As my subscribers know because of an inadvertent early post of a rough draft last week, after much consideration your humble proprietor has decided to close down the Listening Post. It’s been fun and I’m happy that some of you liked it and found it worthwhile, but it’s time to move on.

Writing the blog has become too much like a job, an unpaid job at that. To do this blog right means spending way too many hours in research, handling technical problems, developing relationships and writing several posts a week, not to mention watching lots of local TV news. I’ll do that anyway, but I would rather be free to watch what I want, when I want.

One of the reasons I started the blog was my belief that the Austin American-Statesman was not doing a very good job covering Austin TV news. Its media reporter/blogger has his hands more than full covering radio, retail and various and sundry other business and city desk stories. I know times are tough in newspapering, but I hope his editors will give the guy time to do some original reporting and in-depth analysis on the local TV news scene. I haven’t even been trying to compete with the Statesman, but I have consistently beaten them to stories they should have had. That’s no great credit to me, but it should be a concern to the Statesman. I fear it is not.

With that, I thank all of you who have read this blog regularly over the past 17 months and wish you news junkies happy viewing. I’m sure I’ll continue to have some thoughts on the local TV news scene on Twitter, so please follow me @billrr.

Ranking the Newscasts and On-Air Professionals

Before I go, a number of you have asked me from time to time to offer my opinion on Austin’s best newscast, best anchors, reporters, etc. I have refrained from doing so because I felt it would taint various stories I might write. I did not want to appear to be coming down on the side of those I had identified as my favorites or criticizing those I had left off my lists. Now, with no future stories to write and with 2013 upon us, it seems like the appropriate time to do a report card.

These choices are just my personal opinion, based on what I have seen on the air. I have no axes to grind or personal vendettas or anything like that to influence these choices. Almost everyone in Austin TV has treated me wonderfully and I am truly grateful.

For all of you who did not make my lists, I am in no way saying you are bad or that I do not like your work. I simply chose my favorites and in many cases it was a very close call between making the list and just missing.

Judging TV newscasts and TV news talent is a very subjective topic, and I’m sure most of you would choose differently if you put together similar lists. No rights or wrongs here, just differences of opinion. I’ll leave the site up for awhile so that those of you who feel strongly can comment on this post and make your case for why anchor “X” or weatherperson “Y” should have made my list. Please, no obscenities, especially about me.

I based my opinion purely on journalism and on-air performance over the long haul–those I think have the best chances for success in TV news for the foreseeable future.

Best Overall News Coverage

1. KVUE (Tie)

1. KXAN (Tie)

Comment–OK, I punted on the big one. Sorry, couldn’t choose between them.

Best on-set team

1. Tyler Sieswerda, Terri Gruca, Mark Murray, Mike Barnes, KVUE Prime Time

2. Robert Hadlock, Leslie Rhode, Jim Spencer, Roger Wallace, KXAN Prime Time

3. Bryan Mays, Yvonne Nava, Albert Ramon, KVUE Mornings

4. Brian Sanders, Sally Hernandez, Mark Monstrola, Amanda Dugan, KXAN Mornings

5. Greg Kerr, Katherine Kisiel, Keri Bellacosa, Zach Shields, FOX 7 Mornings

Comment–These are the teams that both deliver professional newscasts while also seeming to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. They are comfortable with each other and as a result, we are comfortable watching them.

Best Male Anchor

1. Tyler Sieswerda, KVUE Prime Time

2. Robert Hadlock, KXAN Prime Time

3. David Scott, KXAN Weekends

4. Mike Warren, FOX 7 Prime Time

5. Robert Maxwell, KXAN/KNVA Prime Time

Comment—While for me, Sieswerda is the best, KXAN seems to have cornered the market on male anchors. I could have added that station’s Brian Sanders, but I elected to put him on my top up-and-comers list (below) as he begins new duties on the KXAN weekday morning team.

