It’s tough when you’re the new kid on the block. Everybody already knows everybody else. Allegiances have been formed, friends have bonded, and everybody’s comfortable. When you’re the new kid on the block, everybody’s looking at you, but nobody knows who you are. They’re thinking, who is this new kid, what’s he all about, will […]
It’s tough when you’re the new kid on the block.
Everybody already knows everybody else. Allegiances have been formed, friends have bonded, and everybody’s comfortable.
When you’re the new kid on the block, everybody’s looking at you, but nobody knows who you are. They’re thinking, who is this new kid, what’s he all about, will I like him?
All the new kid wants is to quietly fit in, and make a few friends.
Well, a new kid is making an appearance in Evansville, Ind., on Monday morning at 4:30 and local TV viewers will get the chance to see if they like what they see, and the new kid is hoping to make a few friends.
WEVV, the CBS and Fox affiliates in Evansville, is launching a local TV news operation from scratch, going up against already established local TV newscasts from both the NBC and ABC affiliates in town.
The last time there was a local news product on WEVV was 14 years ago.
The daunting task of marketing a whole new news operation with new talent, new set, new graphics and new music is being handled by Eric Stremming, WEVV’s creative services director.
The new set is from JDH Group, new graphics come from Hothaus, and new news music was created by Stephen Arnold Music.
“It’s been fun to get on the news side of things,” says Stremming, “and build this pretty much from scratch. It’s an opportunity that doesn’t come along very much, something we’re all taking pride in to get a chance to do this.”
Stremming says his first mission was to launch an on-air teaser campaign on both affiliates.
“Being a CBS and Fox station, we already have a pretty strong viewership in prime, we just wanted to ask people to stick around.”
One of the challenges Stremming, and the station owner and managers faced, was the fact that WEVV is a stand-alone station, not part of any large media company. So they were all alone in putting together the news operation and marketing it.
“We worked in collaboration with each other, brainstormed a little bit on ideas.”
Stremming says the teaser campaign has been replaced with a campaign to introduce the new anchors to the viewers.
“So they start to get to know them, their personality and why they think local news is important to our viewers.”
Stremming cites WEVV’s general manager, Jeff Fisher, as having experience with working at a station with news.
“So he was a good resource. And we worked a lot with the station owner, DuJuan McCoy, who has a very strong passion for this industry.”
McCoy owns Bayou City Broadcasting, which took over ownership of the station on the first of this year.
“Our mission … is focused on family and community. That will drive the news we cover,” says Stremming.
Click here to read a TVNewsCheck article about DuJuan McCoy and his passion for broadcasting.
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