TV Meteorologists Changing

Your subconscious will tell you something is wrong or unsatisfying long before you figure out what a station is doing to you.

NEWS 9 has reversed some, but not nearly enough of its presentation stupidity. They are hell-bent on showing off their set with ridiculous shots at every opportunity. Watch KOCO, FOX25, and KWTV in a given night as observe the differences in camera intimacy, and how much more enjoyable it is to see an anchor's face in a tighter shot, compared to 25 feet away.

Look at how terribly distant those two-shots are on KWTV, dictated by their set design. Look at how much tighter the same shots are on KOCO or FOX25. Look at how they open the show, and whether the anchors greet you face to face, or whether the show opens straight to video, allowing several minutes to pass before you ever see an anchor's face. Those things add up!

Just tonight I channel-flipped to NEWS 9 during some breaks on KOCO, and all I saw was distant, anchor-obscuring shots. I saw two panoramic shots where they deliberately used Kelly Ogle's body to block your view of Amy McRee as they were going into a segment. That's ridiculous.

Look at those distant openings of the show where the anchors are standing so far away you can hardly tell the difference between Melissa Maynarich and Amy McRee. That's ridiculous too.

Look at their parting shot, once again, shot from so far away you can't even make out the smiles on their faces, but somehow they think it's okay to thank you for watching, like a house guest that drove half-way down the block, then stuck his head out of the car window and yelled "Goodbye, thanks for everything!"

They worry more about showing us their spiral staircases and their fricking blue floor than they do showing us the anchors.

Just for kicks, count the close-ups of your favorite anchor on each station, and if you can, keep track of their total face-time. You'll be amazed at how consistent it is, and also with how short-changed you get by KWTV. McRee fans have to scratch and claw for every shot, while Carlo fans get the goods every night without fail.

But hey, I'm not bitter! ;-)

I watched KWTV loyally for more than a decade, but they ran me off by putting the set above the anchors.

I like KWTV's set. It's more like a cable news set.

How interactive is CNN's set? Wolf Blitzer and friends move all over the place to various set pieces.

I see it as breaking the mold.