Shannon Wolfson

KXAN-TV continued to live up to its investigative branding with a two-parter on the Austin Police Department’s failure to collect money it is owed for supplying officers for special event security and traffic control. In her 6 p.m. news report, investigative reporter/anchor Shannon Wolfson showed how an antiquated paper accounting system and invoices sent to the wrong parties caused the mess. At 10 p.m., she followed up with money collected thus far after the KXAN investigation, $200,000 out of an $800,000 tab.

Lisa Leigh Kelly

KEYE-TV reporter Lisa Leigh Kelly also produced a good investigation. She looked into the Scott & White Health Plan cutback in pregnancy benefits effective July 1, thus causing greatly increased costs for 12 mothers who will not deliver by that date even though they have been paying into the plan for some time. Kelly correctly asked Scott & White why they simply didn’t “grandfather” the expectant mothers in. The giant health care company did not produce a spokesperson on camera, but supplied a written statement saying, “we don’t wish to do that.”

(Although this blog looks at local TV news from the viewpoint of my first career as a TV newsperson, I also spent a long second career in public relations, including university level teaching in the subject. If any of you have contacts in the Scott & White PR department, please tell them for me they screwed up royally, just to save a few bucks.)

Jessica Holloway

Over on KVUE, reporter Jessica Holloway, who previously interviewed the family of slain police office Jaime Padron, drew another tough assignment. In another exclusive interview, Holloway talked with the mother of the two children injured when a Capitol Metro train slammed into the car in which they were riding, killing their father. Holloway once again delivered a sensitive reporting job, although I might have rethought the close-ups of the bruised younger child in a medically-induced coma at Dell Children’s Hospital.

Rudy Koski

Finally, Fox 7 reporter Rudy Koski had an interesting special report about simple cameras used by hunters and available in any sporting goods store being used for surveillance along the Texas-Mexican border. The report relied heavily on facts and pictures from DPS. The report would have been better if it had stuck to the facts instead of straying into yet another attack by Gov. Rick Perry on President Obama. The cameras were intriguing enough to carry the report on their own merits.

What do you think of these “Sweeps” month special reports?  Your comments are welcome.

Karen Kiley

At KEYE, Karen Kiley joined the reporting staff in late April from WDBJ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Roanoke, Virginia. According to her Facebook page, Kiley worked in the Lynchburg bureau and then was named New River Valley Bureau Chief, based in Blacksburg, the home of Virginia Tech University.

Notable stories on her recent resume include coverage of the murder of Virginia Tech police officer Deriek Crouse last December and the Hokie football team’s appearance in the January Sugar Bowl game against the University of Michigan.She studied at the University of Maryland

Here’s a story she did on May 9 for KEYE.  

Over at KXAN, News Director Michael Fabac is suddenly in a hiring mood.

Casey James has joined the station from KTXS-TV, Abilene, where he worked for more than a year. James is a Dallas/Ft. Worth native who served with U.S. Naval Intelligence out of high school.

Casey James

“Seeing and experiencing some of life’s greatest and worst moments intrigued me so that I wanted to focus on reporting,” he said on the KXAN web site.

James interned at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas while attending the College of Southern Nevada and the University of Las Vegas.

He then moved to Abilene, where he covered the 2011 West Texas wildfire outbreak which threatened thousands of homes and took several lives.

“I enjoy waking up and not knowing what the day holds, or who I will meet,” James said.

Here’s James’ May 9 report on rising rents on KXAN.

Ignacio Garcia

At its Hill Country bureau in Marble Falls, KXAN has added reporting duties to the portfolio of photographer Ignacio Garcia. The University of Texas graduate joined KXAN last November.

Garcia worked at WFAA-TV in Dallas for 10 years, beginning as a production assistant and working his way up to writer, associate producer and part time weekend reporter for a weekend magazine show. He captured several Emmy awards and a Headliner award.

Since 2000, Garcia has freelanced for a number of clients including NBC, CBS, HBO, MTV, National Geographic Channel, and Discovery. He has also produced travel reports from several Caribbean, Latin American and South American countries for a variety of outlets.

