Oregon Media Insiders

Did KOIN have consistency problems before the Ignite installation? Did the article even mention how many employees were cut, or just tout how much better the product supposedly is?

Wow. As someone who came in and lived through the conversion, I know that 90 percent of that article is complete fabrication. Well, I actually wouldn't doubt that Rick Brown would give the system a positive review, but talent, producers, directors and viewers can agree that Ignite has done nothing but ruined KOIN's product. Not only are there more on-air errors, but talent has no idea if Ignite will pull up script for the next story; producers have had to dumb-down their newscasts; directors have to enter more than 500 pieces of code for one half-hour show; and viewers suffer the consequences.

According to Rick Brown, Portland is a small to mid-sized market... which I guess helps to explain KOIN's approach to News these days.

I agree that KOIN looks great for a small to mid-sized market station. They would compete well with stations in Spokane. Problem is... Portland is market 23 -- and KOIN can never win in this market with their current philosophy. And, while they are making money, KPTV and KGW now collect more revenue than KOIN.

Does that make "economic and practical sense"?

Oh, and by the way... nice 1.9 rating last night at 5pm -- on a HUGE news day, no less. KGW pulled a 10.5. And to think it was only 7 years ago when KOIN was beating KGW...

Yeah, and I saw Ron Pivo on KOIN last night too.

"...its on-air look is noticeably better and individual news stories include more technical innovations, like digital effects and layered audio elements."?
Are you shitting me?
Other than it not being true, it's.....not true.

SJL is bringing Koin down to the level SJL is used to, in small markets. They can barely cover the news, and the stories are repeated over and over again.

"has proven to be exactly what they needed to bring the station to the next level of broadcast news operations." (is that up or down?).
"In the past six months, KOIN has produced five hours of award-winning newscasts in a highly efficient way using the Ignite system. (is that total?).

This article is in concert with the typical BS that KOIN management tries to spin on their employees day in and day out. I am not shocked. In this day and age managers, politicians, etc., may think if they keep lying to themselves and everyone around them AND if that lie is said enough times then it will become the truth. Rick Brown's quotes in this article are just as bad as the up-cut audio the Ignite spits out everyday. Shame on him.

1.9 5PM News, wait a year and KOIN will be wishing for the 1.9 glory days.

I have lived in this market my entire life.

I remember the Jim Little and Mike Donahue glory days.

KOIN was the one station my family turned to, it felt like the heart of the Northwest to us.

You tune in now and it feels like another cheap KTLA rip off by college students.

I haven't watched KOIN for over a year, and have no plans on watching it any time soon.

But hey, I guess that's OK if you are making money.

OK, KOIN made the switch to Ignite. There's nothing to be done to remedy that situation, but I just can't believe how much KOIN managers have let the station go. They have a total of five dayside reporters, one of which is new and AWFUL (Jessica something?). It's really quite sad.

Remember at KOIN the bottom like in money: Its much much cheaper to hire an Alana Adams or Jessica Morkort whom obviously have no experience (or education?) than it is to hire a seasoned reporter that knows a thing or two. KOIN just needs a warm body to fill the air, reporting doesn't matter. The reporting at KOIN is so bad (minus Ken Boddie or Mike Donahue, the exception), I can't watch unless I want to see a train wreck.

Every industry has some Pseudo-news rag pimping the advertiser's products. The sad thing is some bean counter or junior exec on the rise is going to read this and run with it for thier shop, viewer be damned.

"...but geez Wally, it says right here in TV Technology Channels we can win awards AND be highly efficient !!"

SCJ

Yeah, so Mike was an intern when he started. But, now he's a 35-year veteran. And he's damn good. Talent and youth are not mutually exclusive. But, it's obvious at KOIN that cheap is the objective. If you're talented, then they just got lucky.
I would love to hear Mike's take on what's happening to the business, and especially to the news operation he helped build. As far as I'm concerned, he and Ken are the only really solid reporters they have over there, with any clue about this city, and how it works.
SJL should be ashamed of how they've pretty much destroyed what was once one of the best newsrooms on the West Coast. They had some help
from Emmis, but it's their baby now.

Hang in there, Mike. It can't be easy to be one of the faces of KOIN right now.

While Ken and Mike are certainly tops, we do have some other fine reporters. And I'm talking about reporting skills, not clothes or hair. But when you have inexperienced producers, a news director in name only, half of an assignment desk, and you are running around in circles because those aforementioned idiots can't make up their minds what you are to cover, well, it's tough to do any thing of substance.
Alana and Jessica are young, but very bright.

