Former LR Anchor/Reporter Goes Home

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer Deanna Durante starts Monday as a general-assignment reporter at WCAU in Philadelphia. Durante heads to Philly from Fox's WITI in Milwaukee. Durante left KARK in 2002.
Thanks to an e-mailer for the tip!

KATV 10pm Anchor Feud

It seems KATV isn't a happy shop to be in these days. You've got the morning program in which SOME viewers are having a problem getting used to AND a feud among co-workers with the News Director in the middle of it. Received the following from an e-mailer on the anchor-go-round situation at 10pm:

"At 10pm...Munoz got an offer somewhere else. Randy Dixon wanted to keep her so he gave her the 10pm spot. This of course has made several people mad. Including Kate and Beth Hunt. Beth threatens to leave and presto anchor change-o she's the co-host of the new Daybreak."

It seems there's more than the weather that is unsettled in Little Rock!

BTW, still no response from KATV ND Randy Dixon from the several e-mails I have sent.

Grayson Being Courted by KATV Competitors

An e-mailer says, "Julia Grayson - She's fine just no longer at KATV. Has been courted by THV and KARK. Also being heavily courted by some Rx sales companies."

And as for Steve Powell, "Steve is still at KATV. As far as the bio's go, each "talent" updates their own bio. Not done by station management unless they are fired or leave."

L R Morning Shows Have Gone to the Dogs

Hmmmmm...is this just a coincidence: While KATV's Daybreak is having a "Pick a Puppy Mascot" THV This Morning is having an Ugly Dog Contest. According to the website, "Every Tuesday from May 10th-July 19th, an ugly dog will be chosen and the winner announced on Today’s THV This Morning. The 11 winners will be bathed, groomed and pampered by Dr. Bob Hale of Briarwood Animal Clinic."

KTBS LAB Station of the Year

Source: KTBS.com March 19, 2005 in Lafayette, the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters selected KTBS 3 as its Station of the Year for 2004. The honor recognizes the station’s achievement in serving the viewing community in the most effective and responsible way during calendar year 2004. The Association examined the news effort as well as the station’s community project involvement and awarded KTBS 3 it’s highest award among all television broadcasters in the state.

Where's Julia?

Man I tell ya what, KATV is on alot folks' "s-list." I tell ya I have been getting e-mails out the yazooo wanting to know what happened to Julia Grayson. But what can I say other than I don't know. Her bio has been yanked from KATV.com. I guess she has "left." Maybe Julia will get picked up by another station across town. I tell you what these folks want her back.

BTW, KATV.com has been updated with the bios of the new gma Daybreak gals, Nicole Capri and Shareese Kondo. Funny though, Steve Powell's bio has not been updated. KATV still has him listed as the co-host of Daybreak and Good Morning Arkansas.

Sweeping "Stories"

Alright we are now in the May Sweeps. Just saw KTHV run a promo about their "Identity Theft" series they'll be featuring during every newscast.

Is the KARK's "promotion"? Knock, Knock Make-over.

And to kick off things yesterday, KATV was on the inside of an Internet Sex Predator bust. Oh and let's not forget about the pick our mascot contest for gma Daybreak.

Shreveport station KTAL-Channel 6 is "Doubling your chances to win $1000 in it's Grand Giveaway." Of course you have to have a viewer's club card to win. Since KARK in LR and KTAL are owned by the same company I wouldn't be surprised if KARK ran the same promotion.

KSLA's Carl Pendley has done a News 12 Special Report on the "Face on Forensics".

Severe Weather Coverage(or lack there of) Friday

WOW what an active morning weather wise in Central Arkansas as severe thunderstorms have been moving through for several hours now. KATV did it's regular morning weathercasts while leaving the reporting of the warnings to STORM ALERT and not interrupting it's fashion show on GMA. KARK even broke into regular programming to report the warnings and KTHV pre-empted the first few minutes of "The Price is Right" to report on the latest warnings and showing a great video of the hail that was produced by one of the storms moving through Central Arkansas.

