My Take on Seattle Sports TV/Radio Media

The overview of Seattle TV sports media is simple:

KING5 owns the Seahawks paid sponsorship, gets all the access it wants, has the pre-season games and The Fifth Quarter Show every Sunday after NFL football. Silvi, Egan, producer Knip and EP Tony White hold this thing together. They just added another reporter from the Denver market to beef up. KING has the Kraken in the fall as well. Clear leader.

KOMO is down to Niko Tamurian, who does a nice job, but has no backup except the Senior News Reporter who thinks he does sports, Chris Daniels, who does a podcast with Tamurian. Pick one, Chris.

KIRO no longer has a sports department, but what will it do when it has a Sunday Seahawks game on CBS with nobody to do post-game. Maybe K.J. Wright?? Wasteland.

KCPQ has a good number of Seahawks games on Sunday and post-game shows, too. They just added a weeknight sports show starting 7-29 that no one needs. Storm games a plus and I like DIck Fain and Elise. Strong on soccer with Sounders and Reign. Aaron is a pro. Would put them #2.,

KIRO/KJR radio. I don't listen. Could not care less what they do. Meanwhile, KIRO's ratings more than double KJR (per June) and that the Mariners games. Radio play-by-play of football is in trouble, despite Raible and Tony on UW. I do have old friendships with Brock, Wyman, Stelton and Salk from 710. They all worked for me freelance on NWCN back in the day.

ROOT SPORTS. Nearly dead. But Jen Mueller is a plus. If the Mariners choke in September, and with the Kraken moving to broadcast (KING KONG), good luck with any viewers keeping an $18.50 subscription. I think its days are numbered.

The market in general is soft. Very little hard opinion, because no one wants to lose access.

Comments

Rebecca Stevenson has left KOMO

"I am no longer at Komo 4." Thanks. Longtime Weather Anchor Rebecca Stevenson confirms that she left the station just before Christmas. Her last Facebook posts are 12/17. She has the Seattle station Quintafecta, having worked at the old NWCN, KING, KIRO, KCPQ and KOMO. Looks like her decision. Wants a new chapter. She was doing mainly weekend evenings for KOMO. Perhaps Stella Sun will move there. She has been sharing weekend mornings with Theron Zahn.

Where is Frankie?

Many have missed KIRO 7's weekend PM weather anchor, Frankie Katafias, so I reached out to some of my sources to find an answer. She is apparently taking a few months of leave, but not known specifically what the reason may be. Although there is uncertainty, it could be a personal or family matter. I am told she is expected back at some point in the new year. She is a great asset to what has become a troubled station. Meanwhile former KOIN Portland chief met holds down the fort.

Seattle TV Weekender Ends Her Run

So long to KOMO's longtime weekend morning anchor Lee Stoll who did her final show Saturday. She previously worked at KIRO7 and KREM2 in Spokane and did a little fill-in for me at the old NWCN. She's a Northwestern U grad. Weekend weather sidekick Theron Zahn will likely step right into anchor slot. Newcomer Stella Sun may also be in the mix. Zahn bid Lee a final goodbye this morning. She is not revealing what is next, saying "That's for later." Also, next month Komo News Operations boss Dennis Hanson and longtime Production Tech Rena Mullen are retiring. There's a big Studio C station bash for them and retiring ND Phil Bruce on December 5th.

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