Omaha Forums

Just looking to get your guy's take on the local news channels in Omaha. Interested to hear what you think is good/bad about the different stations and why.

When I lived there, my parents pretty much refused to watch anything but KETV. I always liked KMTV (although I have no idea why) and watched WOWT on occasion. I think the only thing KPTM had going for it was that it covered some of the more obscure stories in the area.

Thanks in advance!

I think they're all pretty much the same. But then again, I've never actually watched a KMTV or KPTM newscast.

justnick wrote:I think they're all pretty much the same. But then again, I've never actually watched a KMTV or KPTM newscast.

I can understand that, especially if KPTM is still as bad as they were when I left.

Twiztid1 wrote:KETV has a reputation of breaking stories without actually confirming them

Wow, that is the first I've heard of that. Do you have any examples?

Bump

Bosco55David wrote:Bump

You'll love this place:

http://omanews.blogspot.com/

Bosco55David wrote:

Twiztid1 wrote:KETV has a reputation of breaking stories without actually confirming them

Wow, that is the first I've heard of that. Do you have any examples?

Here's one - and it's a biggie:

When Officer Jason Pratt was shot in 2003, KETV reported three hours after the incident that Pratt had died. Well, he did die - eight days later.

Hal Dawg wrote:

Bosco55David wrote:

Twiztid1 wrote:KETV has a reputation of breaking stories without actually confirming them

Wow, that is the first I've heard of that. Do you have any examples?

Here's one - and it's a biggie:

When Officer Jason Pratt was shot in 2003, KETV reported three hours after the incident that Pratt had died. Well, he did die - eight days later.

Oh my God, that is horrible reporting.

Sometimes I find it amusing what the news covers here. Seems like every purse snatching and stray dog requires a live feed. Oh wait, no, that's right, the only live feed is for the Big Red Breakfast. But I guess that's not all that bad of a thing. Less bad stuff = less stuff for the news to cover. And it seems like every time Warren Buffet farts they have to report on it. I would like a decent weatherman though. Seems like most couldn't predict the order of the seasons. At least the guy in the mornings on channel 3 shows me more than just the metro area, like what weather is coming vs. what's nearly here. I like details, but I grew up with Tom Skilling in Chicago. Oh Tom, how I miss thee.

hey come on now, bill randby is good

LMAO @ Omababe's link

Im sorry but isn't Bill Ranby a bot??
I know I have seen that guy on before going to bed and waking up and then the same day at like 3 o clock!
I am guessing he's either; a bot or lives at the station

SabrinaFaire wrote:Sometimes I find it amusing what the news covers here. Seems like every purse snatching and stray dog requires a live feed.

I do agree that TV news is mediocre at best in Omaha. For a market this size, there is easily more than enough going on to do a quality news/weather/sports/feature/recap 35 minute show, but it seems like what we get most of the time is a watered-down error-filled amateurish production filled with fluff and happy-talk banter.

It takes effort and -- here's the big one -- money -- to do a quality newscast. I get the impression that the stations don't want to pay for the hardcore reporting, the fact-checking, the producing, newswriting, editing and proofreading, etc.

The evenings when I go to bed early, when I'm on the early shift in the morning, I'll often times watch the Chicago local news on WGN, and I end up feeling more informed watching that than any of the local newscasts!

SabrinaFaire wrote:I would like a decent weatherman though. Seems like most couldn't predict the order of the seasons.

Hey, at least it's not as bad as the weather-twinkies they had in the 1970s.

The problem with the weather reporters here is they are literally stumbling over each other, trying to out-do each other in exaggerating and sensationalizing the weather! What was it? Something like 4 hours of live coverage last year for an ice storm! Yes, it was a mess out for a while, but for all three of the majors to go to continuous live coverage?

Oh well ...

KMTV revamps too much.  When ratings are down, they fire the anchors and start again.   At least KETV and WOWT have their veteran anchors.

Did I see KPTM promoting themselves as the only place in Omaha to get HD commercial production done?  Can this be possible?  Or did they mean the only one of the TV stations?  