What's KATV Doing?

Ok I get a day off work and I get up early to watch gma Daybreak and Good Morning Arkansas and OMG I am sick of it after ONE day.

Daybreak looks to be controlled by Melinda Mayo and Beth Hunt while the new gals just sit there and try and look pretty. What else can be said? KATV YOU MADE A MISTAKE!!! How can this not be the local version of "the View"? Nearly everything is geared toward the females. I mean what guy ooo's and ahhh's over a dog? I feel sorry for Jason Harper, you know his mornings aren't the best anymore.

And let's not forget about Good Morning Arkansas. My lands, it's really Daybreak minus the other two. BRING BACK STEVE POWELL and JOAN EARLY to GMA. Everything on Friday's Good Morning Arkansas was geared toward the female viewer. A fashion show, giving away women's products, WHAT ELSE? Like I said before Poor Jason Harper.

I really hope KATV will wake up and smell the coffee and return to the Channel 7 we all knew a couple of years ago. But it looks as though it's more worried about $$$$ than putting a good product on the air.

AND I ASK THIS: What's with Channel 7 playing "anchor go round" during the evening and 10pm newscasts? Once again that's one of the questions I e-mailed to KATV ND Randy Dixon and have gotten NO RESPONSE.

More gma Daybreak Comments Received

Before I post the latest comments sent in, would like to inform blog visitors the comments section has been enable on the posts. Feel free to comment ANONYMOUSLY. I will monitor the comments posted. I do ask NEWS TIPS still be sent via the ANONYMOUS tip link located under my profile. Folks sending items via the tip link DO NOT have to provide a name or e-mail addy even though it asks for one. Julst leave those fields blank.

Now the latest comments about gma/Daybreak.

• Don't let the no response from the KATV ND fool you. Have heard that Steve Powell and Julia Grayson received "a ton" of email once viewers found out the show was changing. Most of the email was positive toward them, bad for the new show. Emails were saying that THV has a new viewer.
• Shouldn't KATV change their website on Daybreak. It says "Daybreak is Arkansas' early morning news leader with the latest news, weather and features. "Clearly Today's THV is the early morning news leader.

BTW, I still have not gotten a response from KATV ND Randy Dixon.

KATV and KLRT After Graham's Tail

Source: Arkansas Democrat Gazette Lawyers, get in line... There are now two local TV stations threatening legal action against Dewayne Graham and his new weekdays call-in show on Equity Broadcasting’s WB42 TV station.

Regular Paper Trails readers will recall that Clear Channel’s KLRT-Fox16 and its lawyer recently took issue with Graham for returning to local airwaves at a rival station before the expiration of what they say was a 180-day non-compete clause. He resigned from Fox16 in January. Clear Channel ordered Graham off the air at WB42 (Paper Trails, 4/13) but he’s still there.

Now KATV, Channel 7 — where Graham once worked as their "Seven on Your Side" consumer advocate reporter — has joined the fray. A lawyer with Allbritton Communications, which owns KATV, this week sent a letter titled "Unauthorized use of ‘On Your Side’ trademark" to Graham’s boss, Neal Ardman. KATV says since it owns the Arkansas state trademark registration for "On Your Side," Graham can’t use the phrase.

WB42 ’s lawyer responded that KATV’s service mark is for "7 On Your Side," not "On Your Side," and that it was filed April 6, mere days after Graham’s new show began. WB42 contends "there is no likelihood of confusion or similarity to our use of ‘Graham on Your Side’ " and doesn’t plan to change the show’s title.

The battle went public Monday with Graham reading KATV’s letter on his show. He said yesterday afternoon he planned to read WB42 ’s response on air that night.

KATV News Director Randy Dixon didn’t return calls from Paper Trails.

Shake Up at KARK's Morning Program

It seems yet another Little Rock morning program is feeling a effects of a shakeup. Arkansas TV News Blog has learned Ernie Paulson has been taken off of KARK's Morning show.

