Media

Is KSFY already transitioning reporters over to KDLT?

l3wis October 22, 2019 5Comments

I had to chuckle a little bit while watching this video, at the end of the video, KSFY reporter, Jill Langland (who I haven’t seen for awhile on that station) closes by saying ‘Jill Langland, KDLT News’.

I checked to see if the same story was on KDLT or if Jill was listed as a reporter over there. Nope.

So I guess we already know who is going to transition to that station. Maybe they should tell Jill though that the transition really hasn’t taken place yet, or maybe this is a way of softly bracing the public for Jill’s transition 🙂

As we all have suspected, when GRAY bought KDLT, it probably won’t expand our news coverage, it just expands their bottom line with more advertisers. Maybe they should just have reporters from both stations sign off, ‘Reporting for KSFDLT news, so there is no future confusion.

Speaking of transitions, I see Bridgett Bennett didn’t last long in Sewer City, as I suspected she wouldn’t. She probably had some weird non-compete where she couldn’t be in the Sioux Falls market for a year, and since KCAU is owned by the same media company as Stormland TV, I’m sure they probably had this in the works for a while, but who knows? She will be replacing Sammi Be Yellin’.

FCC approves sale of KDLT

l3wis September 25, 2019 9Comments

I was actually surprised to hear this, I didn’t think the sale would be approved;

The FCC ruled Tuesday that Gray Television could buy KDLT-TV from Red River Broadcasting Co. Gray announced the $32.5 million deal in May 2018 and with approval from the FCC and Justice Department was able to complete the deal today, according to a KSFY report.

I thought for how long this was taking they may have been some hiccups, but it looks like Gray convinced the FCC they are going to provide us MORE news by acquiring KDLT, even though I think this is about advertising dollars and NOT providing us more news;

The FCC noted that the No. 1 station in the Sioux Falls market, KELO-TV, “has consistently earned a majority of advertising revenue, making it harder for the other stations in the market to effectively compete against it. The applicants note that KDLT-TV is already struggling to maintain a profitable local news operation and that, without relief, ‘it is only a matter of time before KDLT-TV is forced to eliminate its local news.’ ”

So in order for KSFY to compete with Stormland TV they need to buy up more stations? How about better programming and news instead of the latest food truck or dog race story? Oh, Oh, Oh, but wait . . .

Gray has committed to add at least 28 hours per week of local news programming across the two stations, more local news programming than either station currently airs in an average week, according to the FCC. The company also plans to open a news bureau in Pierre, the capital, to provide better coverage of state government and install a state-of-the-art weather radar that will enable it to provide more accurate information about severe weather in the Sioux Falls market, the order states.

So they will have a reporter in Pierre for 40 days? That’s nice. Where do I sign up for that miserable job? And I guess I was a little surprised to hear that neither station was providing state-of-the-art weather reporting. So what? Were they just winging it all these years? I actually get my forecasts from KDLT, because I think they lay it out better.

According to a statement from Gray, there will be no changes at either station for awhile.

LOL. And we won’t be holding our breath either. Bring on the Weiner Dog fashion show!

After Tornado hits Sioux Falls, local paper decides it needs to share FREE information as a ‘public service’

l3wis September 11, 2019 12Comments

Oh, and besides not understanding the duties of the 4th Estate, they take the opportunity of reporting on an emergency to ask for your subscription money. I’ve seen a lot of things in ‘bad taste’ in our local media, but this takes the cake. Funny, KELO, KSFY, KELOLAND & KDLT all shared the information for FREE, oh, and in real time.