Frustrated by KOCO's constant interruptions

[stone163]

First time poster here. I was just wondering if anyone else is frustrated by KOCO's constant interruptions of their daytime programming to report on news events of minor significance. I don't know if they do this in the evening, but daytime programs are frequently interrupted. Today during The View, people were interrupted mid-sentence to report on an emergency landing of a small plane. It was a heavily promoted "behind the scenes" episode that I was looking forward to watching, and the badly timed interruptions over a minor news event were really frustrating. I flipped over to the other network affiliates and neither was reporting on it. I suppose KOCO would argue that this is somehow a service to their viewers, but I would disagree.

[jbrown84]

KOCO is terrible about that, as well as overdoing weather coverage and dragging it out as long as possible.

[drumsncode]

Administrator, how about moving this thread to the radio and TV thread?

[bornhere]

Behind the scenes at "The View"....

[Intrepid]

I know this isn't fully on topic, but did KOCO finally get their whirly bird as rumored in another thread?

[rwood8]

FYI:

Typically, unless there's "major" breaking news, or a tornado warning is issued by the National Weather Service, KOCO will only break-in to programming during commercial breaks.

So really, you should be thanking them. I'd rather watch the news or weather over commercials any day of the week.

And yes...they finally got Sky5. In fact, the video of the one of the emergency landings was Sky5 video.

[duckman]

FYI:

Typically, unless there's "major" breaking news, or a tornado warning is issued by the National Weather Service, KOCO will only break-in to programming during commercial breaks.

So really, you should be thanking them. I'd rather watch the news or weather over commercials any day of the week.

And yes...they finally got Sky5. In fact, the video of the one of the emergency landings was Sky5 video.

But they do interrupt their daytime programming for latebreaking updates that arent updates at all. Go ahead and interrupt commercials or even have a crawl on the screen, but actual programming should be left alone unless it is an emergency that viewers need to know about immediately

[BeTheMiracle]

I know this isn't fully on topic, but did KOCO finally get their whirly bird as rumored in another thread?

I didn't have time to read thru the rest of this thread to see if anyone else answered your question, but yes, they did get their helicopter! My ex is a photog at 5 ~ apparently it had to be painted KOCO colors. I think it's up and running now, they used it the other day for the cop shooting story over on the NE side of town.

[okctvnewsguy]

We do have the new chopper, but it has only flown "test flights" It hasn't been on air yet. It debuts today! (Thursday) It's a beautiful ship too!<cr>

[rkjg24]

We do have the new chopper, but it has only flown "test flights" It hasn't been on air yet. It debuts today! (Thursday) It's a beautiful ship too!<cr>

Finally. I'm glad KOCO finally has a bird.

Oh, and KOCO > all.

[rwood8]

It was a heavily promoted "behind the scenes" episode that I was looking forward to watching, and the badly timed interruptions over a minor news event were really frustrating.

I can totally see how my life would end because I missed 30 seconds of "behind the scenes" at The View.

*rolls eyes*

Let me guess -- interrupting All My Children is worse than interrupting The View?

THEY ARE TV SHOWS!

[duckman]

"Let me guess -- interrupting All My Children is worse than interrupting The View?"
During Angie and Jesse's wedding...yes.

[limitedvista]

I can't speak to the daytime stuff, but I'm tired of the constant reminders of what's coming up on the 10pm news during prime time shows. The other night during the LOST finale, there were subtitles that couldn't be read because I HAD to be told again that Girls Gone Wild was coming to OKC.

One more reason to wait a day and go to ABC.com instead.

[drumsncode]

I agree with duckman, there are some shows you'd better not butcher unless it's really important. Dancing with the Stars is one of them, American Idol is another.
Besides, if I'm killed in a tornado, I want the last thing I see to be Cheryl Burke. ;-)

For the record, I like Rick, he's a great guy and very dedicated. (Just don't touch my Cheryl Burke.)

[rwood8]

Considering that there are about 500K people that could potentially watch the channel, I'm going to guess that it's pretty hard to please everyone.

I just think it's silly that people get so worked up because news stations cut-in for 30 seconds to do their job...bring you the news.

Plus, if there are alternatives -- like catching the show later online -- why complain?

[bornhere]

I just think it's silly that people get so worked up because news stations cut-in for 30 seconds to do their job...bring you the news.

Well, that's the hitch now, ain't it? The "news"... aerials of an emergency landing... Girls Gone Wild coming to OKC... I can't get too worked up about interrupting crap with more crap, but that's because I get my news off the web.

[rwood8]

A man landed his plane IN A WHEAT FIELD...

And the story wasn't about "Girls Gone Wild" coming to Oklahoma City. The story was about explicit-looking posters being hung up illegally next to a school.

-----

That's crap if I've ever heard it.

*rolls eyes...again*

------------

Either way, it's not going to change. Not on KOCO, KFOR, or KWTV. You have the ability to change the channel for a reason....that should be complaint enough...not whining that's mediocre...at best.

[bornhere]

OH... MY... GOD!!!! In a wheat field! Explicit-looking posters? What are explicit-looking posters? Is that different from explicit posters? Better or worse? Were they anywhere near that misspelled street sign?

Yes, that is crap. And believe me, I do change the channel. I haven't watched local TV news in I don't know how long — years, I guess. I got tired of the high-speed chases, low-speed chases, 'area man speaks out' stories, woman makes horrific discovery in her frosted flakes stories, could some common household product that has never hurt anyone kill you?!?! stories, blah and blah.