KATV Puppy Pick

KATV is looking to adopt a puppy and they need YOUR help. That's right, it's the KATV Puppy Pick and one lucky puppy will become the Channel Seven mascot. Nope, we're not making this up. Just cast your ballot HERE. Geez, how so original. I guess at least one station in every market has to pull this "promotion." And next I bet we have a puppy naming contest. Here's an original name, call him "Twister!"

The Comments Flow in About KATV's gma Daybreak

Well just when I thought the comments were finished coming in about Channel 7's local version of the "The View." BTW, I have e-mailed KATV News Director Randy Dixon several questions about the feedback the station has gotten and what steps if any will be taken to "tweak" the show. So far no response. Anyway below are some more comments from viewers:

• It's good to see the KATV brass trolling this site trying to spin their awful decision with the morning show. How bad is it? Walk into Power House gym in the morning and see what all the sets are turned to. Yep KTHV. This is the same Powerhouse gym that gets all that free pub with Dr. Fatbusters, and the 7 month workout. You'd think they's at least watch KATV. When I asked about it, they said people complain when Daybreak is on the monitors.
• The new daybreak show is horrible. I emailed channel 7 and asked them Why they changed, and there general manager gave me a line of bull Telling me how good the show was.. Whatever...

Send your comments ANONYMOUSLY. Click on on" send your tip" under my profile on the right side of the blog.

Viewers React to New KATV gma-Daybreak

Well do you think KATV execs have gotten an ear full from early morning news viewers over the makeover of it's Daybreak morning program? Only a couple of anonymous viewer reactions have been received so far.

• "I totally hate the new morning program that debut today on KATV Channel 7 out of Little Rock"
• "Does anyone know if Julia Grayson hasa officially left KATV? Does anyone know if she went to another tv station? I dont get why KATV would can someone so beautiful as Julia? "

Personally I can say NUMEROUS folks have expressed their dislike for the Little Rock version of the The View to me. Sure people hate change BUT I think this was a drastic change that might blow-up in 7's face. Better start tweaking fast.

Send in your reaction anonymously via the tip link to the right under my profile.

UPDATE: 04/19 Additional comments received:

• "I am very disappointed with the changes that KATV has made to Daybreak. Before this (hopefully temporary!) lapse in judgment, Daybreak was on in my home every single day for the duration - my routine would actually be thrown off in the event that the channel had been inadvertently changed. I will no longer watch KATV in the mornings - at least not before 7:00 am when Good Morning America begins.KATV, please fire whomever put together the focus groups that convinced you that this was a good idea!"

UPDATE: 04/20 Additional comments:

• "What is Channel 7 thinking?? How does annoying Melinda Mayo even make the cut from the previous show? She should have been the first to be "reassigned". I used to think Steve Powell came across as "cheesy" when he first started but I like him and will miss him in the morning. Julia Grayson probably needed some fine tuning in reading the news but to totally boot her off is crazy."

UPDATE: 04/21 Additional comments:

• "Well, KATV news director Randy Dixon said he wanted some "valuable insight and banter" in the new Daybreak/GMA format. I don't know about the "valuable insight" part, but there sure is plenty of "banter." I for one will not be watching KATV Channel 7 in the mornings any longer. For banter I'll go watch the hens in the chicken coop. For news
  and weather I'll go back to Channel 11."

UPDATE: 04/22 Additional Comments:

• "I am impressed with the new morning show on KATV. I had heard it was going to be like the view, but it isn't like the view at all. I really like Beth Hunt. She brings a lot to the table. I enjoy the new format. I think it was time for a change in the morning. The other show was stagnet. I have read a few of the reviews on this site from viewers, and I disagree with them. I like how they get to the news right off the top."

UPDATE: 04/23

• What did they redo? Other than replace everyone but Melinda nothing else changed about the show. It's still idiotic, but compared to the other stations it's the best there is for early morning local news. What a shame.

Former KARK-TV Reporter Lands Morning Gig

Source: Arkansas Business.com Former KARK-TV, Channel 4, reporter Kim Miller, who left the Little Rock market for Salt Lake City in 2001, has just landed a gig as a morning anchor on KEYE-TV, Channel 42, in Austin, Texas.

