Fox25 Morning News

[allseeingeye]

Anyone watch day 2? Was it any better than day 1? I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed to watch.

[venture]

It is slowly progressing, but I can't really watch much. If they started at 530, I would actually catch more. I'm out the door by 630, so I miss most of it.

[PUGalicious]

You're not missing much. It's bad, bad, bad.

[MadMonk]

I watched it this morning and it's very...ahem..."rough around the edges". Perhaps it'll improve with time but I dunno. It's definitly not something to go out of your way to watch at the moment.

[jbrown84]

I need to TiVo this for laughs.

[Legal]

I watched part of it again this morning. It has improved over the first couple of days but it still has a long ways to go before it will be competative with the other morning shows, but maybe they will work it out.

[Karried]

Was this the same show this morning where they were interviewing a gym owner and started talking about the size of the 'balls' you would need? And one anchor capped on the other saying he would need a 'med' size ball because he is short.. lol..lol.. oh Lord above help me if it is.. ha,ha Professional journalism at it's best. sorry, I'm being mean..

[allseeingeye]

Tuned in to watch this morning and it actually looked WORSE! Anchors couldn't read, looking at the wrong cameras, weather guy looked lost at times, and the traffic chick took off walking off set before they went back to the anchors. Why were the anchors looking down like they were reading off the table??? Looked like a total lack of preperation. The female anchor actually kept saying "Ummm" over and over. WOW!!! All this in the first 15 minutes. Since we had severe weather, I had to watch local news so I flipped back over to 9. At least I didn't get up this morning just to watch Fox, so I'm not angry this time. What Fox is doing is not NEWS. I don't know what you would call it but its not NEWS. They should have named the show something other than MORNING NEWS. How about something like WAKE UP OKLAHOMA??? or GOOD MORNING OKLAHOMA??? Anything but NEWS. Oh well, I'll check back and watch a little in a few months and see if they've made any improvements. Good luck Fox, you definitely need it.

[Legal]

I take back what I said in my last post that it was improving, it is getting worse the traffic lady seemed lost (must of had a big night on the town) the rest of the team just made one blunder after another. I will check back in a couple of months and see if they are still on the air.

[drumsncode]

I'd like to see everyone offer up some useful, specific criticism, rather than just bashing these people. Although allseeingeye was not happy with the show, he gave some specific things they could fix. I'm still trying to formulate my own observations.

Remember that these people came here from out of state, they moved here to start new jobs, excited about living in Oklahoma, where they SAY the people are friendly. I know they read these threads, so is this the impression you guys want them to have of the people in our city?

We spend so much time on this board bragging about all sorts of things in Oklahoma, and here we are bashing the heck out of a team that is trying to give us a brand new show that we'll enjoy.

The more we bash them without constructive criticism, the more it will affect them. Remember your first week at a really hard, stressful job? I do, several times. I went home completely exhausted on a Friday night. I suspect these people did too.

Do you think Robin Marsh was as superb as she is now on her first week? I saw her back then, I assure you she wasn't. Amy McRee was not half the anchor when she started that she is now.

Let's give this team something useful to work with instead of lynching them. I'd like to see them create a good show. It will raise the level of all the morning shows, and that's a good thing.

End of sermon.

[PUGalicious]

Do you have personal friends on that morning team, drumsncode? You seem to be taking this all very personally.

I don't have much constructive criticism because I simply do not like that show or that station. They've been Busch league from the beginning and little has changed in the years since they started a news division. The morning show is simply a continuation of the Busch-league quality of that station.

[venture]

I think a lot of what they say is correct...it will take time. I remember Amy McRee when she first started. Total blonde ditz. Nothing compared to Jenifer Reynolds...then there was that one lady after her that was highly touted, but wasn't the same. I leave the state for a couple years, come back and there is Amy sitting next to Kelly. My thought was...what the hell happened. Turns out, she is a millions times better now than she was.

