TallyVision

[Florida]

TallyVision

Constructive Discussion of Tallahassee's Local Media

I've been having a problem with our local media for some time now. It seems my frustration truly started when NBC News 40 left, followed by the departure of the Florida News Channel just a few years ago. I know what the problem was with the FNC, they showed the same news over and over all day long in a loop. It was annoying to say the least.

NBC News 40, however, was a great alternative to ABC and old fashioned CBS.

Here's my beef with those two. ABC now has a modern set, but they hire some of the worst anchors. Stuttering and stumbling over the news every night. How long does it take before they get it right. Robert Burns is cool, but there are some who really boil my blood. And then there's the whole picture quality thing. It seems they are trying to adjust the view at times to make the faces of the anchors look flawless, but in doing they make everything look fuzzy. This isn't good ABC. I don't feel like "you're on my side"!

CBS... good ol CBS... what could be said about CBS other than YOU'RE OLD! Step into the new age. They called themselves renovating the set a few months back, and for a minute things were great... but now it looks like it did before the renovation. It seems they spent more money on this new renovation that makes them look 1990s, than it would have cost them to do a CNN type makeover. I think they are purposely trying to cling onto a dying market... the the young people watch the news too! Aside from that, their anchors are great... some of them.

I'd rather have news on NBC than FOX... just my opinion.

The Tallahassee Democrat is cool with me. I think they could do a better job covering business stories, and growth related issues. I'd actually like to see a business magazine started, but other than that, The Tallahassee Democrat is making improvements daily which I think are great. Maybe if they dress up the Lettering of 'Tallahassee Democrat' on the cover page into something a bit fancier.

You all share your thoughts!

[97preludesh]

alot of the things u say tj, can be easily explained. The reason we get bad anchors, is because news markets are ranked based on viewers..... who wants to work in a smaller market and make less money? we get the leftovers.......

Saying something sucks is lame also. Our news does not suck. It is good, we just dont have the top anchors. give them a break,

[Relient J]

Granted I'm a little out of the loop, but here's my take on local TV news in Tallahassee:

I agree that the news on channel 40 was a welcome change to Tallahassee. It became my local TV news channel of choice, and I was sorry to see it go. I have long disliked channel 27. You're right about the picture quality. The biggest problem for them is that they've always been too sensational. Their commercials were always trying to overinflate a news story to get your attention, and it was obvious what they were trying to do.

Personally, with the two choices left I'll take WCTV any day of the week. Maybe it's nostalgia on my part since I grew up watching that station, but I feel like they've always been more level-headed than 27, and that makes a world of difference to me. The only thing in my opinion that 27 has going for them is Nancy Dignon. I really became a fan of hers when I took her Honors Meteorology class at TCC about five or six years ago. And again, I grew up watching her on WCTV.

[Florida]

Granted I'm a little out of the loop, but here's my take on local TV news in Tallahassee:

I agree that the news on channel 40 was a welcome change to Tallahassee. It became my local TV news channel of choice, and I was sorry to see it go. I have long disliked channel 27. You're right about the picture quality. The biggest problem for them is that they've always been too sensational. Their commercials were always trying to overinflate a news story to get your attention, and it was obvious what they were trying to do.

Personally, with the two choices left I'll take WCTV any day of the week. Maybe it's nostalgia on my part since I grew up watching that station, but I feel like they've always been more level-headed than 27, and that makes a world of difference to me. The only thing in my opinion that 27 has going for them is Nancy Dignon. I really became a fan of hers when I took her Honors Meteorology class at TCC about five or six years ago. And again, I grew up watching her on WCTV.

Preludesh: You're right... I should change the word sucks to stinks! I'll do that as soon as I finish this comment.

RelientJ: I am with ya there buddy! I love Nancy, I wish I could have her news and the anchors from WCTV.

Preludesh you said that the reason our ancors aren't top notch is because we've got a small media market and you are absolutely right. Tallahassee probably has one of the smallest media markets in the country. But that doesn't mean there is no local talent available to fill the roles being occupied by the less talented. WCTV is a shining example of what I mean.

I think the staff at WCTV is awesome. They're always professional, articulate, and give you the news the way it should be given. As I stated before their only problem is thier set, which I think may be intentional since they are playing to an older audience that has been watching them for decades.

News channel 27's problem may be that they aren't paying enough to recruit quality professionals. I've heard that said before. I don't care what size the market is, as long as I'm making my money, ya know! We need more Gary Bartletts, and Robert Burns around. They are stars in their field, but are often shaded by amatures.

Watch the 5, 5:30, and 6:00 news today and see what I mean. Flip back and forward. Its embarassing having someone come from out of town when the news comes on. I'm always afraid of what 27 might do, or how 6 is going to look.

[Relient J]

About those out-of-town newspeople we get: They sometimes need to be coached in how to pronounce the names of local areas. The town of Aucilla is not pronounced the way it looks!