Miller was most recently a reporter for the Fox 4 team in Dallas, but began her morning role on the Austin CBS affiliate last week.

A graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a Natural State native, Miller said,

“I’ve dealt with living away from my family because I want so badly to do the work I do.”

Fortunately, Dallas and Austin are a lot closer to home than Salt Lake City.

KATV begins it's new morning program Monday morning and if you watch PLEASE send us your reaction to the NEW format. Please use the anonymous "tip box" link located under my profile on the right. THANKS!

Send us your tips ANONYMOUSLY!! Click on "send your tip" on the right side of blog!!!!

Former TV Anchor Jailed on Drug Charges

Source: KSLA A judge has ordered former television news anchor Shari Warren to enter a drug rehab program. Bossier Parish sheriff's deputies arrested Warren April 1st after a traffic stop. They charged her with having an open container, improper lane change, no driver's license, and possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Sheriff's spokesman Ed Baswell says the deputy found the drug, librium, inside the vehicle Warran was driving. Librium is a narcotic usually prescribed to treat anxiety.

Warren remains in jail. This latest arrest marks the third arrest in recent months. Other charges against her include forgery, issuing worthless checks, and another drug possession charge. According to a spokeswoman for the Bossier Parish District Attorney's Office, all of the charges against Warren were still pending as of April 12, 2005. Warren is former news anchor at KSLA-TV as well as KTBS-TV.

More LR Ratings #'s

Source: Arkansas Business.com KTHV’s “Today’s THV” program remained the leader at 6 a.m. with a 9 rating and 34 share, while KATV’s “Daybreak” recorded a 6 rating and 21 share. “News 4 Arkansas Today” posted a 3 rating and 12 share.

With Nielsen Media’s changes, it may not be completely fair to compare those numbers with the same period in 2004, but KTHV’s morning numbers jumped two rating points and six share points. KATV’s rating remained the same, but its program did jump eight share points.

At noon, KARK and KTHV posted similar household numbers with KARK coming out slightly ahead with a 6.4 rating and 25 share. KTHV was narrowly off the mark with a 6.3 rating 24 share. KATV’s midday program airs at 11:30 a.m., and posted a 1.4 rating and 6 share.

Nielsen Adds Four Counties to Metro Calculations

Source: Arkansas Business.com there’s more to report this week from the February Nielsen Media Research Inc. television ratings book, including a change in the way the numbers are recorded.

Last week, we told you about KATV-TV, Channel 7, catching KTHV-TV, Channel 11, in the 10 p.m. time slot and also winning both the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts as well.
We’ll start this week by telling you about a change in the way Nielsen Media is now recording the metro numbers for the central Arkansas market, which may or may not have affected the outcome of the February book, depending on who you ask.

Nielsen Media added four new counties to the area that it calls the Little Rock metro area. The metro used to include only Saline, Pulaski, Lonoke, Faulkner and Jefferson counties, but Nielsen has now started counting Perry, Grant, Cleveland and Lincoln counties as well. Of the four new counties, three are to the south of Pulaski County, which has traditionally garnered strong viewership for KATV and which also probably didn’t hurt that station’s success in the February book.

According to Nielsen Media, the change was based on how the U.S. Government defines the Little Rock metro area, which includes the additional four counties.
In breaking down the numbers, KTHV General Manager Larry Audas said the change more than likely affected how February’s book turned out.

“We’re talking about the addition of four counties when there were only five to begin with,” he said. “Naturally that’s going to show up on the charts somewhere. It just so happens that those southern counties were ones where we could be doing better at attracting more viewership.”

KATV ND: New AM Program Won't be Local "The View"

Source: Arkansas Business Online As reported earlier in the week KATV's Daybreak program will be revamped come Monday, April 18. The lineup includes current KATV meteorologist Melinda Mayo alongside Shareese Kondo, a former newspaper reporter and currently a public relations coordinator at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Nicole Capri, a former stage actor and director who is the educational programs coordinator for the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. KATV News Director Randy Dixon said KATV general assignment reporter Beth Hunt is the front-runner for the fourth spot, though interviews are still being conducted.

