The first for this station, following the fireworks flop program on July 4.
1. No produced open...joined a band to begin live. Bit of a surprise to get the hype going. Sell the program!! Short,-sighted. Port of Seattle is main sponsor.
2. Better hosts, Wixey and Mayofsky over Rose and Sabirah on fireworks.
3. #4 Weather Wizard aboard a float, her video froze the second toss in, she did pre-recorded interviews as well. Where's Claire Anderson again?? Or Brian MacMillan, talent more known to viewers from weekday morning and evenings? Ilona McCauley did a nice job, but where are your main weather wizards, Fox 13, on this big sampling opportunity??
4. Multiple, forced additional sponsor interviews before the parade even starts...Boeing guy, Alaska Airlines lady and the Seafair President who, in particular, had zero energy to sell the parade, as well as someone from Kaiser Permanente and the Port, of course. Wayyyy too much pre-game mandated stuff. These all could have been integrated later, within the parade itself without missing a participant, considering how slow it moves, using double boxes, etc. I understand the interviews have to be done, but let's start the event!! Several interviews were indeed repeated later during lulls in the show, as expected. Boring.
5. Parade finally starts on-air at 8:02
6. Several fancy cars lead the parade, with Wixey and Erin's great line: "Look at those cars!" Well, it's all scripted, so why worry about the fawning sponsor voiceovers, right?
7. Good to see McCauley working the parade route and interviewing Rick Rizzs on the fly. I guess Rick passed on the critically important Rangers road series this weekend. But then she had to read off a card to remember the name of the King County Executive to intro him along the route, along with one of the questions she asked. Ilona, you didn't memorize and learn his name and question when you knew he was scheduled??? I mean it was a softball! Preparation!
8. Good to use double boxes to show parade and commercials together, though some of the participants were badly blocked visually by overlaps. First break 14 minutes in.
9. Had to laugh at the Dick's parade entry. Reminded me of their totally squashed burgers and flimsy, greasy fries. Ugh.
10. Interview with Mayor Wilson, good to see her PR staff allowed it to happen without intervention. Lol.
OK, I have had enough after an hour. I give Fox 13 credit for better ground level camera work than I remember from KIRO, though they needed a camera on a float for a forward moving view. But the big thing was NO DRONE overheads of the waterfront/parade panorama!! That would have been a major league difference-maker to me.
Overall, I guess Fox made a good community effort, but nothing unique at all, and there was every chance to set the coverage apart. Kinda cheaped out again, nothing that I see which would justify a new three-year deal with Seafair for big improvements. They should have expected more on the TV side.
Yes, I am watching the parade and there was no drone or aerial coverage. I was meaning to ask this question during the Seahawks championship parade, do any of the stations still use choppers? As a top 15 market, you would think there would be at least one helicopter that all the stations could pool from!
ReplyDeleteChoppers were stopped years ago. Drones are the way to go. No pooling either. Those days are also long gone because of $$
DeleteInteresting. It is unfortunate that they stopped using helicopters for news coverage. Especially when there are similar or smaller market sizes to Seattle that still use them in some form. Drones are an additive to storytelling, but they don’t cover as much ground that a chopper provides. The absence of ENGs in Seattle is noticeable during breaking news stories. This week’s seaplane crash and the Seahawks parade come to mind.
DeleteThere was a time where KOMO made a deal with KING to share it's chopper (Air 4) when KING stopped flying and its pilot retired. Then KOMOs chopper crashed near the Space Needle. Subsequently, Cox got rid of its choppers, leaving KIRO without one as well. I don't think 13:has ever had one.
DeleteI guess things are dire when the lone O&O in town prerecords and replays all of their evening newscasts from hours before. Long live the days of Chopper 7, SkyKING, and Air 4 in the sky!
DeleteDitto on Dire!
DeleteI seem to remember Fox 13 briefly, and I mean briefly, having a helicopter sometime between 2008 and 2010. It was known as "Q View". I only saw it being utilized on the air a handful of times.
DeleteIt would be great to see one of the stations relaunch their helicopter, but I just don't see that happening.
Thanks for Q info. I don't remember that from back then, but choppers were so routine I may not have even noticed Q View.
DeleteIt was very short lived. Maybe a month or two at most.
DeleteI only ever remember it being used for traffic reports. Adam Gehrke might remember it.