Best Female Anchor

1. Katherine Stolp, KEYE Weekends

2. Sally Hernandez, KXAN Mornings

3. Yvonne Nava, KVUE Mornings

4. Terri Gruca, KVUE Prime Time

5. Leslie Rhode, KXAN Prime Time

6. Shannon Wolfson, KXAN/KNVA Prime Time

Comment–I have ranked three “secondary” anchors ahead of the prime time stars. For me, Stolp, Hernandez and Nava are essentially tied for first. Because of families and ties to Austin, I’m assuming Hernandez, Nava, Gruca and Rhode will be around for awhile, which is good. Wolfson has already announced she will be leaving in March in search of greener pastures and I fully expect Stolp to land a better job in a bigger market at some point, if she chooses. Still, this is her hometown, so we may keep her, too.

Best Meteorologist

1. Jim Spencer, KXAN Prime Time

2. Mark Murray, KVUE Prime Time

3. Scott Fisher, FOX 7 Prime Time

4. Burton Fitzsimmons, YNN Mornings

5. Zach Shields, FOX 7 Mornings

Comment–Spencer and Murray are tied for first in my opinion, and obviously Troy Kimmel would have made it a three-way tie had he remained at KEYE. This is probably Austin’s strongest category and we will be blessed indeed if these gentlemen continue in their roles.

Best Sportscaster

1. Dave Cody,  FOX 7

2. Roger Wallace,  KXAN

3. Bob Ballou, KEYE

4. Mike Barnes, KVUE

5. Ricky Doyle, YNN

Comment–Again, tough call. Veterans all who seem to love Austin sports. We are the winners.

Best Male Reporter—Non-Regular Anchor

1. Chris Willis, KXAN

2. Chris Sadeghi, KXAN

3. Mark Wiggins, KVUE

4. Rudi Koski, FOX 7

5. Jim Swift, KXAN

6. Shelton Green, KVUE

Comment–For day-to-day, on-the-street coverage of any story, Sadeghi is the best in this market. You can argue that Willis does not belong here since he was a long time anchor and still fills occasionally on the desk, but as KXAN’s chief investigative reporter, he has assumed that role as his main job. He has become the face of KXAN’s branding efforts with frequent on-air promotions. You can also argue that Swift is more a story teller than a regular news reporter, but that’s quibbling. I love his work and it’s my blog.

Best Female Reporter—Non-Anchor

1. Heather Kovar, KVUE

2. Jessica Holloway, KVUE

3. Noelle Newton, FOX 7

4. Erin Cargile, KXAN

5. Jessica Vess, KVUE

6. Karen Kiley, KEYE

Comment–These women all do a good job. Kovar’s experience shows. Holloway has brought a real skill to sensitive interviews.

Up and Comers to Keep an Eye On

1. Brian Sanders, KXAN anchor

2. Mark Monstrola, KXAN meteorologist

3. Angie Beavin, KXAN reporter

4. Amanda Dugan, KXAN traffic

5. Shawn Clynch, KVUE sportscaster

6. Adam Bennett, KEYE reporter

Comment–I guess there’s not too much doubt about which station I think has a bright future.

Your humble Listening Post proprietor wishes all of you the happiest of holidays.

To those of you who are working in Austin’s TV newsrooms on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, please know that we news junkies appreciate your sacrifice. Here’s hoping you can carve out some time with your families and friends.

To everyone else, I am grateful for your contributions of information and opinion and I am honored by your continuing readership of my scribblings.  Thank you, so very much.

The Connecticut school shooting has dominated the headlines for many days. As usual in such circumstances, the media coverage itself has come under scrutiny and brought criticism about such issues as factual mistakes, especially early on, and interviews of children.

Coverage of these major events offer news directors a chance to review their own policies and thinking on how their news organizations might cover a similar story. I asked Austin’s five news directors to comment on the Connecticut coverage. Two veterans responded—YNN’s Michael Pearson and KVUE’s Frank Volpicella.

I asked them how they guard against the reporting of bad information in a tense situation with constantly changing “facts” and the competitive pressures to be first. I also asked about the use of unnamed sources and reports on social media. I asked if they would have interviewed children, even with parental consent, live or pre-recorded. Third, I questioned them on the reporting of the shooter’s history of asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. Finally, with some commentators opposing massive coverage of the shooter for fear of “glorifying” him and possibly leading to “copycat” shootings in the future, I asked Pearson and Volpicella for their opinions.

Michael Pearson–It’s all about transparency in reporting.  I have a little trouble swallowing stories like the one in the Statesman on Sunday headlined: “Media stumbled over many ‘facts’ as story unfold” by the Associated Press.  Yes, I think criticism of the cable networks is somewhat fair because they have this tendency to fail to include lines like, “The best information we have right now is…”  Or, “We’ve been told this by one source, but we have not confirmed that information…”  I think news consumers fully understand breaking news and developing stories and how that reporting is done.  It is extremely important that we are very transparent with our viewers about what we are doing in our reporting and letting them know the source of our information and the limitations of that information.

YNN Austin would have interviewed children on camera, but only after pre-interviews with the child accompanied by a parent and the videotaped interview makes it very clear the parent is a third party in that interview. And then the interviews would be very judicious and aired only one or two times.  Al Tompkins with the Poynter Institute sent out a piece to news directors offering excellent ethical guidelines for doing and televising these interviews. Check out www.poynter.org. YNN Austin often turns to Al for advice involving journalistic ethics and has been employed by us for training our staff.  Also, YNN Austin every year sends two members of its staff to the Poynter Institute for more intensive training in ethical storytelling.

In my view mental illness is a major part of the story.  What I worry about is the hype of some journalists’ reporting intended to keep the story going that says, “We are still trying to find answers as to why this happened.”  To me, the answer is abundantly clear, the mass killer of innocent children is mentally ill.  That’s why it happened.  What YNN Austin and our Capital Tonight political team is doing is reporting on the collapse of the state’s mental health safety net as a result of massive cuts in mental health funding in Texas.

When the shooter’s photo was first available, I asked our producers to run it only once, if at all.  And we have barely mentioned him.  Our coverage has been focused on the children and their families, the community of Newtown and local reaction.

Frank Volpicella–As far as reporting information that was not factual or properly vetted…the lack of information coming from law enforcement added to that chaos. In those types of breaking news stories, wrong information will unfortunately find its way on air. But I can’t second guess the decisions that were made from 2000 miles away.

I wrote a KVUE News philosophy statement some years ago, that in an overview, calls for restraint and respect in covering the victims of crimes. But in a story of this magnitude, you must go with your years of training, and gut instincts.

As to reporting inaccurate information….the basic rules of journalism should apply, and should not be waived because of the nature of the story. Who is the source? And is that source informed? Many times people in authority speak, but don’t have the knowledge or the facts to do so. Journalists should always name the source, name and title, so that individual knows they are being quoted, and so you can hold them accountable for inaccurate information.

If other media are reporting something as factual, we will confirm independently. However, there will be times when we attribute a fact to the AP, or the Statesman. As long as we name the source, and work to confirm independently, I’m comfortable in some cases, in reporting information from another outlet, especially ABC or CNN.

As to unnamed sources, we don’t use them. There is always an exception, but I haven’t found one yet. Why does that source want to remain anonymous? Are they in a position to know the information first hand? Typically we use that unnamed source to find another source to get it on the record.  It’s more important to be right, than first.

Social media presents another problem. The information must come from a reputable source on SM, such as police or the FBI. SM can be a great tool to help us gather information. But without proper documentation or fact checking, we cannot report that information as factual.

As to interviewing children. Tough  call. What are their ages? A 12 year old is different from a 6 year old. But I would say in general, I would steer away from any live interviews, even with parental consent. It’s too exploitative.

I would possibly agree to a recorded interview. Then we can consider its value without the deadline pressures of being live. The age of the child will matter, as well as parental consent. And of course, we would want to know what the child has seen or heard. But, I would show restraint and be sensitive to the circumstance.

I disagree with other media who failed to report the shooter’s name. I don’t believe that “glorifies” him. Quite the contrary. There is no glory in what he did. Who he is, is the first step in understanding the why. I have yet to see a study that links media coverage of a mass shooting, as a motive for a subsequent mass shooting. How can we not report his name? Again, it’s how we report the facts that is important. We must show respect and restraint to the victims and their families.  With the web and social media, video, photos and information of all kinds will find their way to the news consumer. We as the “traditional media,” must be more careful, responsible and accurate in what we report, because we are still the only media that people can hold accountable.

Michael Pearson is a former longtime print journalist in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, San Angelo and Killeen. He began his TV news career in San Antonio before joining YNN in 2000. He became the cable channel’s news director in 2010.  Pearson is a 1978 journalism graduate of Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State).

