Try to watch a Conan repeat on KSDK on a cold snowy night in St. Louis and see if you can tell if any schools are closing tomorrow.  Here’s a photo from last night:

Where are they…hmmm….ah found them!  Bottom of the screen with the snowflakes.  (Nice touch)

There are seriously loads of problems with this, so lets toss out some easy ones like oh the fact that internet might be a way better place for this kinda crap, and start with a simple one: Are you freakin’ serious with the size of this thing?!  And then on top of that, you are only showing 2 schools!  Jesus, you would think you could squeeze in a few more schools.  Another thing: you really don’t have to say “closed” on each one.  We know.  That’s why there are on the list.  It’s a “School Closings List”. Yeah, yeah, there are a few schools that just start later, but couldn’t those just go on at the end of the list or with an asterisk or something?  5 schools really shouldn’t mean the whole list needs “Closed” next to everything.

Its frustrating to watch local news continue to struggle.  Its just one stupid or antiquated idea after another.  Its like watching a slow kid drown.  Its sad, and you know he’s not going to figure it out, but you don’t want to go in there.  Its cold, and these pants are new.

Lastly…have a good one North St. Francois County R-1!  In my day, we fancied an epic Nerf war and a friend’s house.

More cost-cutting measures continue to be created to keep our struggling local news operations afloat. One of the more recent ones is KSDK, channel 5’s move to dismantle their news helicopter.

From the rumor mill over on STLMedia.net:

As of February 1st KSDK no longer has a news helicopter. The camera has been removed from chopper 5. In a cost cutting move KSDK is negotiating with KMOV for a “shared use” of aerial footage, but has yet to sign an agreement. Just another sign of the need to save money.

KSDK and KMOV are also combining for Spring Training coverage. KSDK will send two photographers, one shoots for KMOV, they will share footage, and KMOV is sending their Sat. truck to feed back tape.

I guess the next time we have a high-speed chance, the only way KSDK can cover it is to join the chase themselves.

We just can’t figure out why local news still hasn’t gotten it yet!’

First, the whole idea of having to wait until 6pm to get your news is a laughable concept these days.  If I want the news, I’ll either jump on the internet or tune to one of the many 24 hour news channels at any given moment.  There’s no reason for me to wait until some artificial time to get it.  Along these lines, the idea of “teasing” your viewers is also so weak its just annoying now.  When Larry Connors drops a “One of your household items may kill you…but we won’t tell you wich one until after sports and the weather!” it falls flat.  Why?  Because I can just look it up.  The end. Now where’s that remote, we can still catch the rest of Seinfeld.

Also, you guys speed way too much time on the weather!  Just tell me what the weather is like now, and what it will be tomorrow (or later today for morning newscasts).  Maybe throw in a weekly forecast graphic and that’s it! That’s it. Seriously. We don’t care why its cold, we just want to know if we should bring a coat.  Oh its a cold front from Canada?  Who gives a crap!  Hey, look at where the jet stream is right now! Oh wait, that means exactly dick to me!  If I care about that crap, I’ll click the “more details” link on Weather.com.