By: Nick Brungardt
For close to a year now KGWN out of Cheyenne Wyoming has been broadcasting on it’s digital signal a alternate feed that has a 10pm newscast just for Northern Colorado. The question is whether it is a good thing or a bad thing? The answer I give you is both.
The Good.
It is very important that people here in Northern Colorado have a voice on television and that we get information that is aimed directly at us about our region. Northern Colorado 5 as it is called does this task adequately. And by doing this it opens up the possibility of other stations eventually covering our area as well.
Northern Colorado 5's logo as seen on it's rarely used twitter page.
It is known that KCNC Channel 4 and KUSA Channel 9 out of Denver, Colorado have news bureaus in Northern Colorado, but the problem there is 2-5 minutes of news about our region is covered. That is where Northern Colorado 5 comes in, it provides us 23-25 minutes of news sans commercial breaks every night. And it even has better on air graphics and delivery then it’s Cheyenne counterpart.
The Bad.
What is given to us is nothing more then repackaged, generic news with local stories but only few local reporters. The rest of the on-air staff is part of a outsourced news group called Independent News Network out of Davenport, Iowa. That newscast they produce is hours old by the time it hits the airwaves here in Northern Colorado and doesn’t have the capacity to cover local breaking news, weather or sports events like other stations out of Denver, or even the sole News Station in Cheyenne KGWN.
The Ugly.
The picture and sound quality is sub par at best and on air graphics are nothing to be desired, and how do I know this I am a graphic designer by trade and design and develop graphics for websites, and printed materials. So I know my field quite well and what good design looks like and what bad design looks like. And to be honest it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the on air graphics and logo are nasty unprofessional pieces of work.
The Solution.
KGWN needs to look at all alternatives and there are some great one’s out there, for one changing the affiliation of Northern Colorado 5 to The CW ( which it already has only on cable in Cheyenne ) And bring the news in house again and revamp it’s own newscasts, set and graphics.
Because we all know in this economy cheaper is better all the while not sacrificing quality either. Graphics can be redone on a low cost basis with new software and hardware. ( MacBook Pro with BoinxTV Production Software) The Set can be redone as well to accommodate two separate newscast models buy building a new newsdesk with a flat panel LCD TV in the front to change out logo’s and even use it to show stocks and up coming stories. Same goes for the background behind the newsdesk a large LCD TV could do a lot for upgrading the look of the set. But these are minor changes. The real solution is having more competition to cover Northern Colorado as it does have a large enough population that can handle 3 news stations.
The Alternative.
KQCK Channel 11 is a seldom used station, constantly going on and off air for weeks and even months at a time due to a recent ownership change and an affiliation change several months back to a low quality network called AMGTV, never heard of it neither did I until it came into the market.
The real point is the owner which is now Valley Bank out of Denver, should really explore either selling the station or developing the station as a news station for Northern Colorado/Southern Wyoming and then have it managed under a Local Marketing Agreement with a Denver station that can utilize their Northern Newsroom as a on air staff for the Northern Colorado station.
The best stations in Denver to do this would be channel 4 or channel 7 as that they are not part of any major LMA’s or Duopolies in Denver, but that wouldn’t truly matter since KQCK is considered part of the Cheyenne – Scottsbluff tv market.
The Lesson.
It isn’t that I am totally knocking what Northern Colorado 5 is offering but just not satisfied with what they are giving our community, it can certainly be a better product and it will be rewarded for giving us better. But the fact is competition is needed in our region to help grow the media that aims to serve us.
