Re: WCSH to add 7 p.m. show to newscasts

["Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>]

Sid makes legitimate points.  Overall, I think WCSH does a good job with
local news.  I think they are marginally better than WGME and light years
ahead of WMTW.  They have a good staff generally, and a handful of people
who are excellent.

My point about content is that it seems to me that they appear to cover and
produce no more stories than they did when they were doing fewer shows.  It
appears to me that in the 5 to 6:30 block, WGME does more to distinguish the
different shows and producing local stories that are not seen in all three
half hours.  WCSH, on the other hand, appears to just mix and match the same
local stories at 5, 5:30, 6, 10, and 11.  This is obviously somewhat of an
over simplification, but is my general observation as a viewer.  I find
myself being less loyal to the station as a result.

My other complaints about WCSH are:

-- their odd practice of not letting one or two reporters exclusively cover
on going stories.  They seem to just send whoever is available.  The
coverage of the recent church poisoning in New Sweden is a good example.
They also do this with State House coverage.  I think both the viewers and
the reporters would be better served by allowing reporters to stick with a
story.  With their current practice, reporters must spend a lot of time
getting up to speed and gaining the trust of sources.

-- the sharing of resources with WLBZ results in southern Maine seeing a lot
of stories that are not really news to the viewers.  I'm sure the
arrangement saves lots of  money but I tend to watch WGME on the weekends to
avoid seeing stories about car accidents and fires in Bangor.

I used to watch WCSH almost exclusively, but I find myself more and more
tuning to the other stations.  Of course, WCSH continues to dominate the
local news ratings so my viewing habits are not representative.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine