Comments on: Small Town News

By: Paul Theodoropoulos

Paul Theodoropoulos — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:29:38 +0000

i don’t watch TV before the evening, so I’ve no idea what the morning show is like. However, a little civility please. I think it’s unfair to suggest nepotism is at work here. On-air talent is hard to come by, especially for an itsy-bitsy station in an itsy-bitsy market. KFTY got lucky – so to speak – with the team they had for the evening news before it was dismantled. With the exception of some ‘cub reporters’, the quality of the broadcast was decent by all reasonable measures. The cub reporters were still wet behind the ears; I’ve seen meltdowns of near equal liquidity on the majors over the years as well – just not as frequently.

Ultimately I can’t comment on Maria Bremer, having never seen her work. But show a little humanity, that’s a real person you’re talking about there, working an itsy-bitsy market – one has to learn somewhere, some time, and it’s the minor markets where most on-air talent do their learning.

By: M

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:13:52 +0000

This station has gone into the toilet! If you watch the Armstrong and Getty simulcast from 6-10A, you will most days be forced to listen to and watch the disastrous Maria Bremer, mangling the news and weather. She is simply AWFUL, she speaks as if she is reading cue cards translated into English from Mongolian, and neither is her native language! She mumbles, stumbles and fumbles, and has that “deer in the headlights” startled look of the truly incompetent. She apparently thinks that UH and UM are real words and she uses them all the time, over and over. It is painful to watch. Some days, Brent Allen is there, and those days are watchable, but when the dreadful Maria is on, I have to turn off the tv or I would start screaming at the horrible Maria. GET RID OF THIS UNTALENTED WENCH, GET BRENT ALLEN THERE FULL TIME! She must be the daughter or girlfriend of someone at the station, she would never be on air otherwise!!!

By: Paul Theodoropoulos

Paul Theodoropoulos — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:43:48 +0000

thanks so much for your comments. i’m really pleased that my own ‘thank you’ in the form of this little article has reached some of those involved in KFTY’s news. i’m also gratified that the KFTY news talent isn’t just falling by the wayside.

sure do miss that nightly broadcast though.

By: a simple thank you

a simple thank you — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:20:06 +0000

I was sent a link to your blog by a former collegue of mine.

I ran the KFTY news department for the last year and 10 months before its demise. I came up from KRON wanting a challenge, and believing we could build a better mouse trap. In my time at the station we made big changes and, i’d like to believe, some big improvements.
We pushed the newscast to the highest ratings the station had seen, and the highest rated show on the station. We reconnected with the community and put a heavy emphasis on ensuring that we were as close to 100% content as possible; given our 12 person staff.
Unfortunately it wasn’t enough, and our newsroom was disbanded, and all of us given our walking papers. For better or worse, I will remember my time at the station fondly, and I think its safe to say all of my crew will as well.
Our thanks goes out to everyone in the North Bay who helped our little crew of 12. That crew has now moved on rather successfully.

Curtiss has returned to his radio roots as a member of the KSRO news team.
Cindy, who is beyond talented, has joined KRON.
Brent is filling in over there as well.
Ed is shaping future journalists as a professor at Sonoma State, while Tricia has yet to decide where she’ll head next.
Meanwhile, the majority of the behind the scenes team was quickly snatched up by various stations in higher markets. Most, in fact, are now in Sacramento.

Each of us would love to personally thank the north bay for embracing our little newscast, warts and all.

By: Paul Theodoropoulos

Paul Theodoropoulos — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:29:50 +0000

Yes indeed – Brent Allen is on KRON now, but – just as I predicted – Cindy Chen is also on KRON as well! She’s had a few reports on in the last week.

Also, the local paper – Press Democrat – reports that Ed Beebout is now working fulltime teaching at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park. He was a guest professor before I believe, teaching in the communications department. So that leaves only the disposition of Tricia Hua up in the air.

Oh – Kathy Trafton – true, perhaps not the best hairdo’s etc – but a nice person, and a talented weather forecaster.