[Florida]

Oh you're so right!

It seems most of them have a hard enough time saying Tallahassee, yet alone names like Apalachicola, Miccosukee, and Chatahoochie. There's a lady on the news now, Sharon Tazwell, who says Biloxi (Bill-OX-EE) drives me nutts!!

I'm about to turn on the news to get a good peek at things. I'll be back with my report later.

Until then, Stay Classy - Tallahassee!

[Relient J]

This is a random comment on the subject of Tallahassee media. Jamie Reese, who used to be an anchor and reporter for WCTV is now a weekend anchor for Channel 5 in Nashville! It was cool to see a familiar face on TV when I moved up here.

[Florida]

Thats interesting. I think its great to see them promoted up to larger markets with hopes to one day see them end up on CNN or MSNBC (Notice I didn't say FOX News - There's a reason).

One person I really miss is Amy Basista. She came to Tallahassee in 2002 and left eariler this year. I thought she was hot! She was an asset to News Channel 27 and her departure was rather sudden.

But like I said, they don't pay the people enough, so you can't blame her. Actually, from what I hear, she left after she got married. Her husband's career took them both back to the Ohio area. So they say.

Frank Ranicky has been around soooo long!! Oh my! You can't pay that man to leave. I think he's trying to outlast Bobby Bowden and Joe Pah.

[psycuda]

Where I grew up in Upstate NY, it would be the weathermen that would stay around forever, making you wonder if they were someone's brother in law, a part owner of the station, or they had some serious dirt on someone, because they weren't good. As far as Tallahassee goes, one of the issues is that you are getting people that have worked professionally for a couple of years and have come from places that make Tally seem like a step up, like Dothan, Albany, or Panama City. More importantly, the company that owns one of the stations (27) is Sinclair, who's news philosophy, at least on the national level, is slightly to the right of the Fox News Channel.

[Florida]

How could you possibly go any further right than the Fox News Channel? I didn't know that was possible.

[Relient J]

^ You easily could, though your objectivity would probably be called into question. In my opinion the Fox News Channel is more neoconservative (more moderate) than truly conservative. Take Bill O'Reilly for example. He seems to think that the best position possible is a moderate one. Anyone that strays too far to the left or the right is a fanatic to him.

[Florida]

What makes Bill O'Riley moderate! He's the republican's #1 cheerleader. Put frankly, the Fox News Channel seems to pride itself in its close ties to the right. Based on observations, when things are good for republicans, thats all they talk about. When things are bad, they find things like murders, or steroids, or Michael Jackson to discuss.

[Relient J]

I guess I see it the way I do because I don't see the Republican party as being very conservative anymore. Under President Bush's watch the federal government has grown larger than probably at any point in history. He's done very little to stop the practice of abortion. He said he would appoint a constructionist/originalist type to the Supreme Court yet by his own admission John Roberts is not that. More recently he wants to spend billions of dollars reconstructing the Gulf Coast. There are conservatives like myself who have given up on the Republican party and gone elsewhere. So if O'Reilly is a cheerleader for the Republicans (and I would agree that many times he is) that doesn't make him look very conservative in my book. Neoconservatives are in charge of the Republican party now.

[Go Gators]

Yea, I gotta agree here. The local stations here are lacking. Im from Central Florida, and we actually get the major networks out of Tampa and Orlando. Talk about being spoiled with great news stations. Out of Tampa, the best is FOX 13, which hands down has the best, most modern cast, weather and sports, and set. Their website is www.wtvt.com. Out of Orlando would probably be Channel 9 Eyewitness News (ABC affiliate - www.wftv.com)

Tallahassee has low budget stations, clearly. Its a shame, since a lot of the state's most important news comes out of this town. I would have to say ABC 27 is the best up here, although I would like to be able to say its the FOX affiliate. When I go home, I look forward to being able to watch decent news channels.

Also, whats up with all the channels not broadcasting at all "normal" news hours? FOX goes on at 10, but they do that everywhere. But its either NBC or CBS that doesnt broadcast an 11:00 news at all (I believe). Why is that?

[Go Gators]

Yea, I gotta agree here. The local stations here are lacking. Im from Central Florida, and we actually get the major networks out of Tampa and Orlando. Talk about being spoiled with great news stations. Out of Tampa, the best is FOX 13, which hands down has the best, most modern cast, weather and sports, and set. Their website is www.wtvt.com. Out of Orlando would probably be Channel 9 Eyewitness News (ABC affiliate - www.wftv.com)

Tallahassee has low budget stations, clearly. Its a shame, since a lot of the state's most important news comes out of this town. I would have to say ABC 27 is the best up here, although I would like to be able to say its the FOX affiliate. When I go home, I look forward to being able to watch decent news channels.