Frank Volpicella has been a reporter, producer and assignments manager in Jacksonville, Oklahoma City, Tampa/St. Petersburg and Atlanta. He was news director in Lexington, Kentucky and Huntsville, Alabama before joining KVUE as executive news director in 2000. Volpicella earned a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Florida.

A major problem in this, the 45th largest TV news market, is the seemingly constant turnover in the reporter ranks. Just when a reporter starts to learn how to pronounce our street names and towns and begins to have a feel for the important issues and personalities in the news, he/she is on the move to seemingly greener pastures.

When they first move here, all news reporters rave about how much they love Austin, its quality of life, its beautiful views, its live music and great people. Eventually, however, that’s not enough, and if they are any good, off they go.

Why? An obvious guess has to be a relatively low pay scale. We can only hope that ownership and top management think about correcting that if we are ever to get the reporting levels we deserve. Until then, with a few exceptions, we have to endure while the kids from West Texas, East Texas and Waco learn the ropes here.

Morgan Chesky
Photo courtesy KVUE

While all the stations have their reporter turnover moments, this week it’s KVUE’s turn, with one leaving and two joining. Morgan Chesky, who joined KVUE in April 2011 and who had become one of the station’s better reporters and fill-in anchors, has landed a weekend anchor job at KOCO, the ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City. His last day at KVUE will be December 19.

Chesky moved here after two years at KLTV, Tyler. While there, he earned a “best reporter” award from the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters. Like a certain Heisman Trophy winner, Chesky is a graduate of Kerrville Tivy High School.

Chesky says he was not looking to leave, but that KOCO contacted him because of the experience and guidance he gained at KVUE.

“Terri Gruca, Tyler Sieswerda and our news director, Frank Volpicella, took me under their wing and taught me the skills I needed,” Chesky told me. “It’s no secret that KVUE is a great place to work, so anchor turnover doesn’t happen often.”

In Oklahoma City, Chesky will be anchoring five shows a weekend, three on Saturday and two on Sunday, and will report nightside on three weekdays. He says the market never has a dull moment. “It’s a very competitive market and a lot more people watch news there than in Austin,” Chesky said. “I feel confident my time at KVUE has given me the tools to do well and earn their trust in Oklahoma City.”

Shawn Clynch
Photo courtesy KVUE

Reversing the trend in both geography and age is KVUE’s new sports reporter/fill-in sports anchor, Shawn Clynch, 39, who has begun work at KVUE. For almost six years, Clynch has been a sports reporter, anchor, producer and sports photographer at KOKH, the Fox station in Oklahoma City. He’s an Austin native and graduate of Anderson High School.

“I always said that Oklahoma is one place I will never work or live, but it turned out to be a great place,” Clynch said. “Still, you can’t get Austin out of your blood. The opportunity to cover the Horns and work for such a solid station is just a great opportunity. I’m a firm believer that things happen for a reason.”

Before Oklahoma City, Clynch worked at KACB, San Angelo, and KTRE Lufkin-Nacogdoches, where he was sports director for four years. While there, he worked with current KVUE anchor Bryan Mays and photographer Scott McKenney, both of whom were in his wedding. Clynch earned a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Communications degree from Stephen F. Austin State University.

Shannon Murray
Photo courtesy Shannon Murray

Finally, replacing Chesky in early January will be Shannon Murray, a Dallas native and broadcast journalism graduate of the University of Texas. She has been a reporter and fill-in anchor at KOSA, Midland-Odessa for two-and-a-half years and also a radio correspondent for KCRS, Odessa.

“I lived in Austin for four years and most of my friends are there, so it was always my goal to get back there,” Murray said. “I’ve had a great experience here in Midland-Odessa and I’m sad to leave everybody here, but I could see myself building a life in Austin. I love the town.”

Murray interned for a summer for the Ellen DeGeneres Show and also served an internship with KXAN news.

Shannon Wolfson

Austin is losing one of its very best news anchors.  Shannon Wolfson, who anchors the 9 p.m. newscast on KXAN‘s sister CW station, KNVA, and fills in for prime anchor Leslie Rhode, is leaving the station after the February ratings period.

In an interview this afternoon, Wolfson, 33, told me that she loves KXAN and loves the people with whom she works, but that it was just a matter of timing and a lack of an available position at KXAN.

