I have been an regular viewer of Fox News Chicago for years. I enjoyed the morning news with Bob Sirott and the 9 pm news with Robin and Walter, and later Robin and Mark. I usually do not turn the dial to Ch. 32 for news anymore.
The morning team (with the exception of Tammi Souza, Sandra Solarte and Anne Kavanaugh) is annoying beyond belief. Not a way to start a day, by being annoyed. I watch Ch. 7 in the a.m. mostly now. The Ten is just plain dumbed-down news. Even if you buy into the dumbed-down news idea, the execution is poor. Exhibit A of poor execution, make me strain my eyes to see the video of a story by putting in on the TV screen in the studio next to the standing anchor instead of on my TV screen! Great idea!? Sadly, even the 9pm news is showing signs of deteriorating.
Fox News Chicago needs a major reboot quickly. Hire Chicago on-air talent and producers and writes that know Chicago. Chicago has never fully embraced WFLD, so maybe it time for you to rethink your strategy. It's not working. In fact, it's gotten worse.
Mark Suppelsa is out as WFLD's main anchor per the Sun-Times' web site leaving Ch. 32 scrambling. So let's take guesses on who the new 9pm anchor is and where Suppelsa winds up. This is a major loss for Ch. 32. What do you think?
So I heard that Tuesday night's "The Ten" beat Ch. 2's 10 pm news in the raings. Nice start, but keep refining the product. It can be disjointed at times, though I think it has improved with each day. So what does everyone think of The Ten so far? Just curious.
So does the recent Fox 32 announcement (in Trib and Sun Times today) of a 35 minute newscast at 10:00 p.m. make sense? Let's consider:
1. There are 6 (including spanish language) local newscasts already at that time.
2. The Simpsons at 10 is an effective counter-programming strategy that gets a decent rating.
3. They have to dedicate resources (existing personnel and the dollars to hire new people) to a news expansion of 35 minutes rather than improve their existing product.
4. Poor Mark Suppelsa waiting for years at Ch. 5 to get a 10:00 anchor seat, eventually jumping to Fox for next best 9:00 p.m. and now he doesn't even get the 10:00 there! And poor Robin Robinson who has built the newscast viewer by viewer since 1987 gets overlooked!
5. If news expansion was needed at Fox, what about a few other time slots where there is no local news. For a late news, how about later than the others like 11:00 p.m. For those that remember, WFLD's news launch were two 30 minute newscasts at 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. While 7 doesn't work with the Fox network now, 11 might. People get home later, finish chores, etc later. Another decent slot, though not as good, would be a 30 minute newscast at 5:30 p.m. Right now, there is now local news at that time, only network news.
6. In the age of Internet news, does this discussion even matter any more?
Curious as to what people think. Thanks.
