|
Description
Dan Gray is a three-time winner. He is now appearing on his third St. Louis television station, having started working as an anchor/reporter for KTVI (Channel 2) in April. He has worked two stints on KSDK (Channel 5) and one on KMOV (Channel 4). Gray also worked for stations in Omaha and Sacramento.
I, for one, am glad he is back on the air. Gray is a solid, hard-working newsman who is both a good reporter and anchor. Gray has won five Emmy awards, four of them for "best anchor." Few would describe Gray as "flashy." He is, however, a strong and credible performer.
Gray has taken over as 5 p.m. anchor, replacing Dick Ford. Ford continues to anchor the 9 p.m. hour newscast but the veteran newscaster asked Channel 2 to reduce his workload (actually, the request came quite some time ago but it has taken Channel 2 a while to get it done).
Channel 2 news director Brad Remington hit the nail on the head when he said Channel 2 "has made great strides in becoming the place to turn for local news, and Dan will be a great addition to the team."
I worked with Gray during my years at Channel 4 and found him to be dedicated to the viewers and easy to work with. I suspect they will find the same at Channel 2.
No wonder local news ratings are declining. On Channel 5's April 29 late news, the station spent more than five minutes on two "puff" pieces. First was a shameless self-promotional interview with talk show host/comedian Ellen Degeneres whose show airs on Channel 5. The "added-nothing-to-my-life" interview had been promoted earlier as an "exclusive" interview. Duh. Since Channel 5 carries her show, no one else would have wanted her interview anyway. That story was followed by a "cover story" on singles in St. Louis. While this could have been a hard news piece, it wasn't. It was simply a feature. As one person asked after watching the two pieces, "Why?"
I continue to hear people saying they are abandoning watching local news because of a lack of relevance. Whether it is too much crime news or wasted time like Channel 5's stories, people are finding other things to do or watch.
That's not to say there aren't excellent pieces of work on our local newscasts. There are. Just not enough.
One of the most important areas on newscasts is health reports. Many people get... |
More articles from St. Louis Journalism Review
Little over the top.(Sports/Media), May 01, 2004
They didn't follow the money.(Media/Politics), May 01, 2004
Skeets was St. Louis' hillbilly heaven.(Radio History)(Biography), May 01, 2004
Milhaven out at KMOX.(AM/FM), May 01, 2004
Little house of horrors: SJR's dirty dozen reps.(Brief Article), May 01, 2004
Looking for additional articles?
Click here
to search our database of over 3 million articles.
|
%20%20&position=1)