...in the last comment Mike D. was called one of the "faces of KOIN." Reminds me of the "faces of METH."

Pass on the ignite koolaid KOIN survivors!!!

The management comments about the Ignite system got one thing right...They're right when they say Ignite has made the on-air content much more consistent. Unfortunately, its more consistently BAD! I've never seen a station with as many on-air "train wrecks" as KOIN has.

Pretty amusing when KOIN seems to randomly take to other video sources in the middle of VOs, weather shots, and camera shots. I was watching the 5pm or 5:30pm show (is there any difference?) and suddenly there's this 2 box of kelli day and some other reporter. This would be all fine and dandy, but they were in the middle of another live shot! Is this an Ignite thing? or something else?...Funny stuff all the same, Keep me entertained and I'll keep watching!!!!

I love it when the Ignite cuts out of a package early and cuts back to the reporter picking their nose or standing there looking bored, happens all the time. Good TV.

How about being more specific to on air issues at KOIN. All I see are a bunch of shots at the system with no examples. Come on, where is the laundry list KOINers.

Does KOIN have a Creative Content position? That ad looks like a local cable ad for a used car dealership. It doesn't really inspire me to watch.

When Things Go Wrong In The Booth Dept. -

http://server3.rox.cc/kjrh/

This went to air...

NOT SAFE FOR WORK

SCJ

Not to defend the Ignite system the way it's been deployed at KOIN, but the technology and workflow behind it are sound and CAN result in a great looking on air product if the people running it get proper training. That's where just about every station that's failing with the system has fallen down.

We have found at our company (currently with three stations on the air with Ignite) that if you take the time to properly train the people who will be working with Ignite, and take the time to let everyone get plenty of rehearsal time, and take the time to let the technical clithces get worked out - ALL DONE OFF THE AIR IN A BACK ROOM - the system can debut nearly flawlessly.

The key is that training. Not investing the time and energy in to the training will almost certainly doom a station to what you see on KOIN's air daily. Ignite training has to be done in a dedicated, regimented, organized fashion. The people who will be working with it CAN'T also be doing their "regular" jobs as TD's or Directors or Producers while training up on the new system. Grass Valley even recommends a minimum of six weeks of full time training for Ignite operators in order to get the system down. It's a very complex and fiddly piece of hardware and it requires essentially throwing out everything you've every learned about how to put a show together. We discovered that even the tiniest mistakes will cause the system to crash - so, the key is to train people so that those tiny mistakes are caught.

The problem, of course, is that training of this type is expensive. We all know that training budgets are the easiest to cut and that the amount of ongoing, real training that our people recieve nowadays at most stations is minimal. Typically one person is trained and expected to train the rest. Then the original person leaves and the next "generation" is expected to train the new people, then the next group leaves and pretty soon, you're 3, 4, 5 trainings removed from the original manufacturer's school. This is something that's crept in to the broadcasting business over the years and while it might work OK for a newsroom system or a master control automation system, something like Ignite requires a whole different kind of training.

The Ignite issue really is no different today than when we were all asked to start working with the semi-automated systems we have today (iNews, ENPS, Sundance, etc.) - all of those systems have their massive achilles heels as well if even simple mistakes are made. Any time you're working with any of these systems you have to learn how to think like the computer, since the computers don't think like a Producer or Director.

KOIN is, I believe, stuck in the same trap as so many other stations who rushed the thing to air without sufficient investment in staff training.

Garbage in, garbage out, kids.

Let me count the lies and misrepresentations in the KOIN-Ignite article........1...2,3,4,5.......6...7..............8,9.....10...11.............12................

“It’s made my life a lot easier ...", he [Rick Brown] said.

Fewer People Working There = Fewer People Who Despise Him Working There

I see now why he loves it so.

KBCI's now automated (with Ignite)10 PM newscast ended 3 minutes in with a loss of audio, a "dancing bug" across the screen, 5 or so minutes of commercials, then Jeopardy.

G'day,
anyone know of any stations using Ignite for bulletins which require network feeds? Say two or three 1.20/1.30 packages arriving in the ten minutes before program start and another two or three in the ten minutes after program start. We're about to get Ignite at a network down under and I'm trying to figure out how we ingest the late packages which will still be delivered in a linear format.
Any help would be appreciated.
cheers