Kevin O'Connell stepping down as Buffalo weatherman

[Matt Ottinger]

Around here, we have an outsized fondness for "K.O." and Go.  Therefore, I thought it bears mention that his "real" job as a Buffalo weatherman is coming to an end.  Sadly, it's not exactly a retirement.  He's only 70, and they were negotiating a renewal when things took a bit of a turn over what management felt was a violation of station policies.

https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/13/kevin-oconnell-is-departing-channel-2-after-25-years/

[BrandonFG]

Reading the article, something about this sounds shady. If I'm understanding correctly, Kevin's "endorsement" seems more like a review, not unlike one you'd leave on Yelp or Google. I get the station outlines how it's a violation, but it seems odd to end contract negotiations over this.

Having heard stories from former colleagues who work(ed) with what's now Tegna, part of me thinks either the station or Tegna wanted a reason to not renew his contract, and found a loophole. I guess time will tell.

[SamJ93]

Hard to believe he's only 70; his grey hair on Go had me thinking he was a bit older, I guess. A sad and all-too-familiar story of corporations axing decent talent for silly reasons because (in all likelihood) they want to save money.

[colonial]

Here's more on the testimony controversy ....

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2018/6/29/paid-to-testify

Tegna has had a reputation in recent years of trying to "youth up" their newscasts in odd fashions (here in Atlanta, we are inundated with commercials for the Tegna station's morning show that makes it look more like a dance party than providing actual information on anything. They're even heavily pushing a Pandora channel for the morning show that's nothing more than the show hosts' "favorite music"). And they've bounced a few older personalities for bizarre reasons, including a weather forecaster for not learning a graphics program fast enough.

JD

[TimK2003]

Reading the article, something about this sounds shady. If I'm understanding correctly, Kevin's "endorsement" seems more like a review, not unlike one you'd leave on Yelp or Google. I get the station outlines how it's a violation, but it seems odd to end contract negotiations over this.

Having heard stories from former colleagues who work(ed) with what's now Tegna, part of me thinks either the station or Tegna wanted a reason to not renew his contract, and found a loophole. I guess time will tell.

I watch a lot of local news wherever my travels takes me, and I don't think I have ever seen a station where a TV personality has NEVER done some mention of a business (station ad client or not) once in a while in talk "off the cuff" with other personalities between stories where they may say they have patronized XYZ company, restaurant, movie,  amusement park, etc...   And definitely many of these personalities will post photos of them on social media at said establishments from time to time commenting on how good their time/food was there.   

Even if KO unintentionally phrased his lawyer's review to sound like a page from a ad script, that's not much different than some things I have heard from what other personalities have said on TV or social media.  Yet Kevin's statement was not even originally on TV nor radio and probably 99% of his audience never saw his review of the lawyer on their firm's website.  Likely, it was more about him accepting to testify as a "paid celebrity" to comment in a case that wasn't about him specifically, nor his place of employment.

/ I thought Kevin was already retired and he had mentioned job retirement publicly a few years back.

   

[Fedya]

here in Atlanta, we are inundated with commercials for the Tegna station's morning show that makes it look more like a dance party than providing actual information on anything.

I think that's a fair statement about local news in general.  Police blotter + moral panic of the day, with little to no information.

[aaron sica]

Hard to believe he's only 70; his grey hair on Go had me thinking he was a bit older, I guess.

You and me both! I thought he was in at least his 50s or 60s when he hosted Go. Doing a little research says that he was either 34 or 35 when he began hosting Go.

[mparrish11]

Absolutely correct.  Tegna bought KING-TV here in Seattle and wasted no time showing the door to KING-TV's long-time anchors (Dennis Bounds-News Anchor, Rich Marriott and Jeff Renner-Weather, and others).  All have been replaced with virtual nobodies with no local ties or understanding of this diverse area.  Their news program, once the highest rated in the state is now a shell of its former self.  Q13 News (Tribune) and KOMO 4 News (Sinclair) are routinely besting KING.

Reading the article, something about this sounds shady. If I'm understanding correctly, Kevin's "endorsement" seems more like a review, not unlike one you'd leave on Yelp or Google. I get the station outlines how it's a violation, but it seems odd to end contract negotiations over this.

Having heard stories from former colleagues who work(ed) with what's now Tegna, part of me thinks either the station or Tegna wanted a reason to not renew his contract, and found a loophole. I guess time will tell.

[Mr. Armadillo]

here in Atlanta, we are inundated with commercials for the Tegna station's morning show that makes it look more like a dance party than providing actual information on anything.

I think that's a fair statement about local news in general.  Police blotter + moral panic of the day, with little to no information.

Don't forget copy/pasting corporate overlord propaganda.

[trainman]

Don't forget copy/pasting corporate overlord propaganda.

The video is Sinclair stations -- to be fair to Tegna, I don't think they do that same business of making all their stations read the same script.

[Scrabbleship]

Don't forget copy/pasting corporate overlord propaganda.

The video is Sinclair stations -- to be fair to Tegna, I don't think they do that same business of making all their stations read the same script.

Fun Fact: The station KO worked for produced newscasts for the Sinclair pair in Buffalo.

[mparrish11]

Don't forget copy/pasting corporate overlord propaganda.

The video is Sinclair stations -- to be fair to Tegna, I don't think they do that same business of making all their stations read the same script.

It's no different than local stations in the 70's and 80's doing commentary.  Except the difference is that stations are owned by huge media conglomerations now. 

[Sodboy13]

It's no different than local stations in the 70's and 80's doing commentary.  Except the difference is that stations are owned by huge media conglomerations now. 

Which makes it profoundly different.