I don’t watch much television. There are a couple shows I enjoy, and I’ll watch all manners of sporting events, but if the TV is on, the odds are I’m watching local newscasts.
At 10:00, I would typically check in with John Wilson and Kelly Ring, and when that’s over, I’d go visit Newschannel 8. But a few weeks ago, the Big 13 began a new, “edgy” newscast that goes up against the other 11pm news broadcasts.
Have you seen this News Edge? John’s son Mark Wilson delivers the news of the day, and covers all of it in about ten minutes. I like it. Everything we learn (that matters) during the one hour show is summarized, packaged smartly, and covered before the first commercial break. There is no fluff, no irrelevant live shots, no sound bites from “experts,” basically no bullsh*t. Within those first few minutes, you even get Paul Dellagato’s 2 day weather forecast! Bob & Gayle have a lot of loyal watchers, but for younger people, I think they are on to something over at the studios on Kennedy.
Of course, their website still sucks big-time.
kate
4 years ago
I don’t watch local news. It’s sickening – all of the bias and banter. Now there’s a bit of bias in the Trib and Times, but not bad and it’s much more focused and substantial. For other points of view, the web cannot be replaced and especially this site. Although I wish one of us had talked about the Hindu parade in Tampa this weekend ahead of time! I would have gone to that had it been given as much press as the Light Show. Can’t we get the press releases along with local papers? How can we make that happen, Tommy?
editengine
4 years ago
David Pinero has started a listing of press releases by local agencies. It is just really getting rolling and now includes only law enforcement press releases but I think he is interested in adding more sources.
http://www.davidpinero.com/tampamediabypass/display.asp
John
4 years ago
Too bad Dave’s still using his self-designed and self-loved-yet-externally-loathed battle-blog format.
Laura
4 years ago
Fox13’s website sucks too. I also think the weather reports on all of the local news take far too long. Can anyone even remember every detail that was mentioned in yesterday’s weather report? They go on and on and on and on… (much like this comment).
jrf
4 years ago
Since we’re talking about local station websites, I came across Channel 10’s yesterday when trying to figure out why their over the air HD signal was nonexistent.
And while I was disappointed to learn that they have their HD tower in a different location than all the rest, I was surprised to see how clean their website was. The ads are clearly ads, the links are easy to find, the weather is right there, and the news links at the bottom are easy to scroll through. Well done, Ch 10. Now fix your HD tower.
bamaroller
4 years ago
Right on about “News Edge.” It’s great for people who actually WANT to stay up and watch news at 11, whereas NewsChannel 8 (aka Trib for illiterates) is a great cure for insomnia. That’s the real reason 8’s ratings are so high: You just set the TV timer, set the volume just high enough to hear Bob and Gayle’s droning voices, and drift off to dreamland.
As for that lame “media bypass” blog, any sucker can copy/paste a press release, but who’s going to put that information into proper context? That’s what the media is FOR! Just because the message doesn’t match your own slanted view of the world doesn’t mean you can’t learn something from it.
patjhynes
4 years ago
Well … If the City of Tampa was a smart as the rest of the Bay and instituted more cable TV franchising fairness, we could watch a lot of the news whenever we wanted to.
editengine
4 years ago
I like the press releases, it is like news without as many adjectives. A lot of news reports seem to be thinly filtered press releases anyway. It is nice to have multi agencies in one location. Fact is if I want to know about a arrest last night for drunk driving or a pending cable rate increase I don’t need a reporter for that.
Chris Vela
4 years ago
WUSF/88.5 works for me, I don’t need TV.
Chris
4 years ago
88.5 and WUSF works for me, plus the occassional neighborhood gossip…who needs tv?