Garcia is a Brownsville native.  He replaces Jacqueline Ingles, who leaves KXAN on May 25 after two-and-a-half years for a new job with WFTS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Tampa, Florida.

Garcia filed a rather moving story about a World War II vet reuniting with his favorite old airplane in Burnet on May 4.

Brent Carney

A strange thing happened Friday night on KEYE-TV while Ron Oliveira and Judy Maggio were interviewing the three candidates for Austin mayor. One of the questions, repeated three times, was from a KEYE Facebook friend. Lo and behold, it was the missing meteorologist Shawn Rutherford, not seen since being let go four months ago by KXAN-TV. Oliveira and Maggio played poker face, for the most part, not letting on that they knew who that was. Conspiracy theorists (me??) might say that it was a subtle tease and that Rutherford just might be joining the KEYE news team.

KEYE has had a weather opening since axing Kelly Slifka. I have maintained ever since Rutherford left KXAN that teaming him with KEYE weekend anchor Katherine Stolp and sportscaster Courtney Timmons would make for a formidable trio.

Of all the people about whom I get questions at this blog site, no one comes close to matching Rutherford in number of queries. He obviously has a loyal fan base to deliver to whichever Austin station picks him up.

The Candidate Interviews

Judy Maggio

Ron Oliveira

Kudos to KEYE for the mayoral candidate interviews themselves. I liked the format with each candidate getting three minutes to answer the same three questions. Many of us have tired of the debates, which often end up with the candidates talking over each other. This format moved quickly despite the commercial interruptions, the candidates all performed well and Maggio and Oliveira were their usual highly-professional selves as moderators.

A Tale of Two Sponsors

Two Austin stations did special reports with major sponsors last week, but in totally different ways. KEYE pretty much tore down the historic and venerated wall (at least among journalists) between the news department and the sales department, turning over many newscast minutes to Bobby Jenkins and his friends from ABC Pest Control. The bug chasers had a table in the studio with phones, much like a telethon, and they answered questions from viewers live. Jenkins also did an extended live studio interview with Oliveira. At least the segment offered valuable tips to viewers, but somewhere Walter Cronkite is turning over in his grave.

Chris Willis

Meanwhile, KXAN elected to take on Bill Dickason and his Capitol Kia crew in a major probe by Lead Investigative Reporter Chris Willis. I’m not sure if Dickason will be offering to “just give it to ya” on KXAN in the future, now that Willis has run his story, based on a complaint from the Better Business Bureau and some customers, charging “bait-and-switch” sales tactics at Capitol Kia. If Dickason is honest, he will acknowledge that Willis was scrupulously fair, granting the famous car dealer 40 seconds of rebuttal time out of a three-minute piece to attack the BBB. I would guess the KXAN general manager, news director and sales director had an interesting conversation before running the story.  It was good journalism. Cheers to KXAN.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little STAAR

Erin Cargile

KXAN seemed to be the most prolific of the special report producers last week. In addition to the Capitol Kia expose, education reporter Erin Cargille did a solid job with an in-depth look at the much-debated STAAR test, bane of many a parent’s and student’s existence.

Cargile looked at the high cost of the program in part 1 on the 6 p.m. news,  then reported on the strong opposition from school administrators, parents and students in part 2 at 10 p.m.

This was certainly the longest of the sweeps series last week, totaling about nine minutes. Cargille delivered an excellent reporting job overall and the series was well shot and edited by a crew of four photojournalists.

I disagree with just one aspect of the long report. In the web site version of the story, Cargille reports that interviewee Sandy Kress, who both designed the test and formerly served as an education adviser to governors Bush and Perry, has worked for the Pearson test company since 2002. Pearson rakes in many millions of dollars administering the testing program. I believe Kress should have been identified as a Pearson representative on the broadcast report as well. His views in favor of the test surely need to be evaluated by the viewer in the context of his Pearson employment.

“If I could do it over, it would be in there,” Cargile told me.