“There is only one position to which I could move up and that position is not open,” Wolfson said.  ”Leslie is one of my best friends, I love her dearly and I hope she has her job for as long as she wants it.  I just want to see where I can go.”

Wolfson, a University of Texas graduate, says she discussed the situation with her husband, her family in the Houston area and with KXAN management for some time.

“This was a really difficult decision for me,” Wolfson said. “I am sad to leave and I wish it would have worked out, but if I had signed a new three-year contract I would have been 36 when it expired.”

Wolfson said it’s a quality of life move for her and her husband, who works in real estate. With her anchor duties, her reporting schedule including stories as a member of KXAN’s investigative team, and her outside activities, Wolfson says she often has 11-12 hour days. She has begun looking at possible new opportunities.

“I love telling stories and having the time to get into a story,” Wolfson said. “Most of all, I just want to work for good people.

“I can’t thank the management at KXAN enough. They let me move up and they have been great to me. Chad Cross, our new news director, is a very kind leader, and he made this process, which was hard for me, so much easier. There was no negativity whatsoever.”

Robert Maxwell

Replacing Wolfson on the 9 p.m. newscast and on the investigative team is  Robert Maxwell, currently the weekday morning co-anchor with Sally Hernandez.  Maxwell will also become lead reporter for KXAN News at 10 p.m. He will begin his new assignments on January 7th.

Maxwell joined KXAN last March after previous anchor and reporting positions in Toronto, Orlando, and Salt Lake City.

Brian Sanders

Replacing Maxwell on weekday mornings will be Brian Sanders, who has been anchoring weekend mornings since March. Sanders will make the move on December 20.

Sanders came to KXAN in 2006 as weekend sports anchor.  He is a Houston native and a graduate of Texas A&M University. His first job was at KSAN, San Angelo.

Jason Wheeler
Picture courtesy KEYE web site

Jason Wheeler is back on the anchor desk where he belongs and seemingly very happy with his move to Belo Broadcasting’s WFAA Dallas.  Wheeler, who left KEYE several weeks ago, is anchoring the main weekend evening newscasts, solo for now while WFAA recruits a new anchor partner. He’s also reporting Monday-Wenesday with a dayside schedule.

“The move has gone as smooth as silk,” Wheeler told me.  ”My family and I are pleasantly surprised with Dallas. I grew up in Houston, so I never heard good things about Dallas, but we underestimated it. The area is very pretty.”

Dallas is the only Texas city in which Wheeler has not lived and is the first time in his broadcasting career in which he hasn’t bounced out of state.  He’s amazed at how big Belo is in the Metroplex with its skyscraper headquarters.

“The WFAA people are very on top of things and bring a lot of knowledge to the table,” Wheeler said. “I feel pushed here and that’s actually a good thing. I needed that challenge again. In Austin, I had become too easily in a comfort zone.”

Wheeler says he and his family will miss Austin a lot, including the quality of life, the music and the people. He says they were constantly down in Austin even though they lived in Pflugerville. Wheeler’s wife, Kathy, has been a part time teacher here but was formerly a TV news anchor herself when the couple met while working in El Paso.  They have two children, Isabella 12, and Jackie,  11.

Wheeler speaks highly of Greg Turchetta, who joined KEYE as news director in July.

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders and I had a good working relationship with him,” Wheeler said. “Before he joined KEYE, I was working nights and my focus was all over the place. Greg came in and asked what he could do, and I really appreciated that. I got to work on meatier projects and I feel I was doing some of my best work in a while.”

Wheeler says he considered staying at KEYE, but the major factor in making the move to Dallas was the anchoring component. He says he enjoyed co-anchoring “Austin Live,” KEYE’s former 4 p.m. news and entertainment program.

“I worked previously for Belo at KENS, San Antonio, and it’s a great company to work for,” Wheeler said. “I made the move this time for career reasons. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

Troy Kimmel
Photo courtesy KEYE

KEYE Chief Meteorologist Troy Kimmel, who announced last week that he would be leaving the station at the end of the month, says it became apparent that he and station management had a different philosophy on how to do weather.

