Phoenix anyone?

[<reavie sorey>]

The reason people say channel 3 sucks...is complex.The station has a few good photogs...they work very hard and they are happy in an environment where most are underpaid. The station fosters an attitude that says..."say what you want about my abilities as a storyteller...but f you cos we're number two here and the top indy in the country." I work here in phx and I will tell you that from a serious photojournalist and storytellers point of view the product is horrible...however it works and they kill in the ratings. If you like to help produce and write as well as edit...tough luck. The stellar staff of just out of college editors will be more than happy to cut your pak. You can offer to cut it but you won't be given the time...the station has too much news content to give you ownership. Your live shots will be teched by live drivers so you rarely run a truck. So if you are an okay shooter and are kinda lazy, but want to work in a good ratings shop...go for it. The station does not have an NPPA member I can think of...and while that is not the be all and end all....trust me the storytelling needs help. And another thing...quite possibly the worst staff of reporters this side of Gulfport, Mississippi. Though I will say the chicks on the air are hot....though their storytelling is about as lively as a box of hammers.

 

[Amanda Hugankiss]

Originally posted by <Looking>:
All I can think of is my experience with them. I had been talking to the chief there to go check out the station, I kept in contact with him, the few days before he never responded to my messages and when I got there he basically blew me off so I took them off my list. Part of my job is watching some of the Phoenix news and I can tell ya that some of the morning lives that I have seen from 3TV are not well planned, I saw the photog's shadow one time, another time I saw live shot where the background was a white van, the reporter who was african american you could only see her eyes and teeth, and the interview who was fair skinned looked black. I was surprised since they are market 16 and I am at market 172.
I checked out channel 5, KPHO, they chief there was very coureous and was appolojetic that he did not have more time to show me around. I watched him cut a package then he gave me a small tour, then he had to go to a live shot.

 

[Amanda Hugankiss]

Why does 3 suck? In my opinion as a photographer, since this is a web site dedicated to photographers not NEILSON is they do not seem to put much if anything into to telling a great story through video that is theyre managements fault I would have to think. As far as the photogs Ive met from 3 theyve all been nice and professional and yes they have hot chicks playing the role as reporter gotta love that...

 

[<hiya>]

Why does channel 3 suck? Photography doesn't matter there, and most of their reporters are straight out of Arizona State. Phil Alvidres says "I can teach a pretty girl to report, but I can't teach an ugly girl to be pretty." So basically he cares more about his reporters being hot and blonde than whether or not they can tell a story. Yes their numbers are good, but their storis are crap unless you like wathcing 2:00 on what the hottest new hair style is. The photographers aren't given the time to do anything right, they just run and gun. So consequently, most of them don't even try. Don't get me wrong, there are some great guys shooting over there, and some of them are great shooters when they want to be.

As far as KPNX goes, HEY LYNN!!!!!GET OFF THE HIGH HORSE! Everyone knows anyone that could shoot over there left. Yeah you guys work hard, WAAAAAA! So do the rest of us.

FOX 10, so they're an O&O, big deal. They finally got some new news cars over there last week, after all their fleet was pushing 200k or more. For a while they had 1 working live truck. They started the Beta SX conversion, but after 4 cameras, FOX pulled the plug on it.

KPHO - has the best photogs in the market right now. The chief is trying hard to bring in more talent. They have some real good reporters, good equipment, and the backing from Meredith to try to win in the market.

KNXV - used to have a great photog staff. But the news director and chief have sucked all the life out of it. Most are looking to leave. As far as former KPNX greats Jones and Manley being there now, they're both in special projects and the investigators. Those departments are pretty much seperate from the rest of the newsroom, and never do general news anymore. They're untouchable.

 

[<hey hiya>]

you pretty much hit the nail on the head. thats a good rundown of the phx market.

 

[<sparkster>]

I can understand the frustration of not being able to do good NPPA-style storytelling, or not being able to edit your own packages, or working with bad reporters, I agree with you all on that,

-but:

Originally posted by <reavie sorey>:
Your live shots will be teched by live drivers so you rarely run a truck.

You've got to be kidding, right? Having someone else run the live truck for you on all those stupid gratuitous dog-lick live shots that the ND insists on, is a BAD THING?. I don't know about the rest of you, but I studied television journalism to shoot and edit stories, NOT to run a F___in' live truck. In my opinion, (in that perfect world that doesn't exist), a photog should never have to operate a live truck! Ideally, (again, in a perfect world), TV stations should hire people whose specific title is "live truck operator," whose full time job is to drive, operate, and take care of the live truck. I drive and run live trucks when told to do so, but if I would kill for the chance to work at a station where I never had to drive or operate another live truck for as long as I live.

 

[<reavie sorey>]

Dude ...never did I say that was a bad thing...I mentioned it as a fact. I would love to have a live driver for every shot. What I was getting at is that three tv is the only shop in the market w/ drivers. While those photogs loaf and smoke cigarettes....the rest of us hump it inour trucks and still put better storytelling on the air...but it doesn't matter cos the place w/ more stuff is in 2nd place....or at least that's the way they spin it. I may have been easy on three in my last post...so let me close by saying that for a top market ...theirs is the worst I've ever seen...you'll see better storytelling in Bend, oregon

 

[<More Stuff>]

3TV is an independent so they have alot of newstime to fill. They have the top rated morning show in the market, and they battle for 2nd and 3rd in the afternoon and evening. They are more style than substance. They care more about what the hot young blonde reporter looks like. Who cares what she says or what the video looks like. The on air product looks like crap. Plus they pay photogs the least and run them to death. Every photog in the market works their a$$ off because its a highly competitive market. I wouldn't call their photogs lazy.

 

[Amanda Hugankiss]

The best thing 3 has is truck ops. They not only help in doing the job they can save a life for when your really gunning (by yourself) and you feel you always look up for power lines it only takes one time to forget, that said its nice to have another set of eyes wathing you and your news cruzer at hand at all times for the all important run...The GRUMPY........

 

[<DL Live Shots>]

Originally posted by <sparkster>:
Your live shots will be teched by live drivers so you rarely run a truck.

You've got to be kidding, right? Having someone else run the live truck for you on all those stupid gratuitous dog-lick live shots that the ND insists on, is a BAD THING?. I don't know about the rest of you, but I studied television journalism to shoot and edit stories, NOT to run a F___in' live truck. In my opinion, (in that perfect world that doesn't exist), a photog should never have to operate a live truck! Ideally, (again, in a perfect world), TV stations should hire people whose specific title is "live truck operator," whose full time job is to drive, operate, and take care of the live truck. I drive and run live trucks when told to do so, but if I would kill for the chance to work at a station where I never had to drive or operate another live truck for as long as I live. [/QB][/QUOTE]

Shooters at WPLG in Miami are not allowed to touch the live trucks, only edit in them. It is a safety issue.

 

[tarzan]

Which of the Phoenix stations now have Avid editing?

 

[done]

god this is looking like a memphis post, what a bunch of catty bastards...
everyone loves to take shots at kpnx, well when your 10pm is double what everyone elses is everyone has to find something wrong...
and then "the place with more stuff" gets alot of "stuff" talked about them but while you wont get rich working there everyone i talk to enjoys there job over there...
i think most people who posted on this board must think the qualifications for being a good shooter station is you have two or three shooters that shoot everything you brag about, of course you have to brag about your great stories because you are the number eight and nine stations in a five station market...
my terrible bias against fox o&o in general doesn't grant me the correct vision to talk about channel 10... but they put a competitive product on air...
i will say this though, if the shooters at kpnx (and i mean the shooters now) where given the time the supposed "great shops" in this town were given we would really kill... in fact doing twice the workload i would take the day to day pepsi challenge with any other stations product... it comes down to this some people don't like our chief, why, because he expects us to bust our ass and he is not afraid to let people know who is the best in town, we do bust our ass, which is what is expected of everyone at our station, but if your not some huge bitchy egomaniac and actually work for the station and not yourself you get taken care of real well here... i don't shoot on 20 year old technology, i have enough lights to put on a broadway musical, i have a hot-pod, hell i have a lens hood and those seem to be in short suply at the other stations...
it is tough being number one, its alot easier to be number 4 or 5 and talk **** about us...

 

[<CLT>]

Originally posted by <More Stuff>:
"They care more about what the hot young blonde reporter looks like. Who cares what she says or what the video looks like. "

From this statement, does this mean the photographer doesn't have a say in the story they shoot over at CH.3? So, the reporters can act like primadonnas and pretty much get a way with treating photographers like crap because there is more emphases what the reporter looks like than how the story is told.