She says the issue needed further investigation and promises future reports on the state testing system. We should look forward to those. Cargile is a strong reporter who has earned the right to the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Crashing Poles

Shannon Wolfson

KXAN anchor/reporter Shannon Wolfson delivered a five-minute-plus report on the City of Austin refusing to reimburse citizens when rotting or rusting light poles crash down causing damage to cars, houses, etc. It’s a chilling situation which could even result in injury to persons, yet the city says the state legislature is to blame. Wolfson summed it up nicely, adding personalization with the case of a local cancer patient whose car was destroyed by a falling rotted pole.

FOX7 Care Force

Mike Warren

FOX7 aired a winning three-minute special report featuring the bubbly and positive former Army truck driver Heather Romiti, who survived IEDs and roadside bombs while piloting vehicles in Iraq. The report, introduced and voiced by anchor Mike Warren, was a FOX7 Care Force story. Romiti told of her harrowing military experiences while expressing her gratitude for her survival despite some injuries and her new life as a health and nutrition product sales person on the Internet. Good to have a feel good story in amongst the many problems exposed by sweeps month.

Then there are the special reports like Monday night’s “Women and Guns” on KEYE-TV’s 10 p.m. news:

• It was twice as long as it needed to be
• It used a totally “out-of-nowhere” piece of tape with no local identifiers on the interviews, indicating the tape was almost certainly a handout from out-of-town instead of local interviews
• It featured a poorly-produced and totally unnecessary live shot that left KEYE’s  usually competent senior reporter, Jason Wheeler, stumbling around a field identified as near Round Rock in the audio introduction from anchors Ron Oliviera and Judy Maggio, but just Round Rock on the screen. That’s an important difference when you’re talking about discharging firearms. Wheeler tried valiantly to explain why Niki Jones, a local woman gun store owner, was drilling targets with a handgun while holding a beach ball representing “precious cargo.”

Wheeler explained that precious cargo could be a child or a pet. Local police officials must be shuddering at the thought of a young mother engaging in a gunfight with a bad guy while holding her child in one arm.

In another live demonstration, the woman showed how she could shoot through her purse. Interestingly, the purse was empty, unlike most purses I have encountered. My own wife pointed out the absurdity of any woman putting a bullet hole in her new Coach bag.

Joking aside, this could have been a strong and legitimate story. I assume the statistics on increased use of guns by women, attributed in the handout tape to the National Sporting Goods Association, are accurate. If so, the story deserved serious, and local, treatment.

The story cried out for comment from the Austin area women who have joined the Sure Shots club, founded by Jones, rather than almost three minutes of Jones taking live target practice. Why have they taken up shooting—sport or protection? Do they really think they can protect themselves and their family with a handgun? How long has it taken them to become proficient? There was no reason for interviews with women from another part of the country when we could have heard from a few of the 150 members of the local shooting organization.

How about interviews from the other side? Where were the police officials who think this is a bad idea, not to mention the gun control advocates.

Instead of a serious discussion of a serious topic, KEYE opted for a one-sided circus. Niki Jones was having way too much fun shooting criminals while holding her beach ball, and even the the story’s title on the KEYE web site is, “More Women Packing Heat,” hardly a serious-minded label. In light of recent events, I doubt that many police officers would find engaging in a gunfight any kind of a laughing matter.

At best, “Women and Guns” wasted five long minutes of an otherwise excellent 10 p.m. newscast. Regardless of your view on guns, pro or con, this was bad journalism.

In addition, the local news program came out of a strong CBS lead-in, featuring the highly-rated and overly-hyped Hawaii Five-O/NCIS: Los Angeles combination sweeps extravaganza.

A missed opportunity, indeed!

Jessica Holloway

KVUE reporter Jessica Holloway showed great sensitivity as she interviewed Officer Padron’s children and their mother in one of the more moving feature pieces I have seen. Holloway and photojournalist John Gibson produced a three-parter over two nights, with Thursday’s Part I setting the scene with a recap of recent cop killings and separate cuts from the Padron family interview on the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts on Friday.

KXAN anchor/reporter Robert Maxwell also did a Padron follow-up using fresh interviews with the wives of two Austin police officers.

The station’s major story was a follow-up to a February ratings investigation into an Ohio man who had taken over a house without paying for it by using a little known real estate rule.

Chris Willis

Lead Investigative Reporter Chris Willis produced both parts, taking credit for alerting local law enforcement to a scam which they had not previously known about, according to Willis.