“My job is to please them, not them to please me, so I went to them and said I need to get out of the way,” Kimmel said. “I have respect for the company. If I’m not making them happy, I don’t need my contract holding them back. I don’t want it ever said I stood in the way of a TV station being successful.”

Kimmel, who began forecasting Austin weather at KVUE in 1984, says he is not going to retire at age 56.   He will continue as a senior lecturer at the University of Texas, Studies in Weather and Climate, Department of Geography and the Environment. He will also remain chief meteorologist at KOKE FM (98.5 and 99.3 FM), and fans can continue to follow his weather reports on his web site, www.troykimmelweather.com.

Jim Spencer
Photo courtesy KXAN

At least one of the other veteran meteorologists in town says, with good humor, that he is not necessarily sorry to see Kimmel leave the airwaves.

“I can’t say I’m disappointed I’ll not have Troy to compete with every night, because he is one of the most respected broadcast meteorologists in the country,” said KXAN Chief Meteorologist Jim Spencer. “He’s also a great friend, and I’ve learned a lot from him, as have thousands of his meteorology students at UT. Fortunately for them, they will continue to benefit from his dedication to teaching. But, I’ll also be looking over my shoulder, because anytime there is a weathercaster opening in this town, Troy is the first person pursued! I wish him my best.”

KVUE Chief Meteorologist Mark Murray cites Kimmel’s educational skills:

Mark Murray
Photo courtesy KVUE

“I’ve always had the greatest respect for Troy as a teacher, both on the air and off. He has a remarkable way of explaining the weather to his viewers as well as to his students at the University of Texas. I’ve been honored to work alongside him for more than two decades teaching the annual SKYWARN severe weather spotting class for amateur radio operators and first responders. Of course, I may have taught him a thing or two about computers over the course of our 22-year friendship, but in return, when I first moved to Texas, he taught me that it’s perfectly acceptable to wear cowboy boots with suits!”

Troy Kimmel
Photo courtesy KEYE

The dean of Austin’s TV meteorologists is leaving KEYE. December 28 will be the last day on air for Chief Meteorologist Troy Kimmell, who began forecasting the weather at KVUE in 1984.

Kimmel will continue at the University of Texas as Senior Lecturer, Studies in Weather and Climate, Department of Geography and the Environment. He will also remain chief meteorologist, KOKE FM (98.5 and 99.3 FM), and fans can continue to follow his weather reports on his web site,  www.troykimmelweather.com.

Kimmel began his television career in 1978 at KBTX in Bryan/College Station after graduating from Texas A&M University. He worked at KVUE for 10 years alongside his current KEYE colleagues Judy Maggio and Ron Oliveira.

In an interview with me almost a year ago, Kimmel told me, “Judy and Ron are like family. I have the utmost respect for them and I love ’em.”

Kimmel worked at KEYE twice before, from 1998 -1999 and 2000-2003, and also at KTBC when it was still the CBS affiliate before switching to its current Fox ownership.

In addition to his television forecasting, Kimmel has also served as chief meteorologist for the Lower Colorado River Authority and as chief meteorologist at KTBC.

Mileka Lincoln
Photo courtesy KEYE

Sweeps month is over, the numbers are in and Austin’s news directors, general managers and sales directors are poring over the ratings results for November. KVUE is a solid Number 1 at 10 p.m. and in the morning, while KXAN has increased its stranglehold on the early evening newscasts. FOX 7 suffered a serious loss of viewers for its prime time 9 p.m. newscast. After almost a year of Sinclair Broadcast Group ownership, KEYE seems stuck in place and is competitive only at 10 p.m., where strong CBS prime time lead-in programs help provide a boost into second place.

I’ve looked at a number of ways of reporting on the ratings and decided I like the format used by Dallas media blogger and former long-time Dallas Morning News TV critic Ed Bark, perhaps better known as Uncle Barky. I thank him for his permission to steal.  I’ve eliminated ratings and share numbers, which are harder to follow, and simply converted the ratings numbers to the number of households they represent. Each rating point represents one percent of the total households in the market. If you really want the rating number, you can do the math in reverse. As you can see below, our fast growing market has added more than 18,000 households since November 2011.