I've seen Jeff George before on the news in Ohio. When he gets settled in and able to put a spin on things, he gets in a groove that works very well and can be impressive at times. This is also new for him though, he's going from being Chief Met at one station to number 3 at KOKH.

If I were to give my opinions...

1) Bigger anchor desk, I think this makes things look very uncomfortable when you push people close together.

2) If you can't match the traffic reports of the other stations, then drop it...or outsource. I think the company that owns Kiss FM and others here doesn't have a major TV station linked up to them anymore. Link up with them to do traffic reports, get their personalities on the radio to do weather and news, etc.

3) Don't be affraid to mix things up. If one person is better at a certain news segment (like sports)...move em over.

[jbrown84]

These people came from out of state? The must have been in tiny markets to be enticed by jobs at the fourth-ranked news station in a medium market.

[venture]

Jeff George was Chief Met at WUPW the FOX station in Toledo OH. They do really well at 10 there, but change in station management I think forced him out. I also believe he wanted to get back to the plains, he's a Texas boy. He tried to mix things up there with the Plains version of weather - but people up there really don't care as much as we do down here. Up until a few years ago, when the first plains transplant happened from Topeka to the NBC affiliate, you would have been lucky to see any live coverage for a tornado warning. Anyways...

After watching this morning, Jeff is the best performer on the morning team and the lead male anchor. The female anchor is trying to hard to be cute and has problems with her lines. Perhaps this isn't the right role for her? I just can't see people liking her personality. The field reporter is stuck in small town mentality...I think it would be better to get a seasoned reported from the evenings moved up to get some stability in there first. The traffic person must go. I caught her walking off set before the camera switched back to the anchors. Patience. I still say replace her with the traffic person from 98.9 FM to get someone familiar and stable in there to start.

[allseeingeye]

I tuned in for about 20 minutes this morning and was shocked to see them doing a live interview with captiain Sig Hansen from discovery channels show "deadliest catch" Bravo Fox25, I didn't see that coming. Too bad it was so obvious that the anchors had no clue about the show. You could tell they didn't know what they were talking about. Here's an idea, RESEARCH!!! Things seem to be getting better, albeit at a snails pace. Brent must go. He tries to be funny but he isn't, not by a long shot. He's horrible. Where did they dig up this guy? Angie is getting a little better but she can hardly get a word in because the Brent is trying to make it the BRENT WEBBER SHOW. Angie and Jeff were having a cup stacking competition and instead of just letting them shine, he had to try to steal the spotlight. Relax Brent, its a three hour show. We already here that annoying voice too much. Jeff George is really good and has some quick witted comments that leave Angie and Brent with the "deer in the headlights" look. It almost makes Jeff look insulting because they don't respond to his humor. They just sit there like they don't get it.

[drumsncode]

I agree with a lot of the comments. I think if I was coaching these people I'd tell them to stop trying so hard to be funny, just go in and try to deliver a solid, smooth broadcast without any attempts at "forcing" the humor. Once they did that, they'd get their confidence back and their nerves would subside.

You've got to get the basics down first, the humor and "magic" can only come from a firm foundation.

I'd advise the male anchor to be more like Ed Murray for a while; just be solid and let the female anchor shine. That's exactly what male anchors are supposed to do, whether their egos want to hear that or not. Just as NEWS9 at Ten is actually "The Amy McRee Show", this too, should be "The Angie Mock Show".

If anyone out there disagrees with me that female anchors don't drive a show, look at the lengths stations go to replace a missing female anchor when one is out, and look at the lengths they go to find and hire the great ones.

There's a reason NEWS9 This Morning is #1, it's Robin Marsh. A great team understands that you have to let the female anchor shine.

I think Lauren has enough potential that I'm not sure I'd keep her out in the field all the time. It might be nice to bring her into the studio and generate a little extra pizazz.