 

[<westcoast>]

i tried to stay off this thread as ong as possible, but it finally got the best of me. i think there are alot of good things going on in PHX. the stations all seem to have something special, all depends what your looking for.

if you after high quality, storytelling, time to craft a piece, intellectual newscast and the BIG J, then kpho or knxv would be the way to go. although i think it would be fair to say time is sometimes 45min to 30min edit. but when you get the jewels they work with getting you the time to put quality on the air. however on a down side they do have alot of turnover, change of looks, and format. in some ways they have become a joke. kpho is digging it'self out of that hole from what i hear and see. knxv is still the same; very sad for a station which used to be #2 and is now dead last.

kpnx, has a lot of history - good talent and as beau said maybe overworked staff. i believe they have the largest staff in town (25-27photogs) other stations are making do with 15-17. so long days and doubles are hat at other stations. kpnx and gannett are one of the granddaddies who always get a 20-35 share and even if all the snowbirds leave. they have a great product, i don't agree with the news director nor the chief photog; they sometimes are towing the company line alittle hard, they should just have fun.

KTVK, FOX10 alot of good people at each station. FOX10 is very FOXY. tons of stingers, page turns, graphics etc.... great look for the valley - not sure it would work in the midwest, but man it looks sweet. there photogs tend to be average around town. all are respected. handheld photography is mostly hits air. lot of axis cross, jumpcuts, sloppy mistakes every now and then.

if i had to do it all again, i would still got to kpho not knxv.
kpnx is not what it once was, look at who left julie jones, jim manely, bill fresh, and the list goes on. it was never my cup of tea to work over there just because i had different priorities.

 

[<Small correction>]

KTVK is channel 3, not FOX 10

 

[NCM]

Botom Line - just go to where you think you will be happy. Phoenix is a good market to work, hot as hell sometimes, but its a good place. All the stations are different but the photogs at all the stations are cool. I worked at KPHO and KPNX and never met one "primadonna". If you think you would like Phoenix, send a tape, give it a shot. If you dont,dont.

 

[<Fmr Shooter>]

I worked at KTVK. My observations:

1. I enjoyed the place and the way I was treated. It was far better than the way most management treats photogs.

2. I liked having truck ops.

3. I shot a lot of spot news and liked that, too.

4. Everyone I worked with seemed to liked the station pretty well. The complained about the job a LOT LESS than the competition's photogs. So did I.

5. I was never told how to shoot or how not to shoot and I was able to edit anytime I wanted to.

6. The reporters, for the most part, did a good job and used the video we had in their stories, i.e., wrote to video.

7. We worked very hard and shot a hell of a lot. But I didn't mind.

That's what I noticed.

 

[Shaky & Blue]

I wonder...

Am I the only one who thinks "Penis, Arizona," every time someone mentions Phoenix?

 

[tarzan]

Penis, Arizona, that's good, I like that...

I'll post my question again: Which of the stations there now have either Avid or other NLE systems?

Also, which stations have marked news vehicles or which ones have unmarked?

 

[Tx]

To answer your question about Avid. I was told KPNX switched to Avid this year. They now shoot on Sony Dv format. Im sure the other stations have some sort of system by now. They also mark the cars,at least at KPNX. I just saw the pictures a couple of weeks ago. Pretty wild decals. But to get back to Phoenix ? Yes I worked there,and yes I learned so much with my time in the desert.I came from Austin at the time,and was hungry and ready to learn. At that point KPNX seemed to be a good choice. 1994 was the year when I made my move out west. We were very competitive at that time.NPPA,AP,EMMY,you name it we tried to win it. On Friday`s we had a special called "Frame by Frame" in the 10pm show. We were required to have a story for that slot when it was your time. What a great way to build a photo staff,and push the edge. So you ask should you go out to Phoenix and give it a try. I say go for it. Yes things have changed,but every market has changed one way or another. If you think you will learn something,and become a better photojournalist. Then do it. As far as the other stations, I never had a problem with anyone. We had respect for each other,and yes Phoenix was very competitive. I still have friends that shoot out there,and they still love their job. So as I always say,and learned from my friend in San Diego."Keep the Passion"

Wally Crow/KPRC-TV