Jack Bilyeu, from the Fox station in Memphis and previously Florence, SC, is now on board at KIRO 7.
I wish him luck. He'll need it.
"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.
Seattle is undoubtedly worlds apart in terms of weather and culture from the Southeastern United States. I hope he is adjusting well.
ReplyDeleteHis hair could make Preston Phillips envious.
ReplyDeleteCaption: "please watch KIRO 7, we really could use your viewership".
ReplyDeleteHe does look like he is making a plea in that screengrab, so I can see how you came up with that. Obviously, he wasn't making a plea in that moment, but I'm sure he, and everyone at KIRO, would like more people to tune into the newscasts. Without a doubt, ratings will have a role to play in determining the future of the station, in this case how much Cox or a future owner wants to invest in it.
DeleteWith a live shot like that, KIRO goes into telethon mode.
DeleteCan KIRO ever recover from this disaster they are in the middle of Wayne? And how?! What would you do if you were in the ND chair.
ReplyDeleteThe question is does Cox/Apollo WANT it to recover? It's really bleak with union troubles, no sports department, no weekend morning news and no Jesse Jones, their former top star. Also, we don't really know if the station is holding its own in the ratings. CBS is great in primetime so that may keep the 11 afloat. Mornings, at least, are on before the ratings-starved CBS Mornings, so they might be doing okay thru Nick Allard's popularity. The 4-7 block still has two longtime anchor players in the market but the lead-ins are syndies, Judy Justice and ET. Same with Fox 13 with back-to-back Judge Judy's. KING and KOMO have local lifestyle lead-ins, but KOMO gets on first with news at 330. In short, I would not want the ND chair, having to work wearing those kinds of draconian handcuffs, nor could any one person repair what has been ruined. They obviously have to triple down on social, tiktok, IG, bluesky, et al, with lots of live clips, etc. I would also go all out right now with a highly and consistently promoted tech jobline and put together multiple sponsored job fairs for laid off software engineers and computer grads. That might attract younger viewers combined with a lot of enterprise reporting on that issue. Got to 'hit 'em where they ain't.' My two cents.
DeleteLove that tech idea. Too forward thinking for the suits at Cox or any other station. It feels like newsrooms, tv news, have gone the way of newspapers. Too late to adapt to the changing landscape. FOX 13 does that all day, I think all day. news desk with the old KIRO anchor. Does anyone watch is my question? But no sports department is the thing that seems to be the biggest issue. Live sports rate. And you have NFL and then March Madness yet no sports department. Makes no sense
DeleteThis sports situation will become seriously acute if the Hawks make the playoffs, as they are likely to, and very possibly play major road games. March Madness is such a overarching network event, I doubt if anyone will notice the lack of local coverage of, say, Gonzaga and/or UW. The World Cup stuff is far more daunting because of Seattle's soccer love and the massive fan turnout. After Chris Swanson's stint on Fox 13 during baseball, they should perhaps re-hire him, if he wants to return.
DeleteIf nothing else, KIRO should assign Gary Horcher to sports full time. There is so much going on in the Seattle sports scene, including everything you mentioned above, plus the upcoming launch of our new Professional Women's Hockey Team, that its going to require a dedicated reporter with strong local sports knowledge to even provide the bare minimum coverage.
DeleteHere's my two cents and its only two words that has been said on here by others: Hire Felt!
ReplyDeleteI think Eric Thomas may emerge doing a lot more sports down the road. Sloss with some previous sports experience could help. Overall, I like the idea of directly showcasing Horcher. It puts a high profile anchor
ReplyDeleteIn play which will give KIRO some cred for a change.
I agree with your thinking here. KIRO may have dismantled its sports department, but they didn't hire Eric Thomas for nothing. His sports expierence must have appealed to them. If KIRO wanted to fully rebuild its sports department here and now, I would appoint Gary and Eric to it full time, with Jason helping as needed. That would leave the anchor bench and news reporting roster running thin, but it could be done.
DeleteThey would need a strong promotional campaign to see Thomas and/or Horcher. Gotta sell it with no sports folks.
ReplyDeleteIt would take some heavy marketing to make viewers see Horcher and/or Thomas as qualified sports reporters and presenters, but it does seem achievable, particularly with Horcher.
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