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Steve Ohnesorge, Eric Thomas, Leah Brock and Maureen O'Boyle have all left (or announced they're leaving in O'Boyle's case) WBTV in the last year or less. That is a lot of good talent leaving the airwaves in a short period of time. To me, the biggest loss is Ohnesorge whom I consider one of the last old school reporters for BTV if not Charlotte in general. I always liked how down to earth Leah Brock was. And O'Boyle is a very professional anchor. Can WBTV survive this?
Gray Television buys market leaders and destroys them. WBTV will survive just because WSOC and WCNC have both been bought by hedge funds that run things even more cheaply.
Indeed disappointing to see longtime legacy talent leaving WBTV in recent months. Hopefully they will maintain high standards as a market leader as they add new personnel in the coming months. But it was not unexpected to see Steve Ohnesorge eventually retire after so many years of excellent service covering Western NC. And apparently anchor Maureen O'Boyle decided for personal reasons she was ready to move on. But she will be sorely missed as a strong female anchor with an appealing personality. But apparently Gray decided not to renew the contract for meteorologist Leigh Brock, which is a bit curious as she did a nice job and generated loyal viewers. And a big blow to the weather team since Eric Thomas recently retired as Chief, which is understandable after almost 40 years. And I still miss Paul Cameron who retired from the anchor desk a few years back. Hopefully new owner Gray will bring in good new talent and maintain WBTV as a flagship station. But I will definitely miss Maureen O'Boyle.
At WBTV, they could consider moving Cheryl Brayboy to the anchor desk rather than waste her talent on that afternoon talk show. She is intelligent, articulate, and educated. And brings a woman of color to the anchor desk. Or perhaps hire Colleen Odegaard who departed WCNC a year or so ago after serving as an appealing anchor and talk show host. Some thoughts they could consider for Maureen's chair. But as a cost savings Gray may just decide to shuffle Molly Grantham around on the early shows with perhaps Alex Giles or Jamie Boll rather than a new hire.
Hopefully new owner Gray will bring in good new talent and maintain WBTV as a flagship station.
They won't.
Raycom valued WBTV. They were not great owners either - look at how far WIS has fallen - but they did value WBTV. Gray is treating them as any other station.
Raycom valued WBTV. They were not great owners either - look at how far WIS has fallen - but they did value WBTV. Gray is treating them as any other station.
Well Gray is upgrading WGCL- CBS46 in Atlanta as their new flagship station to compete with market leader WSB Channel 2 Action News. They even lured retired WSB news icon Monica Kaufman Pearson out of retirement to attract viewers and build credibility. Gray has now acquired more major market stations and maybe will realize they can't operate them the same as their cheaper small market collection of stations. And they realize Cox Media is formidable competition in Atlanta so perhaps they will understand the same in Charlotte for Cox station WSOC-TV Channel 9, and won't be too reluctant and let their guard down.
I watched OTA tv last night during the storms passing through and the "talent" they had doing the reporting was so underwhelming. I rarely watch OTA, for many reasons, and was reminded last night why. This was across multiple channels as well as I tried to find competent sounding staff and it was a struggle.
I watched OTA tv last night during the storms passing through and the "talent" they had doing the reporting was so underwhelming. I rarely watch OTA, for many reasons, and was reminded last night why. This was across multiple channels as well as I tried to find competent sounding staff and it was a struggle.
Local news is a dying medium on its last legs for the elderly. In a Pew Research Study, of the respondents 65 and up, 57% of them watched local news regularly. For the 18 - 29 demographic... it was only 18%. For the 30 - 49 demographic... it was only 28%. Over the next 30 years, the only generation where more than half the co-hort watches local news is going to die. Not great for long term business prospects.... hence the investments in technology, websites, and quality of reporting from local news channels is in a death spiral. The lack of investment isn't going to help win over the current 18 - 49 demographic and future generations from web sources, social media, streaming, et... for news.
Local news is a dying medium on its last legs for the elderly. In a Pew Research Study, of the respondents 65 and up, 57% of them watched local news regularly. For the 18 - 29 demographic... it was only 18%. For the 30 - 49 demographic... it was only 28%. Over the next 30 years, the only generation where more than half the co-hort watches local news is going to die. Not great for long term business prospects.... hence the investments in technology, websites, and quality of reporting from local news channels is in a death spiral. The lack of investment isn't going to help win over the current 18 - 49 demographic and future generations from web sources, social media, streaming, et... for news.
Well I still view the 6pm news as the major newscast of the day, and also the national news at 6:30. My father always influenced me to watch Walter Cronkite in the evening and be sure and read the Charlotte Observer in the morning. Although last fall they stopped distributing the Observer west of Shelby, except Sunday. No more daily print Observer in places like Rutherfordton, Hendersonville, Asheville, and Greenville-Spartanburg. Although most content is now on their online edition rather than the reduced print edition. And charging $3.00 for the daily edition is just too much. But still disappointing you can no longer purchase the Observer in Spartanburg. But WBTV comes in strong and clear!
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