Actually, the suspect was arrested using warrants from Ohio for separate crimes there and was shipped back to the Buckeye state. Not much new in this part but still a good and interesting yarn told by one of KXAN’s better  storytellers.

With presidential, senatorial, mayoral and a slew of other races making news, KVUE-TV’s Mark Wiggins, 29, and KXAN-TV’s Josh Hinkle, 31, are relishing every minute. As their stations’ political reporters, they must stay on top of happenings on the political scene.

Mark Wiggins

Mark Wiggins traces his interest in politics to his childhood visiting his grandparents’ Beaumont house where his large extended family, sometimes 30 people, crammed into the kitchen.

“We had a family of outspoken people, engaged in the community,” Wiggins said. “I spent a significant part of my life listening to them chewing the fat and talking politics.”

Wiggins says an aunt used to work at the Beaumont Enterprise and a neighbor across the street was a columnist, lending a lot of journalistic influence to the scene.

After several family moves, Wiggins graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School in the Houston suburb of Fort Bend and then earned a journalism degree from the University of Houston. He interned at Houston’s KTRK-TV, but failing to land a TV job after his 2005 college graduation began a radio career at several Houston stations, including co-hosting the morning show at KTBZ alternative rock.

“It wasn’t news, but it taught me the powerful role of media and the importance of the personal connection between broadcaster and audience,” Wiggins said.

In 2009, he landed his first TV job at KRHD-TV in College Station where he covered the contentious race between Bill Flores and Chet Edwards for Texas’ 17th Congressional District seat.

He then moved on in 2010 to KXXV-TV, Waco, where he anchored the weekend Texas Report and covered everything from commissioners courts in 17 counties to the Texas Legislature.

“I saw that the things I was covering affected everyone, even people who didn’t know they were affected,” Wiggins said. “That’s where the hook really set and I realized politics is what I want to do.”

When the political reporter slot opened up at KVUE last year, Wiggins says he resolved to do everything he could to win the job. Win it he did, moving down from Waco in September 2011.

Aside from a big story or a staffing emergency, Wiggins covers politics fulltime for KVUE and he says he reflects a lot on his stories and whether he could have done them better.

“Covering politics is like covering sports with a win or lose motif,” Wiggins said. “But this is not a game. These are real issues with real effects on people. It is incumbent on us to get out of play-by-play and talk about the issues.”

Wiggins calls Austin a great city for politics and says people are really into this year’s election, especially the presidential race.

“They are paying attention and that makes it exciting to cover,” Wiggins said. “Our coverage has to meet their expectations.”

Wiggins says he is “fierce” about making sure that his personal views stay out of his stories.

“The most important thing each day is making sure what we are doing adds value,” Wiggins said. “Every day, our viewers give me two minutes of their time. I want to make a positive impact on their understanding.”

Wiggins praises both the commitment of his station to political coverage and the cooperation among all the stations of the Belo Broadcasting chain.  He traveled to New Hampshire for that state’s presidential primary, while co-anchor Tyler Sieswerda covered the Iowa caucuses and co-anchor Terry Gruca interviewed President Obama in Washington during March. KVUE and Belo also hosted the only live televised U.S. Senate debate in Texas on April 13 in Dallas, with Sieswerda as a panelist.

“Our news director, Frank Volpicella, and general manager, Patti Smith, have been very liberal providing the funds for us to travel to cover big political stories, for which I am very appreciative,” Wiggins said.

KXAN’s Josh Hinkle came to political reporting quite a bit later than Wiggins. The native Oklahoman took pre-law courses as an undergraduate at Oklahoma State University, but was still not sure what career to pursue.

He decided on broadcast journalism and went to the University of Missouri’s famed journalism school for his master’s degree, with an eye toward getting on the air. He became the capitol reporter for the university’s station, KOMU-TV, and also anchored and produced. He added a job as graduate teaching assistant in political radio broadcasting, working from KMOX Radio’s Capitol Bureau in Jefferson City, and on the academic side, wrote his master’s thesis on civic journalism.

