Television Viewership Pie Chart

[Jerry Jones]

Link to BroadcastEngineering.Com: http://tinyurl.com/2497l5

Cable = 67%
Satellite = 20%
Over-The-Air = 13%

While the rate of loss has diminished in recent years, local TV viewership is still declining.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

If local tv news viewership drops more, they'll have to dig a hole in the ground to graph it: http://tinyurl.com/25alhp



I wonder if my former colleagues are willing to continue to bet their retirement security on a business that's losing viewers this steadily.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

I was really embarrassed recently to read the following in my local newspaper because it was about the TV station where I worked for eleven years. I couldn't believe my eyes:

http://tinyurl.com/28mefj

The recently hired spokeswoman for the Ada County Sheriff's Office is simultaneously working weekends as a Channel 7 news anchor, raising ethical questions about her dual role.

Andrea Dearden has worked as the community information specialist for the sheriff's office since Dec. 11 and is still a part-time anchor at KTVB News.

Dearden is listed as a crime reporter on Channel 7's Web site. However, KTVB News Group President and General Manager Doug Armstrong said Dearden is no longer reporting and is just "reading the news on the weekends" and does not write or produce stories.

He said Dearden stopped working as a full-time reporter in late November and that he sees no conflict of interest between her working for the Sheriff's Office and a news organization that reports on the office. Armstrong said Dearden would not read any stories dealing with the Sheriff's Office, though Armstrong said that situation has not come up since Dearden took the Sheriff's Office job.

"You can't confuse reading the news with being a reporter," he said.

The situation sounds like a clear conflict of interest, said Dr. Rebecca Tallent, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Idaho. Tallent, who helped draft the code of ethics for the Society of Professional Journalists, said viewers are likely to be confused by Dearden both presenting the news and speaking for a public organization.

Is it any wonder why local tv news viewership is dropping?

Apparently, this problem is not uncommon in local TV news these days: http://tinyurl.com/2hk9r5



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Dr Mordrid]

It's not just the cross contamination and loss of over the air share; it's political and economic honesty...mainly the lack of it...and an overriding dependence on soft news.

Here in Detroit we used to have on air journalists like Bill Bonds who would take the local officials to the wood shed for 30 minutes almost nightly. I say he was a journalist because that's what he was. HE investigated. HE did the interviews and HE wrote the editorials. Once he even came close to blows with the mayor of Detroit for asking the "wrong" question, which of course was precisely the right question at the time. A bulldog.

Jeeezzz.....Bonds editorials and interviews were WICKED

He was a drinker & had his share of public miscues, but I've not seen the likes of him since he retired.

These days all we have are pretty boys & girls who wouldn't know real jourmalism if it hit them over the head. I don't even bother watching anymore. I read the online Detroit News and Free Press where they still know how to do the real thing.

[Jerry Jones]

I remember studying a couple of Bonds' tapes.

He was a talented anchor.

Do you know if he's still alive?

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jessterw]

He is indeed still alive and just as opinionated. Even has his own website at billbonds.net.

[Jerry Jones]

Thanks for the link.

The tapes I watched didn't really feature any of his personal opinions, although I don't doubt he had strong opinions.

What I remember watching were just anchor tapes where he was simply reading the news.

He wasn't a guy with "Hollywood" looks, but he definitely had that intangible thing we call "presence" and I suppose that's why he was an anchor in Detroit for so many years.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jessterw]

Then you probably missed his reaction to 9/11. Went along the lines of, "the terrorists think they can fight a war, but the Americans are coming. They've bought a one-way ticket to hell" or something to that effect.

I'm sure there's a Wikipedia entry on him that should have a decent overview of his career and the highlights.

[Dr Mordrid]

If "presence" means he could rivit your attention while disemboweling a politician on the air then yes, he had presence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bonds

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Over that time, Bonds became something of an icon to the Detroit viewing public. His hard approach to news won him criticism from some quarters, especially because of occasional outbursts on the air. However, many Detroit viewers saw him as an "average guy" who asked many of the same questions they would have asked. The book "The Newscasters" by Ron Power called Bonds one of the six most infuential news anchors in the nation.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Bonds hosted an interview segment on the 5 p.m. news called "Up Front," in which he confronted newsmakers with tough questions. One of his frequent targets was longtime Detroit Mayor Coleman Young; their sparring matches were the stuff of local legend. The segment was unique in that it would often feature national newsmakers interviewed by Bonds via satellite. (Perhaps the most famous incident came in 1993 when Utah Senator Orrin Hatch stormed off set during an especially heated line of questioning by Bonds.)

In 1989, he launched "Bonds On," a primetime talk format show in which he interviewed everyone from presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton) to Michigan governors (Jim Blanchard and John Engler) to auto executives (Lee Iacocca, William Clay Ford and Roger Smith) to sports figures (Detroit Tigers skipper Sparky Anderson and Detroit Pistons star Joe Dumars).

In 1991, Bonds moderated the nationally-televised town hall meeting for Democratic presidential candidates Clinton, Jerry Brown and Paul Tsongas.
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