Local Richmond TV newscasts..are they really THAT bad? (house, live in)

[richmondpics]

Who watches local news anymore anyways? You can check the weather online, most of the news stories are just sensationalized crap, and the sportscasters just read off the scores, which I can do just fine on ESPN.com

I've seen local news in other cities - I think it's atrocious everywhere.

[Pruzhany]

They tell the news almost as well as the Richmond Times Dispatch.

[sls76]

Originally Posted by richmondpics

Who watches local news anymore anyways? You can check the weather online, most of the news stories are just sensationalized crap, and the sportscasters just read off the scores, which I can do just fine on ESPN.com

I've seen local news in other cities - I think it's atrocious everywhere.

I've lived in the suburbs of NYC and DC, in Chicago, Tampa and Raleigh. Trust me, Richmond's local news is really bad. But, I agree with you. I don't watch often and rarely on purpose!

[billybobwv]

Originally Posted by MWLiving

I don't understand how a metro area of this size, with the potential talent of new grads from so many schools in the vicinity, could produce such inferior broadcasts. I am with your friends on the 2 out of 10 rating. Sad, but true.

My guess is that for the most part many of those on TV in Richmond just don't care because Richmond is in the shadow of Washington and Baltimore so as a result the odds aren't very good for one to get off first base. In other words if something major happens in Richmond that gets the attention of the national news networks like CNN, the feed will come from "local Washington TV" or "Local Baltimore TV". Like the time I saw on MSNBC some news story that was all about Richmond so where did you think the video came from that had aired on MSNBC? WBAL-TV 11 BALTIMORE !!

Very similar to Colorado Springs. Big story hits that area, well expect the big shots out of Denver to cover it while the local Colorado Springs TV people, well for them its time to take the day off.

[Anders15]

A police officer shot a pit bull Monday afternoon in Henrico's east end.

Basically you get garbage like that.

I don't understand the point in having the news air at 6am, 12pm, 4-4:30pm, 5-6:30pm, 10pm, and 11pm. It's just the same "news" I mean if this was Orlando or a busy city like that I could understand.

Also all three channels seem to follow the same patterns. All three stations will show the weather around 6:15 or 11:15p, all three stations are usually parked right behind each other whenever there is an incident. IMO hardly any variety. NBC does Restaurant Report, which is decent at times although I hardly visit those locations anyway for that very reason.

It's hard to say as a local if it is good or bad but I often see the same thing on the news. Like said above I'm sure it is because we're sucked dry by VA Beach, Baltimore and D.C. at least Richmond does not seem to have drug issues as those cities do.

[Stripes17]

Originally Posted by onevthoki

...we returned to Virginia in 2003, more specifically Spotsylvania County. There Comcast offers you both DC and Richmond channels. By choice, I chose to watch Richmond news. I think it just depends what you are used to.

We were in the same situation, living in Spotsy with both DC and RIC networks. We watched the DC news more often than not since it was much more of a professional operation. They'd focus on local and national news and sports, whereas RIC stations dwelled on local fluff (garden club news) and local sports (R-Braves, UR Spiders, etc at the time... UGH!).

[richmondpics]

Shouldn't local news dwell on local news and local sports? CNN, ESPN, and the internet have the whole national thing covered pretty well.

[vman650]

There really isn't enough happening in the Richmond area to have a 30 minute program every day. I think this is one of the reasons that I like living here. As to their professionalism, you get what you pay for. If they were that good they would be in a major market. I have been in similarly sized cities, and have seen worse.

[Pruzhany]

With the weather sitting on top of us this morning and they all still got it wrong. Great forecast after the storm had hit.

[billybobwv]

Originally Posted by vman650

As to their professionalism, you get what you pay for. If they were that good they would be in a major market. I have been in similarly sized cities, and have seen worse.

Either that or one gets a network's "scraps". Classic example of that was CNN's Lynn Vaughn. For years she was an anchor for then CNN Headline News. However one day for some reason she ended up in Hampton Roads on their channel 3 WTKR. Now as to why she ended up there, my guess is that at the time ( early 90's ) the hiring of Vaughn was an effort by the Hampton Roads channels to beef up their product and to put them at least on the same par as other similar sized markets as HR such as Buffalo, Jacksonville, Memphis and New Orleans as this was around the same time as WAVY and WVEC started to use choppers, expanded their news operations, CBS-TV buying local channel 27 WGNT and long time HR anchors such as Ed Hughes & Terry Zahn joined the ranks among the eliete such as Baltimore's Jerry Turner, Detroit's Bill Bonds, Buffalo's Irv Weinstein or even West Virginia's Tom McGee as local anchors who were known by many from outside their home markets. Now as for Lynn Vaughn, she didn't stay for very long in Norfolk but the hiring of her by WTKR did directly/indirectly ( debateable )did turn around that market.