantasy.

[Galaxy]

Any links to her bio?

[Galaxy]

Last night we saw the local FOX News anchorwoman at Target. She was as good looking in person as on TV. She was in the checkout in front of the one I was at, and then she was right in front of me on the way out of the store so I got a good shot of her ass. The boobies were a little smaller then I thought, but still nice. I wanted to bang her.

She was with two chicks who are not on the news with her. If she had been with the Weather girl I would have shot my wad in my pants right there at the checkout. Those two chicks making a sandwich out of me is a huge fantasy.

You must have been hanging out with HA.

[kcchief19]

Out of curiosity, a few questions come to mind.

-- I get a little lost on what constitutes "late local news" in some markets in the Central time zone, so ... is this 9p newcast on Fox an hour earlier than the other network affiliates in the market, or is everybody running at the same time? If they're running aginst other networks primetime programming, they're likely to be heavy on weather & headlines in the first ten minutes, followed by something trashy or shocking or whatever in order to better compete with entertainment programming.

-- Is this newscast relatively new to the market, or have they been running news for a good long while? If they're new, they'll often try to be more spectacular.

-- If they've been doing this newscast for a while, are they mired in last place? If so, shock stuff is more prone to being used frequently as desperation sets in.
Yeah, generally in the Central time zone our Fox affiliates do a 9pm newscast. Many times they are one hour long as opposed to the typical half-hour 10pm newscast. Our Fox does an hour long 9pm news then a half hour 10pm news, but even going back to the NBC affiliate days they were a heavy news station.

We now have a competing 9pm newscast on our MyTV affiliate produced by the sister stations CBS affiliate.

Funny thing, in this market these stories all would have been on our CBS affiliate, which is the live, late breaking, investigative station that requires a shooting, death or other violent crime be covered live in the first five minutes. I think the old news director probably shot half a dozen hobos on slow news days just to get some coverage. Our Fox affiliate has some of that stuff, but by and and large they play it straight here. But they have a much better news reputation than most Fox affiliates.

[Cringer]

To me, not the best pictures of these chicks, especially the weather girl who dresses much more 'form fitting' and just looks better then she does in her picture on the station website.

anchor - http://www.foxrio2.com/about-xrio-2/erikagonzalez/

weather - http://www.foxrio2.com/about-xrio-2/belen-de-leon-weather/

Neither are 10s to me BTW, but compared to the other news down here these two blow away the other women on. I want them both though.

[JonInMiddleGA]

We now have a competing 9pm newscast on our MyTV affiliate produced by the sister stations CBS affiliate.

Another trend that seems to be picking up speed lately. I've been pulling quite a bit of TV rates lately & it seems like between a third & half of the markets have a deal like that somewhere.

[JeeberD]

The weather girl is 17?!?

[Axxon]

I like our local FOX news, mostly in the morning. They actually seem to enjoy doing the news and they are entertaining. I don't actually watch it for the news coverage that much but it's a fun show.

[Cringer]

The weather girl is 17?!?

She is not 17. She was 17 when she was first in a popular norteno band that went all over the place. She is the one on the right...

http://www.sesaclatina.com/news/images/La%20Onda%20CU.jpg

[kcchief19]

Another trend that seems to be picking up speed lately. I've been pulling quite a bit of TV rates lately & it seems like between a third & half of the markets have a deal like that somewhere.
Hearst owns the ABC and CW affiliates here, Meredith owns the CBS and MyTV affiliates and Scripps owns the NBC and an independent station. Our Fox is an O&O but it's in the process of being sold.

The cross-platform news hasn't done terribly well. Fox's 9pm newscast does very nice ratings and absolutely clobers the MyTV 9pm news. The CBS/MyTV arrangement also includes a morning show crossover -- once the CBS affiliate goes to network at 7 a.m., the local news broadcast moves over to the MyTV. And it also gets clobbered.

The other stations do limited crossover with news so far. The NBC station's sports department runs a nightly show on the indy station at 7pm but no news. The NBC and ABC affiliates simulcast severe weather coverage but otherwise no news.

Not sure how long the CBS/MyTV news will work, although I assume the newscast is costing them virtually no money since they just added the newscast on top of the jobs they were already paying people to do, so as long as they can sell a couple of ads I guess they'll cash checks. The station is notoriously cheap -- they eliminated their sports department and outsourced it to the production arm of Time Warner Cable's local Metro Sports channel. But their ratings with live, late breaking have been terrific.

Funny thing is, the news director parlayed his work here into a gig as ND in Dallas ... where his live, late breaking tanked in the first book and he was out the door in less than six months. :)

[kcchief19]

The weather girl is 17?!?
That is without a doubt the most poorly written bio I've ever read. The entire thing is in present tense, making it sound like she is in high school, in a band and doing your local weather.

Our independent station here owned by Scripps has a "hostess" who interstitials between shows talking about trivia and what not. I provide you with your pic of Holly Star to make this thread even better.
http://www.38thespot.com/sites/kmci/images/holly1.jpg

[Axxon]

That is without a doubt the most poorly written bio I've ever read. The entire thing is in present tense, making it sound like she is in high school, in a band and doing your local weather.

Our independent station here owned by Scripps has a "hostess" who interstitials between shows talking about trivia and what not. I provide you with your pic of Holly Star to make this thread even better.
http://www.38thespot.com/sites/kmci/images/holly1.jpg

Nice.

[wbatl1]

Yeah, generally in the Central time zone our Fox affiliates do a 9pm newscast. Many times they are one hour long as opposed to the typical half-hour 10pm newscast. Our Fox does an hour long 9pm news then a half hour 10pm news, but even going back to the NBC affiliate days they were a heavy news station.

We now have a competing 9pm newscast on our MyTV affiliate produced by the sister stations CBS affiliate.

Funny thing, in this market these stories all would have been on our CBS affiliate, which is the live, late breaking, investigative station that requires a shooting, death or other violent crime be covered live in the first five minutes. I think the old news director probably shot half a dozen hobos on slow news days just to get some coverage. Our Fox affiliate has some of that stuff, but by and and large they play it straight here. But they have a much better news reputation than most Fox affiliates.


Sounds like the exact same set-up as we have in the Atlanta area, except at 10:00 and 11:00 (due to the ET). The half-hour 11:00 Fox program is a addition here, and doesn't claim to cover all of the news. It tends towards the longer stories that didn't make the 10:00 feature news.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm with kcchief on this one, some pics do liven it up quite a bit.

Here's the most talked about personality in Atlanta TV news in quite a while, a Canadian actress turned weather presenter named Dagmar Midcap. A few people might recognize her from other stuff, including a Canadian show called Driving Television or recurring roles on shows such as Dark Angel and Psych.

http://www.ajc.com/shared-blogs/accessatlanta/radiotalk/upload/2008/01/118_jovita_moor/dagmar-midcap.jpghttp://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4656/0051ko1.jpg

Her station is still the least watched but for the past few months it's probably been the most talked (or blogged) about.