[SoonerDave]

TV news in Oklahoma City is a joke, but it is not unique to KOCO.

The problem is that locally produced newscasts, unfortunately, all flow from the same gene pool - about 20 years ago or thereabouts, the direction of local news broadcasts across the country was turned over to "media consultants" who convinced the powers that be that people wanted to see endless, mindless yammering between two Ken and Barbie clones, "news" written for an 8th grade education level, and alarmist news teases to create the illusion that a depdendency exists between you, the news/media outlet, and your personal safety. News ad sales are a premium advertising sales source for any local station, so the only criteria for success is ratings and the ad rates that go along with thm.

Go across the country and you'll see the same packaged news promos, sets, themes, slogans, and music everywhere. I will offer that KWTV does at least tend to depart from it a bit, as they are not owned by a larger upstream conglomerate, but they are driven by similar motivations.

The golden age of OKC TV news journalism died about 20-25 years ago, when seemingly every station had truly investigative journalists...some exposing actual corruption in government and/or business....those were the days

-sd

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

KWTV-9...

...Listen to Gary England OR YOUR CHILDREN WILL DIE!





Yeah, I'd say that's a bit of a departure

[SoonerDave]

KWTV-9...

...Listen to Gary England OR YOUR CHILDREN WILL DIE!





Yeah, I'd say that's a bit of a departure

Point taken...I was trying to be gracious

[Midtowner]

The golden age of OKC TV news journalism died about 20-25 years ago, when seemingly every station had truly investigative journalists...some exposing actual corruption in government and/or business....those were the days

-sd

Yep.. remember in the early 80's/late 70's when the Oklahoma Attorney General's office and Vince Orza (former KOCO reporter, former CEO of Eateries, Inc. and current Business School Dean at OCU) worked together to uncover, expose and prosecute E.K. Gaylord and a dozen or so OKC "elites" who had dipped their hands into the public trust and were using the tax dollars to enrich themselves while violating all kinds of open meetings laws and open records laws? Think the media would tackle that now? Hell no.

They'd rather be the spokesmonkies for the road and bridge contractors trying to drum up public hysteria when those contractors were after an increase in the fuel tax. Amazing how that issue just went away after the election, isn't it?

The Gazette in one of its every-once-in-awhile hand-wringing articles made mention of the fact that there hasn't been a "No" vote cast on the OSU Board of Regents in over 19 years -- a pretty condemning sign that the open meetings laws are being ignored completley.

[CuatrodeMayo]

The golden age of OKC TV news journalism died about 20-25 years ago, when seemingly every station had truly investigative journalists...some exposing actual corruption in government and/or business....those were the days

-sd

Sounds like the opening credits of "Anchorman".

[Spartan]

TV news in Oklahoma City is a joke, but it is not unique to KOCO.

The problem is that locally produced newscasts, unfortunately, all flow from the same gene pool - about 20 years ago or thereabouts, the direction of local news broadcasts across the country was turned over to "media consultants" who convinced the powers that be that people wanted to see endless, mindless yammering between two Ken and Barbie clones, "news" written for an 8th grade education level, and alarmist news teases to create the illusion that a depdendency exists between you, the news/media outlet, and your personal safety. News ad sales are a premium advertising sales source for any local station, so the only criteria for success is ratings and the ad rates that go along with thm.

Go across the country and you'll see the same packaged news promos, sets, themes, slogans, and music everywhere. I will offer that KWTV does at least tend to depart from it a bit, as they are not owned by a larger upstream conglomerate, but they are driven by similar motivations.

The golden age of OKC TV news journalism died about 20-25 years ago, when seemingly every station had truly investigative journalists...some exposing actual corruption in government and/or business....those were the days

-sd

The golden age of OKC TV news journalism put Molly Murphy's out of business.

[SoonerBorn1973]

The golden age of OKC TV news journalism put Molly Murphy's out of business.

But, waitaminute. It's been stated here that news stations don't report stories against their advertisers?! Surely, Molly Murphy's advertised with KFOR. So I guess that whole incident never took place.

The fact of the matter is I can point out numerous times that stations have reported stories on people that buy their advertising time. Hell, Braums' refused to buy time with one of them for years because of a story that ran. And furthermore, that station was warned by Braum's that if the story aired then they would pull their business. The story aired, they pulled their ads, the station found someone else to buy time (that is always an option, you know).

Before Brad Edwards passed away a couple of years ago, he did a story on 1-800-2Sell Homes (You know, the woman with the most annoying voice since Linda Soundtrack) and the racket she and her husband were running and they advertised all over KFOR. More recently, Amanda Taylor did an expose on KWTV on a local contractor who advertised with all the stations and how he allegedly screwed a poor woman out of her money.

Plenty more, but alas, I know it will fall on deaf ears. Everyone in the business is totally aware that journalists are looked at, by the general public, just as cops and lawyers are looked at: You refuse to appreciate them until you need them. I can, however, offer a little insight into the constant weather cut-ins in that all stations believe if they've helped one person (be it warning them to take cover or allowing a viewer to contact a family member that might be in danger to take cover), then cutting into program is worth it. So for all of you who are annoyed by these interruptions, you really should count yourself lucky that you've never needed it.