I've been scouring YouTube trying to find footage of it being mentioned on the air, but have been unsuccessful.
Speaking of Fox 13, two new faces have been added to their "meet the team" webpage: streaming anchor Felicia Michelle and reporter Sam Campbell.
DeleteThank you IDC. Saved me some time!
DeleteHello. Important to note that Fox does not produce the show. It’s produced by a production company. Fox only provides talent and the air time.
ReplyDeleteIt's a TV entertainment show and Fox is carrying it. Viewers want to see a unique, fun program. Don't tell me Fox didn't have input. Viewers don't care about Seafair's role, sorry. Bad enough they wrote the script for this fawning program.
DeleteThe old saying goes something like “if you’re being run out of town try to stay in front of everybody so it looks like a parade.”
ReplyDeleteThis was a bit better than the fireworks coverage, but Fox 13 has left a lot to be desired. Overhead footage of the parade would have been great. Drones or a rented helicopter would have done the job. A more engaging script, fewer commercials, and fewer sponser interviews would have also been nice. Bill and Erin were definitely better hosts, and Ilona did a good job as well (aside from the interview with the county executive, where it was evident that more preparation was needed).
ReplyDeleteSponsor interviews overkill.. Twice for each, I think. It was like a pay for play show. But Seafair will be happy for its backers. KIRO did a better job in the past. I dont recall it being so interview heavy. I give this one a C-
ReplyDeleteC- seems like a fair grade for Fox 13's coverage of this parade. I hope they will make further improvements for the Hydro races.
DeleteSure hope so if they are handling the hydros but if they end up piggybacking with SWX out of Spokane, uh oh. Caught their broadcast on streaming of the Tri-Cities race yesterday. Wasn't good at all. Hopefully, Fox will handle this themselves and not rely on outside help for it
DeleteThree observations: while I watched in the first hour, there seemed to be a LOT of "dead air," just ambient noise while Bill and Liz apparently had nothing to say. They couldn't ad-lib?
ReplyDeleteSecond: Toward the end, I hit "info" on my remote. What did it say?
"Steve Raible, Margo Myers and Andy Wappler anchor this year's Torchlight Parade; this year's theme is "Hooray for Hollywood." (2005)"
Third: If KCPQ is the official Seafair station, why isn't anyone wearing Seafair pins? When I was growing up in Seattle in the '60s and early '70s, EVERY anchor wore Seafair pins, no matter the station. But that ended not long after, now, apparently no one wears them anymore.
Liz D has been gone for quite awhile.(got a kick out of that) Erin and Bill did a good job. I have to give a C+ to the broadcasting crew. Funny moments for me were the kids getting into the viewing area on Lime bikes and scooters with the parade commodores chasing them. It beat everything else available for viewing on Saturday nights!
DeleteThanks for a great comment. You are right, much too much dead air. They needed some stronger ground level mics perhaps to pick up the atmosphere. Erin is a pretty face and that's it. She's a model not a TV anchor in any form, so I don't expect much ad-libbing from her. Totally miscast on Fox. As I have posted abouit the fireworks, Seafair is getting conned by Fox production, period. The entire deal has been below average so far. That post you found with Raible is hilarious. Digital dropped the ball at 13, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI agree it was a bit better than the fireworks show. I thought the Picture in Picture commercial break was an odd choice. You couldn’t really see the parade during the breaks and what good is watching a marching band while listening to a GEICO commercial? Seemed unnecessary for a non-sports event.
ReplyDeleteThe parade should have been aired commercial free. I appreciate the fact that Fox 13 has to make money. However, there are times and places for commercials, and this wasn't one of them. This was a time for serving the public and bringing the community together.
DeleteI don't think that the parade was any better than their fireworks show. I could hear Erin eating and talking when they were talking about the Fisher Scones. Not only it sounded unprofessional, but everything that she and Wixey said was pretty much a copy-and-pasted variation of what they said about the previous float and/or band. Ilona's interviews seemed like she had never done an interview and whether it was live or "taped", the people she talked said the same exact thing over and over. D+ for me.
ReplyDeleteNo Brian McMillan is a head scratcher. I wonder if he was on vacation? And if so, they should have not allowed it. Or where was Claire? Or even Traffic Guy Adam who is a personality. Use Levine maybe? Just a strange use of your talent.
ReplyDelete