Last week’s poll asked your preference on how that paper on a toilet paper roll should be oriented and the results were, well, shocking. I never expected there to be quite the disparity between over and under but apparently most people seriously feel that it’s absolutely necessary for it to be over. Me? I’m still in the “I don’t care camp” although I did notice that the upstairs bathroom’s roll is over and it’s a real pain to use. I might go back to under and just stick with that.
On to this week: back in January I asked about your favorite local radio station. Well, the natural followup to that would be what is your favorite local TV station? While I personally do not pay the slightest bit of attention to the particular news station that is on, as I don’t generally watch local TV news, I know that it’s a hot topic with people even believing that some news anchors are better than others.
Now, even though I don’t watch local TV news I do know of some of the big names such as Jason DeRusha, Don Shelby, and Robyne Robinson–two of which I know about solely because they’ve been in the local media lately due to both of them leaving. The reason I know of Jason DeRusha is because of his prolific social media usage, his posts on this site, and most recently his interviewing of me for another one of his local blog ventures.
So, even though I guess I’d vote WCCO, it would really only be because I know of Jason DeRusha and not for any other good reason. It’s not like I remember watching any particular local TV news aside from my lame analysis of how they might be spending too much time on things other than what the FCC mandates as important.
Even though I don’t really watch TV news I am sure many of you do. If you do what is your favorite local news station? Please vote on the poll over there on the sidebar and then comment on with why you chose what you did. After you do that feel free to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.
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May 16th, 2010 at 8:13 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by LazyLightning.org. LazyLightning.org said: Favorite Local TV News Station Poll: http://tinyurl.com/26ntont [...]
May 16th, 2010 at 9:22 am
I don’t watch any local TV news, so I went with OTHR. I sometimes catch the BBC World News on tpt weekday mornings when I’m getting ready for work, and once in a while I will watch Almanac too if it sounds like it could be interesting, but otherwise it’s online or the radio for me.
May 16th, 2010 at 9:32 am
WCCO pretty much exclusively. Started off that way due to Jason DeRusha, but now it is the standard around here.
May 16th, 2010 at 10:21 am
I’ll have to show this post to my bosses- as it totally justifies my on-the-clock Facebook, Twitter, and blog obsession.
May 16th, 2010 at 10:24 am
Jason, they’d probably fire you on the spot for reading what is little more than the National Enquirer of the South Metro. :-)
May 16th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
You too deserve Pulitzer consideration.
May 16th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
The only shows I really watch are on NBC and I usually just watch them on Hulu. If I’m watching TV at 10:00 it’s usually Friends reruns on 45 because there’s typically not much on the news that I a.) care about or b.) haven’t already read earlier in the day.
So while I probably catch KARE more than anything else since that’s the station I tend to be on if I’m watching anything at all, it’s definitely not my favorite. KSTP and WCCO seem to have the best investigative reporting from what I’ve seen. I probably lean towards KSTP, mostly because I’m not a Don Shelby fan, so that could change. I typically stick around on WCCO if I see DeRusha there for the same reason Bill does. Yes, Jason, social media usage does mean more viewers.
May 16th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Oh, and I think KMSP would be better off canning their hour-and-a-half format. That’s really the only reason I’d rank them lower than KARE’s feel-good fluff.
May 16th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
WCCO is a CBS Owned Property. KARE11 has a focus on community but is owned by MultiMedia Holdings Corp out of Flordia which is somehow related to Gannet. KMSP9 is a News Corp Owned Property (Rupert Murdoc reminds me too much of the bad guy from Tomorrow Never Dies). KSTP is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, a locally owned and operated station. If I have a station to be a favorite of, it’ll be KSTP. I keep it local.
Looking at my DVR history the winner for shows I record:
KMSP – 7
WCCO – 7
KARE – 6
KSTP – 3
WFTC- 1
Damn, I read the end and you want votes on news? I don’t watch local news enough to have a preference. The wife flips to WCCO more often than not, thus I’m familiar with the faces over there. KSTP is close, never to KARE11 news and KMSP would be the last pick. WCCO used to be what I would view in the morning all the time. A number of very poorly reported stories by WCCO basically left me with a bad tasted for local news in general. Perhaps they helped open my eyes.
May 17th, 2010 at 7:51 am
I rarely watch local news, maybe a few times a year at the cabin when there’s not one other thing on TV to watch… The only guy I can name is Don Shelby and I’m not a big fan. Every time I do watch the local news it reminds me of how little news there actually is around here.
May 17th, 2010 at 8:25 am
I had to go with OTHR for the ‘favorite’ as I don’t really have a favorite. I’ll watch whatever happens to be on. If I’m flipping thru, I’ll usually stop at WCCO or KMSP. More KMSP when I telecommute as I have news most of the morning to listen to.
I’m more interested in local news, that’s about helping the community or something positive vs. all the bad crap, guns, gans, shootings, violence, war etc, so I’ll typically channel hop when that garbage comes on and either find more kittens to watch, or turn off the TV.
May 17th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Having worked with Joe Schmit and the KSTPers of the mid-90s (Julie Nelson, Dave Dahl, etc.) I favor those guys whenever they’re on, probably because I know first hand that they are genuinely nice people, not necessarily for the newscast itself. That said, I’m biased by the quality of the newscast and KARE11 is the most consistent. Seems trivial, but the small things matter — every other graphic on KMSP is sloppy, and every other super has a spelling error. It’s inexcusable that Belinda Jensen, after all these years, can’t say “across” without a “t” on the end.
When I was at Channel 5, they had a cadre of incredibly talented photogs and the visuals drove the newscast. Right now KARE does similar work.
And Don Shelby can’t retire soon enough for me — some find him erudite and iconic. To me, he seems patronizing, pretentious and arrogant and, unfortunately, it seems to bleed over to his colleagues.
In the end, I generally start the 10 pm newscast on KARE11 and flip around.
May 17th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
I’m a relative newcomer to the Twin Cities, moved here from Indianapolis two years ago. You folks should be more appreciative of your local broadcasting; not only are the newscasts better up here, but there’s a ton of locally produced programming (daytime shows, political shows, etc.). My old home town had about zero. So be thankful for what you have.
When it comes to news, I find I prefer KSTP’s more hard news approach, with WCCO a close second. (I’m a Don Shelby fan, plus WCCO seems to have slightly better production values.) That said, I find myself watching KARE for its weather reporting; Belinda’s weather report is the best in the area, IMHO, after Paul Douglas’ dismissal.
May 17th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Oh yeah… KARE11 wins for me with HD. They were the first to do it, and they seem like they actually invested in the format. I.e. When a weather warning comes up, the HD signal gets an overlay. When a warning comes up with WCCO or KSTP, the screen flips to the SD broadcast so the crawl can be shown.
May 17th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Local TV news in general sucks, but in that respect it mirrors the national outlets.
Having said that for local news i only watch in the a.m. I watch KMSP because i like Alix Kendall and the weather guy Keith Marler. The program is a bit more off the wall than the others… the traffic person is Judi Jay? She looks right out of Northeast Mpls Artsy area and wears the most eclectic clothes… not the usual local news outfits… mainly i watch this because from 7-9am they are the only local station with local broadcasts. the NBC, CBS, ABC outlets turn to the National morning “news” programs (Today Show et.al. )which are not my cup of tea (I am trying to be nice).
otherwise i have BBC America on cable so my morning routine is to have coffee and watch about 30 mins of BBC World news sometime between 6am and 7am to catch up on world news and world business and market news. The Brits wear the most godawful ties… oy.
May 17th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Ok… as to the local news celebs… I agree I think Shelby is the best newscaster..he can be serious when he wants and seems to be closest to the old Huntley/Brinkley/Conkrite school of TV news. On weather Belinda is the best I agree. I personally do not like KSTP. KARE was on top when they had Paul Magers who was also off the wall and seemed to genuinely understand not to be too self important and serious…
May 17th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
MSPD: Thanks for your Belinda Jensen “acrosst” observation. That drives me absolutely crazy. How can someone not pull her aside and tell her that’s not a word???
May 17th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
I only watch the morning news as I go about our household’s morning routine. I love Rusty Gatenby. He can really get the rest of the crew cracking up. I pretty much listen to find out the weather and traffic for the commuters.
I used to watch Paul Majors at KARE11 when he was there, too.
May 17th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
we watch ‘cco. not because they’re any better than anyone else, but just habit. i guess all the stations have their own agenda. i should boycott them because they dumped jennette, but, i’m in a rut.
and i can never make the ‘story at 10:’
bb
May 18th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
I watch KARE, because I like it the most, though I will occasionally watch WCCO because I value its journalism as well. KSTP (ABC) has absolutely horrid standards for what makes “news” and I cannot bring myself to watch them, especially after the very poorly researched story on the Census (thank you for mis-educating the public!). I would rather watch FOX News than KSTP.
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:32 am
[...] week’s poll asked what your favorite local TV station was and KARE came out on top with 33% of the vote. I honestly have never watched KARE so I [...]
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:11 pm
WCCO deserves their 3rd place position. This is the second weekend in a row that they have had transmitter problems which causes prime time shows to not be viewable via the digital tv antenna.
Sorry Jason, but it’s about the whole experience, you keep that station up just on your shoulders.
http://wcco.com/local/wcco.tv.transmitter.2.1710777.html