Here are the numbers with my comments added for each major time period:

Monday-Friday

Mornings

The November morning ratings were an enigma in some respects, especially for FOX 7. With the departure of popular long-time morning anchor Joe Bickett last May, some ratings decline was to be expected. That happened at 4:30 a.m., 5 a.m., 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.  FOX 7 lost almost 2,000 households at 5 a.m., and more than 5,000 homes at 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. So how do we explain FOX 7’s 6 a.m. numbers where the station added more than 5,000 viewers? Were all of Bickett’s fans either early risers or stay-at-home people, accounting for losses early and late? And why the big jump at 6 a.m.?

KVUE led the pack throughout the morning with significant gains at 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. KVUE’s new morning co-anchor, Yvonne Nava, is strong, but it may be too soon to give her all the credit. And at 11 a.m., in a show also anchored by Nava, how do we explain KVUE’s unexpected loss of almost 6,000 homes since November 2011? For some reason, other viewing appeared down in that time slot—even the venerable “Young and the Restless” on CBS suffered a serious rating decline.

KXAN was third at 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m., but jumped into second place at 6 a.m. over FOX 7, despite the latter’s significant viewer gain.

KEYE, which debuted a new morning team last April, remains a distant fourth with just slight gains over its November 2011 totals.

On the network level,  Austin appeared to buck the national trend where ABC’s “Good Morning America” has moved ahead of NBC’s “Today Show.” Here, “GMA” was up just slightly while “Today” gained almost 5,000 households over November a year ago. The revamped “CBS Morning News” also picked up 4,300 homes compared to year earlier levels.

Late Afternoon/Early Evening

KVUE, KEYE and FOX 7 continued to suffer at the hands of their poorly-performing syndicated lead-ins. On KVUE, the new Katie Couric show was even worse in the ratings than Ellen DeGeneres a year earlier. Ricki Lake on KEYE delivered fewer homes than the station’s locally produced “We Are Austin” had a year earlier, while Dr. Oz was also a weak performer on FOX 7. KXAN still benefits from the strongest lead-in with “Jeopardy,” but even that show slipped from year earlier levels. To their credit, both KXAN and KVUE improved significantly on the ratings of their lead-ins, while KEYE and FOX 7 did not.

At 5:30 p.m., the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams dominated. At 6 p.m., KXAN could not hold many of those viewers, but still widened its lead over KVUE compared to the 5 p.m. news numbers. Comparing year-earlier ratings, KXAN was up more than 3,000 households, while KVUE was essentially flat and KEYE was down almost 2,000 viewers. Viewers seemed to be responding positively to KXAN’s heavily-promoted investigative team, in place for almost a year, which ran most of its reports at 6 p.m. One case in point, supplied by KXAN–on November 13 at 6 p.m., Lead Investigator Chris Willis followed up on the murder of 85-year-old “Pecan Queen,” Bonnie Harkey. That show produced 55,717 households, compared to KXAN’s average 6 p.m. audience of 40,906.

“We are excited to see continued multi-year growth from November 2010 to 2011 to 2012 in most of our newscasts, particularly at 6 p.m. where we have placed many of our key investigations featuring Lead Investigator Chris Willis,” said KXAN President and General Manager Eric Lassberg. “Viewer feedback has been a major reason to cover investigative stories and we greatly appreciate the viewer tips we receive on a daily basis; please keep them coming and thank you.”

Evenings

The big news in the prime time/late evening ratings scene is the sudden drop in viewers for FOX 7’s 9 p.m. hour-long newscast. The program drew 5,000 fewer households this November compared to November 2011 and a dramatic 8,500 fewer than last May. The reason was probably an even steeper decline in viewers for the Fox Network’s prime time programming from 7-9 p.m., leading into the FOX 7 newscast. On average, national Fox’s prime time shows drew almost 18,000 fewer viewers this November in this market compared to last November. FOX 7’s hour long newscast continues to beat the early version of KXAN’s news, which appears at 9 p.m. in a 30-minute format on sister station KNVA. FOX 7 wins by more than 10,000 homes.