The show’s obvious likeness to ABC’s “The View” wasn’t intentional, according Dixon, who said his affiliate’s new show won’t be a local version of the network staple.

“The program will still deliver what people watch the morning show for, which is news, weather and traffic. There’ll just be a little more to it,” he said. “The main point is that it’s not going to be ‘The View,’ aside from having four female personalities.”

Along with news and weather in every segment, Dixon said a live “talk-back” segment will air daily featuring CNN’s Jane King reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where Arkansas stocks and business news will likely be featured.

“By having two traditional news people on there alongside two who we feel like can contribute some valuable insight and banter, we’ll hopefully be offering more of an appeal to our viewers,” said Dixon.

The new show will air from 5-7 a.m. Monday through Friday.

KATV Comes Out on Top of February Ratings

Source: Arkansas Business.com Nielsen Media Research Inc.’s first television ratings book of 2005 is in and there’s a new leader in the 10 p.m. battleground slot.

KATV-TV, Channel 7, succeeded in closing the miniscule gap by which KTHV-TV, Channel 11, won that timeslot in the November 2004 book by one household ratings point and one share point over KATV.

This time, KATV posted a 13 rating and a 27 share at 10 p.m., compared with KTHV’s 10 rating and 21 share. KARK-TV, Channel 4, was third with a 7 rating and 14 share.

“We have worked diligently to bring our viewers a different newscast with ‘Nightside,’ our 10 o’clock broadcast,” said Randy Dixon, news director at KATV. “We think our network helped to deliver some new viewers and bring some former viewers back to us with stronger prime-time lead-ins.”

“The big news in this book may be the improved performance of our network,” he said. “ABC has some hit shows and that has moved our network into the No. 2 prime-time position and I think it definitely helped us to capture more viewers for our late newscast.”

KATV continued its success in the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. slots with sweeping victories that also improved on ratings reported at the same time last year.

A 14 rating and 31 share for KATV at 5 p.m. bested KARK’s 7 rating and 15 share, while KTHV posted a 5 rating and 11 share. Both KARK and KTHV slipped a bit from numbers recorded during the same month last year, but KATV’s numbers slightly improved.

At 6 p.m., KATV landed a 17 rating and 29 share, which is nearly identical to last year’s Nielsen’s, and KTHV followed in similar fashion with a 7 rating and 14 share. KARK also did not record any annual change of note, finishing third with a 5 rating and 11 share.

Outtakes will take a closer look at the full spectrum of the November Nielsen’s book next week — including how the morning shows fared and a complete listing of time slot rankings, along with some insight into a positive KLRT-TV, Channel 16, showing — after all of the numbers are officially in.

KATV to debut New View April 18

Source: Arkansas Democrat Gazette 7’s Daybreak morning show is undergoing a major re-vamping. In its new incarnation, it will be similar to ABC’s talk show, The View, with four female hosts.

They include current KATV employees Melinda Mayo and Beth Hunt and newbies Nicole Capri, most recently educational programs coordinator for the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and Shareese Kondo, former Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter and University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s public relations coordinator. The show is slated to air 5 to 7 a.m. and debut April 18.

Current Daybreak hosts Julia Grayson, Steve Powell and Jason Harper have been bumped — Grayson demoted to general assignment reporter, Powell reduced to part time and Harper reportedly in limbo. Grayson confirms the changes and says Little Rock is her home but she’s "keeping her options open."

KSLA Goes Out on Limb and Reports Popes "Death'

I guess CBS affiliate KSLA in Shreveport got tired of waiting for CBS News to go LIVE with news of the Pope's "death Friday, April 1st, it went out on it's own to broadcast the news. KSLA was citing CNN as the source for the news of the Pope's death and even for a time ran CNN's broadcast LIVE on the air. THEN it was learned of course the report from Italian news agencies were false.