I would be shocked if no one in this city could produce HD material.

I usually watch KMTV, that way I know there's no chance of me having to listen to either Farah Fazal or Benika Barthalomew (or whatever her name is) stumble through the English language. Why either of those two have a job where speaking clearly is an obvious prerequisite is beyond me.

Omababe wrote:I do agree that TV news is mediocre at best in Omaha. For a market this size, there is easily more than enough going on to do a quality news/weather/sports/feature/recap 35 minute show, but it seems like what we get most of the time is a watered-down error-filled amateurish production filled with fluff and happy-talk banter.

Yeah sometimes I think I'm watching a high school or college production.

Omababe wrote:The problem with the weather reporters here is they are literally stumbling over each other, trying to out-do each other in exaggerating and sensationalizing the weather! What was it? Something like 4 hours of live coverage last year for an ice storm! Yes, it was a mess out for a while, but for all three of the majors to go to continuous live coverage?

Oh they do that in Chicago too. Heck nationwide. This past summer my hometown was on CNN who basically was saying that the entire town was washed away due to flooding. I called my dad, a bit worried given that he lives on the water, to make sure he was OK. He was. I should have known that the only part of town underwater was the part that ALWAYS floods when the rivers get a bit high. And of course ever winter there's a few DeathStorm 200_ (tm) to worry about. At least there's coverage when people really do give up, abandon their cars on the freeway, and decide to walk home/take the bus/train. That's always interesting.

Did anyone see FOOD PYRAMID MAN on 6 yesterday? Why, dear Gods, why?

Hahaha yes I saw it briefly and then turned the channel to national news.  I am sure he does a good job of informing kids about the food pyramid, but lordy I wouldnt want to be on TV with that costume, especially since if you knew who he was its pretty easy to recognize him.

from this picture, you can see he's going to be teaming up with Blankman to discuss the importance of the food groups.  The cornflakes group is on the left.

Dear lord that guy was ridiculous.

Here's what I think
KPTM stinks
WOWT is ok but has the worst weather
KETV over all is the best
Dont watch KMTV much but from what I've seen its pretty good.

I personally think they're all just as bad as each other, and then KPTM's is just that little bit worse.  Anyone remember when KXVO did their own little one, though?  Ack.

Part of me does feel guilty getting the bulk of my news intake from media outlets with broader scopes (mainly the BBC and NPR anymore), just as I usually pick up the New York Times when I stop at UNO's newspaper bins before getting the World-Herald, but suffice to say that for me, they all justify 'Brockman''s blog's existence.

Welcome to eOmahaForums NebraskaBlue!

Speaking of the Omaha World Herald, a 6-year-old boy who got his tongue stuck on a pole made the front page the other day while the plane landing in the Hudson River was only good enough for page 4.

Typically I tune to KETV for the local news.  However, the one thing that I absolutely cannot stand with them is the sports cast.  Every night the entire sports cast is an update on the Husker football team... regardless if they had a game that day or not or if it's even football season.  For some reason, they find it more important to give us a Husker practice report or some dumb personal story about what some football player did over his Christmas break rather than report on actual sports that occurred on that day!  This is why right before the sports, I will switch over to KMTV.  They seem to give a little more well-rounded sports cast.

ShawJ wrote:Speaking of the Omaha World Herald, a 6-year-old boy who got his tongue stuck on a pole made the front page the other day while the plane landing in the Hudson River was only good enough for page 4.

You know news is in a decline when a dare-gone-wrong is big news.


The bigger story should be on the decline in childrens' safety.  Seems like no matter how much you tell a kid he's going to put his eye out, he still asks for the pellet gun.

Poll Added.

The reason you can choose cable/no cable is in case you only watch local news because you don't have cable/dish.

Couldn't find the wowt fail thread, so I put this here. WOWT's current 7 day forecast on their website

Hahahahahaha. Good catch.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the media freaks out over an inch of two or snow now?