At 10 p.m., the news race changed very little in a year-to-year comparison and produced opposite results from the early evening news ratings. KVUE holds a significant lead over KEYE and KXAN. After grabbing a slight 10 p.m. lead last May, KEYE slipped back 7,000 households behind KVUE. Once again, KEYE tried its ratings “trick” by scheduling a WasteWatch special each Friday at 10:15 p.m., thus shortening its news to just the first 15 minutes for ratings purposes. Viewership always drops off at 10:15 p.m. as people opt for sleep over sports and feature stories. Apparently, the subterfuge didn’t work this time. KEYE also had the strongest network prime time lead-ins on average but lost a significant number of those viewers, whereas KVUE lost very little of its lead-in. As in past ratings periods, if you combine KXAN’s news viewers at 9 p.m. on its sister station and its 10 p.m. viewers, KXAN actually moves ahead of KEYE into second place. I’m not sure if that’s legit, but it works for me.

Weekends

Thanks to college and NFL football pre-emptions, weekend news ratings in November are really not very useful. I’ll simply point out that KXAN’s 7 a.m. news beat KVUE’s on Saturday mornings by a slim margin and KVUE moved into first place on Sunday mornings by a wider margin.

On Saturday at 6 p.m., KVUE held a wide lead over KXAN by more than 15,000 households while both trailed college football on KEYE/CBS. At 10 p.m., KXAN’s news beat KEYE’s by more than 5,000 households while both trailed well behind college football on KVUE/ABC.

Sundays are not worth discussing in detail with pre-emptions, newscasts moved to different times and NFL football smashing any newscast in its path, both early and late.

Frank Volpicella
Photo courtesy KVUE

You can always count on KVUE News Director Frank Volpicella to come to the defense of his troops if he thinks they have been unfairly criticized. Among his many admirable qualities, this is one of his best.

In my Monday post evaluating the Formula One race coverage by our five local channels, I gave the KVUE team high marks for both its early morning newscast from 7-9 a.m. and for its 5:30 p.m. and expanded 10 p.m. newscasts.  I was critical only of KVUE’s decision to cease race coverage from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Here is Volpicella’s response:

“Kvue is pleased with its coverage, especially on Sunday morning from 7am until 9am when Kvue won the time period, with more viewers turning to Kvue than to any other station for news and information about F1. Kvue devoted 3 ½ hours to the race on Sunday, expanding its 10pm newscast to one hour to accommodate all the race results and other news of the day. Editorially, we deemed that amount of time sufficient, especially since the race was broadcast on another network, and will be aired on another network for the next three years. I am also very proud of my staff for all their long hours and hard work leading up to and including on race day.”

Respectfully, Volpicella has made my point and maybe even strengthened it.

First, as I indicated, he has every right to be proud of the job his people did, which I clearly endorsed by my positive review of their efforts. Second, the early Sunday morning ratings are irrelevant and not the thrust of my report.

The entire point of my post was to simply dial around the five channels with the eyes of a typical viewer and report what I found, in my humble opinion. I did not get into the possible motivations behind the coverage decisions made by the various stations.

Of course it crossed my mind that KXAN was possibly going all out to hype F1 interest in anticipation of NBC/KXAN having won the broadcast rights to live coverage of the U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas for the next few years. If that was the case, more power to them. It worked!

Chad Cross
Photo courtesy KXAN

KXAN News Director Chad Cross says that was not the case:

“Our plans for F1 coverage were in the works long before we learned about NBC’s rights to F1 next year.  KXAN invested the time and effort in order to produce in-depth coverage of a huge inaugural event for Austin. NBC’s rights to F1 is icing on the cake for next year.”

Conversely, Volpicella indicates in his statement above that KVUE management decided against any further F1 coverage between 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Sunday because this year’s race was on Speed Channel, owned by Fox, and next year’s will be on NBC and thus on KXAN. In my Monday morning quarterbacking role, this is where I must respectfully disagree with Volpicella.

My typical viewer did not care what the motivations were behind the various station programming decisions. The viewer only cared about what he/she could see with his own eyes. If my typical viewer caught some extra sack time on Sunday morning and didn’t turn on his or her TV until 9:01 a.m., he/she found just two stations covering the biggest Austin news story in recent months—KXAN and YNN–while KVUE was among the missing.

KXAN not only delivered more quantity, in my opinion, it also delivered more quality. Its 11 a.m-1 p.m. special in the critical hours leading up to the race start was the single best race-related programming of the day.

To use a basketball analogy, KVUE allowed KXAN a wide open shot and KXAN nailed it!