I also like the idea mentioned earlier about getting some stability in the show. This might be done by just using more of the pre-taped segments from FOX25 at Nine, and not worrying so much about doing live shots. That way you get the benefits of the solid reporting and voiceovers from Britten Follett, Sana Syed, Lisa Monahan, and Jaime Cerreta.

I guess the bottom line is "get back to basics" and let humor and magic come later as a natural result. That seems to be how NEWS9 works its magic.

[soonerborn]

The field reporter on FOX is awesome! I love her non-traditional locales (NASCAR fans, the Red Hawks slip-n-slide, etc.) and her completely fresh delivery. She's unlike anything else in OKC and in my opinion, is the lone item of interest on the show. Make her a bigger part of the program and let the anchors interact with her. She reminds me a little of the woman who does the "weather" on the FOX NFL pre-game show with Terry Bradshaw and company.

I agree that the show seems to drag. But three hours is a lot of time to fill with original material, even with a national program. The TODAY show starts to fade when it stretches to that length.

[PUGalicious]

Methinks someone has a crush...

[drumsncode]

The field reporter on FOX is awesome! I love her non-traditional locales (NASCAR fans, the Red Hawks slip-n-slide, etc.) and her completely fresh delivery. She's unlike anything else in OKC and in my opinion, is the lone item of interest on the show. Make her a bigger part of the program and let the anchors interact with her. She reminds me a little of the woman who does the "weather" on the FOX NFL pre-game show with Terry Bradshaw and company.

I agree that the show seems to drag. But three hours is a lot of time to fill with original material, even with a national program. The TODAY show starts to fade when it stretches to that length.

I think at times she has a very nice charm about her, but she'll surprise you with lines like "You guys make me wanna puke". She was also hanging upside down today in a segment related to yoga and spine stretching or whatever. She's the best looking upside-down-hanging reporter on the air, bar none. :-)

Robin Marsh, when's the last time you hung upside down for me? Kirsten? Rosa?

[soonerborn]

Methinks someone has a crush...

Maybe so, but if you've seen her, can you blame me?

Actually, I'll have to add at least one other element that at least held my attention this morning; those Bozos from Bob. Are these goons on everyday? The lighting was horrible, but I'll admit, they had me laughing.

[drumsncode]

Maybe so, but if you've seen her, can you blame me?

Actually, I'll have to add at least one other element that at least held my attention this morning; those Bozos from Bob. Are these goons on everyday? The lighting was horrible, but I'll admit, they had me laughing.

They bring in different radio teams on different days.

I think Lauren could become quite the little scene-stealer in every show. She's got some "magic" about her. She had a segment on Raspberries and Creme this morning which made me pretty hungry. Let's just leave it at that.

I saw about a half hour Friday and I think the show has markedly improved over the first week. Everyone is starting to settle down. Wait till Robin Marsh goes on vacation and you'll have lots of viewers switching over to give it a try, and maybe by then the magic of Angie and Lauren can steal them away. Time will tell.

[allseeingeye]

Wait till Robin Marsh goes on vacation and you'll have lots of viewers switching over to give it a try, and maybe by then the magic of Angie and Lauren can steal them away. Time will tell.

I'll bet Fox hopes you're right. The ratings for that show have been terrible. Oh, one more thing, can someone please tell me why they would follow their morning show with ANDY GRIFFITH????

[jbrown84]

I just heard though my "sources" who is producing this show and it doesn't surprise me how bad it is.

[drumsncode]

I'll bet Fox hopes you're right. The ratings for that show have been terrible. Oh, one more thing, can someone please tell me why they would follow their morning show with ANDY GRIFFITH????

If memory serves, at 9am you've got the Today Show, Ellen, and Regis and Kelly competing, so would it really matter what they put up against those shows? Those shows are strong!

My suggestion would be "The Lauren Richardson Fitness Hour" but hey, that's just me!

[mranderson]

I'll bet Fox hopes you're right. The ratings for that show have been terrible. Oh, one more thing, can someone please tell me why they would follow their morning show with ANDY GRIFFITH????

Because they can.