After graduation, Hinkle hooked on at KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he anchored and reported. He was just in time for the 2008 Iowa caucuses where he interviewed such luminaries as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards and was bitten by the political reporting bug.

With an uncle here in Austin and a love for the city, Hinkle landed a job at KXAN in the spring of 2009. Parent company Lin Broadcasting was experimenting with multi-platform journalists, so Hinkle became a one-man band, reporting and shooting videotape in the station’s Marble Falls-based Hill Country bureau for the first eight months of his tenure.

When capital correspondent and political reporter Jenny Hoff left KXAN in late 2010, Hinkle took over the political beat.

“During the legislative session, I devoted 100 percent of my time to politics,” Hinkle said. “I like the capitol press corps. Everybody was cordial and helpful.”

This year, Hinkle has covered the presidential runs of Governor Rick Perry and Rep. Ron Paul, traveling to Iowa to cover the caucuses.

“It was interesting to see how each week brought a new frontrunner to celebrity status, only to have them slip the following week,” Hinkle said.

With KXAN’s current reporter shortage and Governor Perry’s withdrawal from the presidential race, Hinkle is doing a bit fewer political stories.

“I’m filling in on the city beat as well until we hire someone for that position,” Hinkle said. “That’s given me a chance to cover local politics, especially campaigns and bond items, and I moderated a mayoral candidate forum for Leadership Austin.”

Hinkle is proud of his station’s heavy online reporting commitment on a special site, “OnPolitix.com,” which includes a Hinkle blog and streaming video.

“It’s impressive that so many people here at the station are interested in politics,” Hinkle said. “News Director Michael Fabac has championed political coverage. John Moritz, formerly political reporter of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is our digital executive producer. I knew him at the capitol before he came to us.”

Hinkle’s political reporting brought three Texas Associated Press Broadcasting awards to KXAN, including first place in the Reporter of the Year category, a second place in Beat Reporting (Political) and an honorable mention for Continuing Coverage (Texas House Ghost Voting).

Amanda Dugan

That being said, it is with some pride that I point out two of Pittsburgh’s own–Amanda Dugan, the new KXAN-TV morning show traffic reporter, and Kate Weidaw, long time KXAN morning reporter.

Dugan began reporting traffic on the cut-ins to the NBC Today Show on April 9 and added the 5 a.m.-7 a.m. KXAN morning show on April 13.  She’s off to an excellent start, appearing quite poised considering her lack of experience.

Dugan joins an already-strong morning crew. Now, if News Director Michael Fabac would make official what seems apparent–that the engaging Natalie Stoll is the permanent morning weathercaster–we could declare the KXAN morning team complete.

That has not been the case over the past months with the resignation of  Debra Wynn from the traffic job, the dismissal of one of the market’s stronger weather reporters, Shawn Rutherford, the pregnancy leave of co-anchor Sally Hernandez, and the shift of Hernandez’ anchor partner Chris Willis to chief investigative reporter for the station.

With the return of the popular and skilled Hernandez last December, the hiring of experienced anchor Robert Maxwell from Salt Lake City, and the addition of Dugan to handle the traffic duties, KXAN appears ready to do battle in the upcoming May sweeps period.

Dugan is another Yankee who came to visit Austin in the summer of 2007, fell in love with the city, and never left. She earned a mass communications degree in radio-TV-film from Texas State University in 2010. While there, she hosted morning shows on the college radio station, KTSW.

After graduation,  Dugan won an audition to become the CW Star for 2011, representing Austin’s CW station, KNVA-TV, on air, in social media and at various Austin events. (KNVA is a sister station to KXAN and operates out of the same building.)

With her one year “Star” contract about to end last fall and with the traffic reporter position at KXAN opening up with the departure of Wynn, Dugan decided to go for it.

For tips, she went to Shannon Wolfson and Willis, then anchoring the morning show, conferred with directors, learned how to build traffic maps and work in front of the “green screen,” and started putting together demo tapes.

“Everyone was so friendly and so helpful,” Dugan said. “I definitely owe some people lunch.”

After that, it moved quickly. Dugan gave Fabac a demo tape in January, interviewed in February and was hired in March. She began by producing the traffic reports for the anchors, learned the traffic system used by KXAN, practiced on tape, and when Fabac decided she was ready,  she went live last week.

