On Monday night, KWTV News 9 – Oklahoma City’s locally-owned CBS affiliate – botched another robotically-produced 10pm news broadcast from their brand-new state-of-the-art downtown studios.
As opposed to their gaffe-filled debut broadcast from November, confused elderly News 9 viewers were sadly not treated to two minutes of Dean Blevins going full Garth Algar. Remember that?
This time around, News 9 aired long blocks of commercials like the Sports Animal did that time Dean peed live on the air before switching over to the 10pm broadcast from their sister-station in Tulsa – News on 6.
News 9 made sure to let their eagle-eye viewers know everything was out of whack by placing the following announcement in the news scroll:
As I mentioned, this isn’t the first time News 9 has messed things up since they moved to their new downtown studios, fired most of their production staff, and switched to an automated robotic production system.
Their debut broadcast was such a disaster that they had to scrap another broadcast later that week. In addition to that, the station’s new set has been widely panned by people in the industry, becoming a point of contention with station’s ownership.
As a result, News 9 has apparently parted ways with Todd Spessard – their Vice President of Content.
Todd has been with News 9 and Griffin Communications for over 12 years, and once served as the station’s news director. I guess he was involved with the failed transition to automation and the new set design, and as result, now finds himself on the cutting room floor.
Here’s an email that News 9’s general manager – the incredibly competitive Rob Krier – sent to employees about the news:
That’s a shame. I was going to try to reach out to Todd and confirm the news via Twitter, but that’s kind of difficult:
Anyway, we wish Todd the best of luck in his future content adventures. We also wish News 9 the best of luck in finding a new Vice President of Content.
If I were them, I’d look to hire a local person with a long, proven track record of producing clickable and engaging content. You know, someone with a knack for news, deep knowledge about the OKC market, and access to a vast network of sources and insiders.
I don't know if that person exists, but I wish them the best of luck in finding them.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