Also, whats up with all the channels not broadcasting at all "normal" news hours? FOX goes on at 10, but they do that everywhere. But its either NBC or CBS that doesnt broadcast an 11:00 news at all (I believe). Why is that?

[Go Gators]

Sorry, I dont know why that posted twice...

I wanted to agree with Relient J regarding Bush. First of all, I feel sorry for those who voted for Bush soley on the basis of him stating he would change abortion laws. To the best of my knowledge, Roe v Wade is precedent and would need a constitutional amendment to be changed. Thats a whole new can of worms. And Bush, although he claims to be conservative, has been damn near liberal in his policies. Like Relient J said, government has grown large and fast under this administration. Conservatives, by definition, want limited government. His spending is also a reason I say he is close to liberal. Bush and congress have approved so much spending in the past 5 years, and conservatives, by definition, want less spending. (I want more efficient spending with what we have, like Florida, who, by law cannot go into debt). But anyway, for a president who claims to be so conservative, his policies and actions have not backed his claim...in my opinion, from a conservative.

[Florida]

NBC does not broadcast news anymore at all. CBS and ABC broadcast at 11. Fox News is the only 10 o'clock broadcast.

Like you I percieve our news channels to be low budget, and I personally feel insulted that they think we, as viewers, despite the size of our market, aren't worthy of better.

I'd compare our local news to that in Jackson Mississippi. The Tallahassee and Jackson markets are in a way similar, however, in recent years even Jackson has improved a point where they don't stick out from the standard modern quality news reporting.

I'm with you! I've been out of town to markets with better local news broadcast than our own, I've had satillite t.v. that also showed news from other cities and I must say, we can do better and we're not.

Its embarrasing to me, as a local, to think that someone from out of town hates our local news. As Go Gators stated, this is a state capital and some of the most important stories from our state government come out of Tallahassee, so why is the television media so cheap? This is part of the complacency problem that Tallahassee once suffered from and has yet to develop a way out of.

We need to do better.

I've written letters to WCTV(CBS), WTXL(ABC). This was months ago. Shortly thereafter, they did change their look, however as I stated before ABC still suffers from inconsitency (sometimes the news is good, sometimes its not). And they need to do something about the ancors that stutter and stumble over the news on a regular basis ( I don't think I need to say her name) and CBS has great staff, (it could possibly use a tweak at sports reporting) and a TOTAL overhaul of the set. Not just a few new posters in the background!

Do you feel me?

[Go Gators]

Where are these stations actually located? Are some in Thomasville?

[DaiDreamer5]

I know you guys are talking about TV, but I HATE the way the Tallahassee Democrat website is designed. Sometime you see an article on the main page and you click the link and it takes you to the section of the newspaper the article is in, rather than the article itself. Then if you click the link for the article on THAT page it brings you to the subsection for the article. And finally (if it is there sometimes it isn't) when you click the link on that page, you get to read the article.

I am also very annoyed that they stopped Sunday only service; you have to get Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday. I know there wasn't that much of a cost difference, but all those newpapers I don't read really stack up quick.

[97preludesh]

i would never subscribe to the democrat when I can get it free online..... I click on Local and Business only everyday.... get the stories and then im out. I like the online version

[DaiDreamer5]

i would never subscribe to the democrat when I can get it free online..... I click on Local and Business only everyday.... get the stories and then im out. I like the online version

The only reason why I subscribed to the democrat is for the ads and coupons on Sunday. I figured that if I used 1.00 in coupons a week I'd break even with the cost of the paper

[97preludesh]

thats a good reason..... We are just in the digital age, and if u have a laptop you can do anything everywhere...... I dont have one, but yea.

I would like to subscribe to USA Today, thats such a thorough well written paper.

[Florida]

The USA today is nothing but a bunch of graphs! You're better off just watching CNN or MSNBC when you get home. Its the same news.

DaiDreamer... I totally feel your frustration with the links online. The former format of the online page was my favorite, easier to manuver than the current.

Go Gators, the tower for WCTV, the 5th tallest structure in the entire world at over 2000ft, is located in a small GA town away from Urban interference, but the actual WCTV studio is in Tallahassee, so too is ABC, NBC. FOX is located in Midway.

[psycuda]

The one thing I'm gonna miss when I graduate is the free copy of USA TODAY and the NY Times I can pick up. Also, while I see the TAllahassee.com website changing over the next few months (new ownership and all) it really won't be that much better, since other Gannett papers are pretty bland with their websites and (especially USA TODAY) really does not have a great interface.

[Florida]

There are certain Gannett news paper websites that are farily nice. I stumbled across the Pensacola newspaper's website and there was another paper in Florida that I looked at which wasn't all that bad!

I think we could use a healthy change in that area. I really hope they would start to put greater emphasis on local business stories. When we get our people's minds on business and off of Government, politics and such we'll see our attitude toward economic development shift for the better.