“Texas has been good to me,” Dugan said. “I feel very blessed.”

Kate Weidaw

Weidaw joined KXAN in 2004 from WHTM in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She previously interned at Pittsburgh’s KDKA-TV.

“The funny thing is I didn’t know Mandy (Dugan) was from Pittsburgh,” Weidaw laughed. “We just chatted on the phone and shared Pittsburgh stories. I had forgotten that we called grocery carts ‘buggies.’  Plus, she told me she grew up saying ‘yinz’.  Gotta love that!”

(And that, friends, is why we Pittsburghers are known around the world as, “Yinzers.” Substitute “Y’all” and you’ll have a rough Texas translation.)

Weidaw is considering a career in higher education somewhere down the road.  She has already earned a double-bachelor’s degree in communication and elementary education from the University of Massachusetts and a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Texas. She will earn her PhD in journalism at UT on May 4.

“I still like my reporting job,” Weidaw said.  “I teach broadcast journalism part time at St. Edwards and I have a blast, so that’s fine for now.”

Weidaw says she will be happy to have the PhD work over with so that she can have more time for her two-year-old, Asher.

Topping the list in first place is Fox Television Stations, owner of KTBC, Fox 7, with $1.6 billion.

In sixth place is Sinclair Broadcast Group, the new owners of KEYE-TV, with $732 million.

Coming in at number nine is Belo Corp., the owners of KVUE-TV, at $661 million.

Finally, in 15th place is LIN Media, owners of KXAN-TV, with $341 million.

A belated congratulations to YNN’s Capital Tonight for winning the second place award for best newscast  in Division II (Austin and San Antonio stations) from the Texas AP Broadcasters. The honor was announced at the annual banquet on March 31 in Austin. I posted previously in February about the other category winners but forgot to check back for the best newscast winner, which was held for announcement at the banquet. Thanks to YNN News Director Michael Pearson for alerting me. Pearson points out this was Capital Tonight’s first year on the air. The only other Austin station in the running was KVUE-TV. Pearson was also proud to report that the first place award went to San Antonio’s KENS-TV for its 10 p.m. newscast, produced by YNN alum Anita Hines.

Secondly, KEYE-TV Chief Meteorologist Troy Kimmel tells me he is co-chairing (along with Ken Carey of Noblis) the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society. The event is scheduled for next January at the Austin Convention Center.

Andrew Horansky

Finally! Someone is leaving a local TV news staff and it’s a happy story.

KVUE-TV is losing one of its best reporters, but it’s for a very good reason and News Director Frank Volpicella helped it along. Andrew Horansky’s fiancée has completed medical school at the University of Texas San Antonio and for her residency program in pediatrics has been matched with Children’s Hospital, Houston. The couple will marry June 2.

After two years of living in separate cities, Horansky, 35, wanted to begin married life residing with his new bride. He kept Volpicella fully informed as fiancée Kristin looked at various cities for her residency so that his news director might help with possible broadcasting jobs. It all came together when Houston emerged as the residency location and KVUE’s Belo Broadcasting sister station KHOU-TV had a reporter leave, opening up a spot for Horansky.

“The business is so competitive and just because I worked for Belo and had a solid resume didn’t guarantee me anything,” Horansky said. “I interviewed with KHOU’s news director and won the job, so it all worked out.”

Horansky came to KVUE in March 2010 following five years at the Chicago Bureau of Cablevision’s HDNews, the first TV news network produced completely in high definition. When that operation folded in December 2008, he was suddenly unemployed.

“When I lost my job it was a low point, but I had a cool year freelancing and volunteering in Chicago,” Horansky said. “Then KVUE hired me and provided a really good opportunity. Frank (Volpicella) gave me some anchor work and even allowed me do a fellowship in Germany. I’m really sad to leave Austin.”

Horansky covered a range of stories as a general assignment reporter, with some emphasis on transportation, technology and city growth issues. He will continue to be a general assignment reporter for KHOU.

His last day at KVUE will be April 19 and he begins in Houston on April 23.