Local news is a fickle game. We’ve always tried to follow the action along the way and provide you with our observations and updates. In fact, these observations and updates have been one of the main reasons people find themselves on this here web log.

In this tradition we must begin our paper trail for Julie Watts who was recently “laid off” from KCRA (btw, I’ve always thought the term “laid off” was for seasonal workers like lumberjacks or carpenters…)

While I am on the subject of annoying terms and euphemisms, here’s a blurb from the Sacramento Business Journal article:

“We’ve had some staff reductions,” said KCRA general manager Elliott Troshinsky. “These are challenging economic times and we needed to scale our business accordingly.”

“Staff reductions” eh? “Challenging economic times”? Why didn’t you say so. Well, who is going to pick up the weather reporting slack in Julie’s absence? You know, cause times is tough all over in case you haven’t heard.

Wait, what’s this? Hello, Byron Miranda, what’s going on? What are you doing here? Oh, you were recently hired to forecast the weather at KCRA? How odd. They just recently reduced staff, you know…I did catch him on his first day when he made a joking reference to his ex-wife. Make yourself at home, BM.

Good luck, Julie. Hope the blogging thing works out for you. Let us know if you need any help.

Yesterday I saw the Official Gmail Blog post about a new “Mail Goggles” feature, designed to prevent Gmailers from sending that drunken “late night Friday email.” I chuckled, assuming that the jokesters at Google couldn’t wait until April 1 to launch another yuk-fest of a fake feature. I did notice a few news stories about the feature, but I didn’t think much of it.

And then just now on the KCRA morning news I saw Walt Gray report on it. Ha! I thought, just wait until I blog the heck out of this hilarious small town bumble from the gullible yoyos at the local news station. Before I did that, however, I searched again for news stories. Hmm, doesn’t seem like Information Week would fall that easily. Much less Wired. More importantly, the feature does appear in my Gmail settings. It was not a joke at all.

What? This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Sure, I suppose it qualifies as “useful,” but it’s just so damn silly–geared for the intoxicated, set to be enabled on weekends only. I’m definitely not saying that because I was duped. Duped into thinking it was a hoax. Oh Google, you have bested me this time.

We’ve taken our shots over the years at the two ring circus that is “Good Day Sacramento,” but we’ve not told the other side of the story, the side that compares Good Day against the other morning shows in the area to see where each stands in this fence-sitter of a media market. (Are we a small big market or a big small market, who can tell?) This week, a dear friend relayed to me his experiences with a two morning shows, and I’d like to share those with you. Hopefully, this will give you a chance to judge for yourself as to who really rules the airwaves from dawn to coffee break.

First of all, let me set the scene for you. My friend had two appearances lined up last month to promote an event, one appearance on the KCRA morning news on channel 58, and one appearance on Good Day Sacramento. The KCRA news appearance was (as if you couldn’t already see this coming) a bad scene.  Rushed for time, fighting technical difficulties and trying to get out his message points despite the woodenness of the broadcast team, my friend did his best to fill the thirty seconds that they wound up giving him. According to him, the crew was a bit scattered, everything was thrown together last minute and the everyone seemed a little stressed. Continue reading “A Tale of Two News Shows” »

Have y’all seen KCRA promoting “our new site, highschoolplaybook.com”? And have you also seen the commercial on KCRA for highschoolplaybook.com, clearly indicating that our region is just one of the communities featured on the site. (That commercial, by the way, is very confusing … the young gal is interviewing the football star, and then suddenly the sound goes out on them? implying to me that they are falling in wuv, but without that classical music snippet that they play when people are in wuv, you know the one. I assume it was written by Mozart.)

I assumed it was one of those mistakes about computers that old people make, like saying “how can I download the internet.” It made me wonder why they didn’t promote their new video feature a few months back as “our new online video site, YouTube.com”…

However, it took the wind out of my sails when I saw that the site is actually a property of Hearst-Argyle Television. Abort snark!!

My YouTube buddy just hooked me up with the news that Hearst-Argyle Television has reached a content agreement with Google to provide a new channel on YouTube. Finally, online video from KCRA.

KCRA’s YouTube Channel … will be populated with news, weather, and entertainment videos as well as with original, local television programming such as “Chronicle,” one of New England’s most honored television programs.

Where the news from back east comes first.

Interesting bit at the end there about a digital video initiative to cover “local amateur entertainment.” Wonder how that will take shape…

“Whale Watch” is getting out of hand. The entire KCRA 6 PM newscast last night was dedicated to “Whale Watch.” At about 10:15 last night Edie Lambert was talking to Toby Ross, the City Manager of West Sacramento, who cautioned would-be whale watchers to stay off of levees that are not meant for car traffic. Would it be cruel to suggest that drivers too stupid to stay off of non-roads in order to watch whales too stupid to stay out of fresh water rivers are a match made in heaven?

However, it does reflect well on the kind of news that KCRA likes to present. Flipping over to CBS13 at 11 is like watching the Great Britain PR spot on “Children of Men.” War. Famine. Dead horses. Only CBS 13 still soldiers on…

(Yes, we’re having a slow day at the Sac Rag offices, so sue us!)

Ever notice how KCRA.com offers up slideshows on their site?  While they are usually your standard “Caught on Tape” wackiness, from time to time I find a few that are funny.  Mainly because they are not really explained or introduced.  They just jump right into their topic.  For example, I noticed two “Most Annoying” slideshows today.  The first was “The Most Annoying Songs of All Time” and the second was “The Most Annoying Celebrities of All Time“.

While we can all agree on Carrot Top, I’m not sure Don Johnson really fits.  And Nathan Lane?

But, be careful.  I still can’t get that darned “Mmmm Bop” song out of my head now…

Mike Teselle reports

KCRA rolled out its Crime Tracker tool just in time for Halloween this year, and RonTopofIt just pointed it out to me this morning. It is a mashup of Google’s ubiquitous mapping service, and it works way better than the SacPD’s Crime Mapping tool, although I’m sure the SacPD’s offering is more inclusive and updated faster. One thing I have always loved about the SacPD’s tool is the ability to search by neighborhoods, not just Zip codes — this link, for example, shows you residential, auto, and business burglaries in the Ben Ali neighborhood (which is apparently a microhood between El Camino and Marconi on the West side of the Capital City, who knew). To get a similar map on KCRA I had to use an address, 1941 Iris Ave, and I get all of the crime hits (including Invasion of Privacy). But the ease of searching by Zip, intersection, or “Landmarks” on the KCRA site makes it worth a look.

I have learned from a source at KCRA that Friday was John Alston’s last broadcast. You’ll notice he’s already de-listed on their News Team page. Apparently his contract was up for renewal and negotiations broke down. No word on whether Alston was asking for 8,000 parking spots…

Left: KCRA’s Tom Duhain;
Right: “The Wicker Man”’s Edward Woodward

I had never seen the cult classic “The Wicker Man,” which has been in rotation on IFC, until last night. The resemblance between KCRA’s solid reporter Tom Duhain and Ed Woodward’s Christian martyr Sgt. Neil Howie is too great to pass without comment on The Sac Rag. As you can see in the picture, however, Duhain’s standard expression is the smile of the ultimate news professional, and I don’t think Woodward cracks a smile once (who can blame him, with all those filthy heathens, right?).