I've noticed it from a lot of the local news channels, but here's a snip from the OWH:

Omaha World Herald wrote:Just in time for the lunch hour - snow.

Yeah, that's right. It's falling in much of central and eastern Nebraska, and is continuing its eastward march.

The National Weather Service in Valley had flakes falling by 11:45 a.m. If you aren't seeing it outside your windows, just wait.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20111208/N ... -from-snow


I hope everyone survived the inch of snow that fell today.


Edit: Okay, so maybe we got more than an inch.  :D

ShawJ wrote:Is it just me, or does it seem like the media freaks out over an inch of two or snow now?

You're not imagining things. For the first 1-2 storms of the season, the three majors vie for the most attention-getting and sensationalistic reporting of the snow/ice.

Notice that weather is the lead-off story for the first few storms and later gets pushed off to the "Weather Now" equivalent.

Look back to 2007 (I think) when an ice storm elicited hours of preempted network programs for live-action coverage of so-and-so standing out there in the weather telling you to "bundle up" if you go out.

A friend of mine who works for a news station in Colorado said to never underestimate the number of people who don't look out the window.

This snafu appeared on KETV's site a few days ago and made it on Failblog.

Well, at least Charleston Homes is getting their advertising $$ worth.  Also, i should get sunscreen.

So I was listening to the Police scanner last night and it was really crazy, calls were backed up all night.  However when I woke up this morning, nothing in the news?  Everyone gone for the holidays?

The two biggest stories that I remember...

1.  Armed Robbery at 48th and B street.  Five Masked men broke in to a ladies house at gunpoint...  Several officers were dispatched as was the helicopter.  
2.  Huge fight and shots fired at the very troubled Keno King on 65 and Ames.  The call required so many cops that they patched two Police Channels together, something I have never heard before.  Initial reports were 60-80 people fighting inside and outside and anywhere from 5-20 shots fired.  That place is always on the news for Liquor license issues, but not for this?

Brad wrote:So I was listening to the Police scanner last night and it was really crazy, calls were backed up all night.  However when I woke up this morning, nothing in the news?  Everyone gone for the holidays?

The two biggest stories that I remember...

1.  Armed Robbery at 48th and B street.  Five Masked men broke in to a ladies house at gunpoint...  Several officers were dispatched as was the helicopter.  
2.  Huge fight and shots fired at the very troubled Keno King on 65 and Ames.  The call required so many cops that they patched two Police Channels together, something I have never heard before.  Initial reports were 60-80 people fighting inside and outside and anywhere from 5-20 shots fired.  That place is always on the news for Liquor license issues, but not for this?

The scanner was unusually busy last night. I wondered why that fight didn't make the news either. It sounded like they were about to put out a "help an officer" distress call at one point.

Do you just listen to a scanner app on your smartphone like me or do you have a scanner yourself?

I listen on my HTC EVO smart phone on radio reference.  However, the Omaha scanner feed is quite pour anymore so I wish I had my own scanner.

Brad wrote:I listen on my HTC EVO smart phone on radio reference.  However, the Omaha scanner feed is quite pour anymore so I wish I had my own scanner.

Yeah, the feed is quite poor but you get what you pay for I guess. It's kind of a pain to host a feed since you need a reliable internet connection and dedicated workstation to stream the audio 24/7. The last person who ran the Omaha feed I think needed their laptop and bandwidth back.

So KMTV interrupted the grand finale of The Grammys last night precisely at 10:30 pm to show their late night news.  Their Facebook page has been burning them at the stake for this, and channel 3 has offered no formal apology or explanation.  Rumor has it that the station actually pre recorded their "late" news, and had no live person working that could have noticed the show was running a few minutes late (due in large part to the script rewrite to take into account Whitney Houston's passing), and held off on flipping the switch.
For years the May family ran channel 3 and it was #1 in the market.  Now it is a pathetic shadow of its former self.  So sad.

One of the VP's at KMTV did write something that appears to be an apology and it was posted on their Facebook page: