Omaha Local News Channels

GetUrban · Post by **GetUrban** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:56 am

mrsticka wrote:Doesn't it seem odd that Omaha has 2 stations whose call letters are K_TV? KMTV and KETV. Why is that?

Not sure what is odd about that. It is more odd that Omaha has WOWT, since "W" call signs are mostly reserved for stations east of the Mississippi. "K" is for west of Miss. river.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_call_signs

skinzfan23 · Post by **skinzfan23** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 10:19 am

I am sure the call sign was due to this:

The station signed on the air on August 29, 1949 at 12 noon as WOW-TV; it was the first television station in Nebraska and is one of the oldest in the Upper Midwest. It also claims to have gone on the air earlier than any station in four other Midwestern states--Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota. The station was owned by Radio Station WOW, Inc

Post by **nebugeater** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 11:42 am

GetUrban wrote:
mrsticka wrote:Doesn't it seem odd that Omaha has 2 stations whose call letters are K_TV? KMTV and KETV. Why is that?
Not sure what is odd about that. It is more odd that Omaha has WOWT, since "W" call signs are mostly reserved for stations east of the Mississippi. "K" is for west of Miss. river.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_call_signs

I am guessing it was more of a reference to ??TV and that Omaha got two of the call signs with "TV" endings.

Spatial77 · Post by **Spatial77** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 12:07 pm

nebugeater wrote:
GetUrban wrote:
mrsticka wrote:Doesn't it seem odd that Omaha has 2 stations whose call letters are K_TV? KMTV and KETV. Why is that?
Not sure what is odd about that. It is more odd that Omaha has WOWT, since "W" call signs are mostly reserved for stations east of the Mississippi. "K" is for west of Miss. river.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_call_signs

I am guessing it was more of a reference to ??TV and that Omaha got two of the call signs with "TV" endings.

KM was owned by the May family of Earl May Garden Centers - M for May. I am not sure why KETV is E. WOWT used to be WOW but had to add a letter back in the 70's due to FCC policy change that all television stations had to have four letter call signs. WOW was part of WOW radio which, I believe, at one time broadcast from the top of the OLD Woodman Of the World building (hence WOW) at 14th and Farnam.

omaha79 · Post by **omaha79** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 12:46 pm

also, if I remember my college journalism law class correctly, the rules were changed on call signs along the way where every station East of the Mississippi had to start with a W and stations West of the Missippi would start with a K. WOWT was grandfathered and allowed to keep their W call sign.

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 2:23 pm

GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:This is without a doubt the most hyped up snow storm in the last 50 years in Omaha. This is totally unprecedented territory folks. We never have seen anything even close to this in Omaha. It is either total un called for over kill and hysteria or they are pretty smart. The odds are not in their favor and they are going to look like fools 24 hours from now. I cant remember the mayor ever getting up on TV in front of the whole city and saying "We got a big storm coming kids but we can handle it now drive safely." Poor Mayor Stothert. Last week she had to speak at a dogs funeral and now this.

I think part of it is that Metro Omaha really hasn't had a true shut down storm since the Christmas Eve blast in 2009.. The last 5 winters since, have been pretty much a lark for Omaha.

I don't think the actual storm was over-hyped.. The folks in Norfolk, York and especially Grand Island were nailed..

Once again, we got a swing and a miss for Omaha. Granted, I was snowed in all day yesterday and was finally able to venture out this afternoon. It appears on 6 to 7 inches hit Omaha.. At least west/northwest Omaha. IMO, There was one positive out of the hype- pretty much everyone who could, stayed home yesterday.. This gave the city clearer paths to completely plow the major arteries and give a quicker response to secondary/residential streets.

I'm usually highly critical of the weather guessers and their winter hype hysteria. This time though, I give them a pass. I thought they did a pretty fair job. I stuck mostly with KETV 7 and the crew there for coverage...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

Post by **Brad** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 3:31 pm

Well said Lou, I would even real it in closer. I don't think people in Blair, Fremont, Yutan, Mead, Etc would even say it was over hyped. We lucked out by less than 30 miles.

Besides its better to prepare for the worst case, a couple days off from school and a few extra groceries at home aren't going to hurt anyone.

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 3:51 pm

Brad wrote:Well said Lou, I would even real it in closer. I don't think people in Blair, Fremont, Yutan, Mead, Etc would even say it was over hyped. We lucked out by less than 30 miles.

Besides its better to prepare for the worst case, a couple days off from school and a few extra groceries at home aren't going to hurt anyone.

Agreed

!...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

Post by **BRoss** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:35 pm

I agree it was not a bad thing to get everyone prepared for that even if we here in Omaha didn't get hit as hard as it sounded like we were going to. But I was a bit disappointed because I expected it to be much worse and I love bad storms (something just gets me excited - both thunder storms and winter storms)!

That said, now that it is all over the snow can go away

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 6:53 pm

HR Paperstacks wrote: That said, now that it is all over the snow can go away

Amen to that

!...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

mrsticka · Post by **mrsticka** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 11:44 pm

omaha79 wrote:WOWT was grandfathered and allowed to keep their W call sign.

What does "grandfathered" mean?

Busguy2010 · Post by **Busguy2010** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 12:36 am

I was watching KETV, and a few days before the storm came, Bill did say up to 15 inches. But he also said he thought it was going to be much less for Omaha itself. A few days later, he was saying 6-10". We have to remember that there are many more counties than the Omaha metro that watch our news channels, and for many of them, the storm was as bad as the hype.

Omababe · Post by **Omababe** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 5:14 am

mrsticka wrote:Doesn't it seem odd that Omaha has 2 stations whose call letters are K_TV? KMTV and KETV. Why is that?

KMTV was originally owned by May Broadcasting, who had KMA in Shenandoah with the "M" standing for May.

KMTV was the natural name for the TV station and having the station in Omaha made more sense than in small town Iowa.

I don't know where the "E" in KETV came from. IIRC it was originally owned by World Herald and then by Pulitzer. It may have been an arbitrary name since "E" really doesn't fit.

damonhynes · Post by **damonhynes** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 7:57 am

mrsticka wrote:
omaha79 wrote:WOWT was grandfathered and allowed to keep their W call sign.
What does "grandfathered" mean?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_clause

omahacacher · Post by **omahacacher** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 8:44 pm

The hostage situation on 140th Street is newsworthy, but not enough so that KETV, KMTV and WOWT need to have a crawl on the bottom of the screen several hours after this all started. There hasn't been any real progress in the standoff. If there's something new, then provide an update, but if they continue to have the same unchanged content on the crawl for several hours, it only becomes an annoyance.

GetUrban · Post by **GetUrban** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 9:25 pm

It's equally annoying that KETV in their crawler says "See the KETV app or KETV.com for current updates on the standoff".....like that's where you really need to go for the more current info.

GRANDPASMUCKER · Post by **GRANDPASMUCKER** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 9:38 pm

GetUrban wrote:It's equally annoying that KETV in their crawler says "See the KETV app or KETV.com for current updates on the standoff".....like that's where you really need to go for the more current info.

Crazier still is when the crawler is there during a 20/20 episode about Columbine.

Post by **Brad** » Sat Feb 13, 2016 3:03 pm

omahacacher wrote:The hostage situation on 140th Street is newsworthy, but not enough so that KETV, KMTV and WOWT need to have a crawl on the bottom of the screen several hours after this all started. There hasn't been any real progress in the standoff. If there's something new, then provide an update, but if they continue to have the same unchanged content on the crawl for several hours, it only becomes an annoyance.

Did they have other crawlers on the previous 3 standoffs, or is to just bigger news because its the 4th standoff in 3 weeks and two of the involved people and a police dog being killed?

mrsticka · Post by **mrsticka** » Mon Feb 15, 2016 2:23 am

Well, at least it's over now.

Mr.Nuke · Post by **Mr.Nuke** » Wed Feb 17, 2016 5:23 pm

KETV's 5 pm news. "A former President visits a Council Bluffs Elementary School." That Former President, Ben Franklin...

Omababe · Post by **Omababe** » Thu Feb 18, 2016 8:57 am

Mr.Nuke wrote:KETV's 5 pm news. "A former President visits a Council Bluffs Elementary School." That Former President, Ben Franklin...

ROFL

The sad thing is nobody on the staff caught it and many viewers will not either.

jessep28 · Post by **jessep28** » Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:01 am

Omababe wrote:
Mr.Nuke wrote:KETV's 5 pm news. "A former President visits a Council Bluffs Elementary School." That Former President, Ben Franklin...
ROFL

The sad thing is nobody on the staff caught it and many viewers will not either.

Not a historical error, but 10/11 (WOWT sister station) out of Lincoln is doing some random fluff series on history of Fillmore County over the noon hour this week.

They credited a Millard Filmore reenactor as the former president. The guy's been dead for almost 142 years.

damonhynes · Post by **damonhynes** » Thu Feb 18, 2016 1:28 pm

Joe Chiodo stars in Escape From Channel Six:
http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/kctv-hires- ... ter/163999

Post by **Brad** » Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:03 pm

That's too bad, he is really good.

Post by **Brad** » Tue Mar 01, 2016 11:06 pm

KETV seriously has the worlds most annoying phone app... I took the app off my phone a long time ago because they use their push notifications like a Twitter feed! My wife still has the app on her phone and it's been going off all night! From what I have seen, there is nothing remotely close to deserving a push notification tonight.

It's seriously like the boy that cried wolf!

Mr.Nuke · Post by **Mr.Nuke** » Thu May 26, 2016 11:28 am

Kyle Gravlin and Amanda Crawford are leaving KETV.
http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/on-the-move-52516/171167

debradomayer · Post by **debradomayer** » Thu May 26, 2016 11:36 am

I saw that. Both are heading to Orlando.

Mr.Nuke · Post by **Mr.Nuke** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 10:52 pm

Is it just me or is Julie Cornell's sudden return after 6 years (yeah there have been occasional specials) a bit random? She is anchoring their late 10 p.m. news after the NBA game 1 finals and has apparently anchored at least 1 9 p.m. sub channel broadcast within the past couple of weeks.

debradomayer · Post by **debradomayer** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:20 pm

Kinda seems strange. But Brandi Peterson is still on all their advertising so she must be on vacation.

mrsticka · Post by **mrsticka** » Wed Jun 08, 2016 10:52 pm

What's this I hear about an ash borer being in County #1? Do they really eat trees from the inside?

Omababe · Post by **Omababe** » Thu Jun 09, 2016 5:01 am

debradomayer wrote:Kinda seems strange. But Brandi Peterson is still on all their advertising so she must be on vacation.

IIAC they said something about her being "On assignment" at the beginning of the news last night. I was kind of listening only with one ear, however.

Post by **BRoss** » Thu Jun 09, 2016 5:45 am

mrsticka wrote:What's this I hear about an ash borer being in County #1? Do they really eat trees from the inside?

Sounds like it.

Discussion over here: http://eomahaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16942

Post by **Brad** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:43 pm

Jim Flowers is retiring

at 4pm I announced that July1 will be my last day on the air here at KM. Goals that I set for myself and the weather department have been achieved. Induction into the Press Club hall of fame tops a career that spans 37 years and is a great way to walk away. I will continue working, looking at several opportunities now. Thanks to all of you for a great 3 1/2 years. It's been fun! Highlights of my career each night the last week of June...

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 11:17 pm

Brad wrote:Jim Flowers is retiring

at 4pm I announced that July1 will be my last day on the air here at KM. Goals that I set for myself and the weather department have been achieved. Induction into the Press Club hall of fame tops a career that spans 37 years and is a great way to walk away. I will continue working, looking at several opportunities now. Thanks to all of you for a great 3 1/2 years. It's been fun! Highlights of my career each night the last week of June...

It was only a matter of time. I was never a big fan of his.. Never disliked him though..

Admittedly, I'm going to miss the guy a little...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

mrsticka · Post by **mrsticka** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 12:08 am

I remember when Jim was at KETV. I never thought he'd end up at KMTV, though. When I was a kid, I always thought Loretta Caroll and Tom Bevacqua would be the longstays at KMTV. Boy, was I wrong.

bbinks · Post by **bbinks** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 10:11 am

Is his contract not being renewed, or is he in fact retiring?

GRANDPASMUCKER · Post by **GRANDPASMUCKER** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 10:22 am

bbinks wrote:Is his contract not being renewed, or is he in fact retiring?

My GUESS would be that when he got hired he negotiated a nice fat contract that was based on the premise that he was going to help channel 3's bad ratings. His contract his now up and the ratings never went up and channel 3 is now telling him that he can stay but they will only pay him half of what he was making before.

damonhynes · Post by **damonhynes** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 11:12 pm

33 years, he's gotta be richer than God's lawyer. Vaya con dios, Jimbo LeFleur.

So who's going to take over the Channel Third Chief Met? Will Ryan McPike reclaim the throne or will Jennifer Zeppelin seize power?

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Sat Jun 18, 2016 11:27 pm

damonhynes wrote:33 years, he's gotta be richer than God's lawyer. Vaya con dios, Jimbo LeFleur.

So who's going to take over the Channel Third Chief Met? Will Ryan McPike reclaim the throne or will Jennifer Zeppelin seize power?

Sounds like some Game of Thrones level stuff going on.

mrsticka · Post by **mrsticka** » Sun Jun 19, 2016 12:55 am

If KMTV wants to get their ratings back up, they could get "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune" back on their station. Why those shows air on 2 different stations beats me.

Which evening news do you watch the most (5p 6p 10p)