Time for 5's Mid-Life Crisis

With respect to WCVB, watching the youtube clips and thinking back over how the format, faces and content has changed over the past twenty years is like recalling the neighbors after one has grown up, gone to college and moved on to a new adult life. Upon returning to the old home for a visit, it is amazing just how much the neighbors have aged.

CVB now and perhaps local news in general, is certainly about to enter a period of great change. The ' happy chat ' as they go from news to weather to sports is all too cloying as the highly paid personalities advise me on what to wear when it is raining, not to let the dog out for too long when it is cold and let's not forget the hound in the parked car if the summer sun shines. When did Nat minus Chet become my mother and why won't she let me live my life?

The local news reporting has gone down hill and one need only watch carefully to see that the once large stable of reporters is now down to a few, aging faces who really have the Needham - Natick - Wellesley beat down pat. In other words, to drive more that six miles from the mother ship to get a story seems to be too much of a strain on budgets, time and creativity. The station can harvest the video feeds from around the world for interesting clips of animals, children and celebs ... anything to take up the time to the next commercial but let's not fool ourselves about the hard local news. Unless it is specifically pre - formated for TV ... news conference, court proceedings, marathon run ... it will barely get coverage. If the event is at night, past 495 or in Mendon, it might as well have happened in Cleveland.

This brings us to sports; if Lynchie disappeared and his time was devoted to Anna Nichole, would the audience really care ... or notice? Local TV coverage of sports lacks the passion and humor of sports radio, the analysis found in print or on the internet and the sheer volume and depth that cable offers. In short, it is slightly above a score crawl on the bottom of the screen and as leagues and media brokers increasingly seek total control over the content they have paid a huge sum for, can CVB sports survive without fresh sox highlights. The answer is " sure ", just go more local to fill up the ninty second slot, everyone knows how popular those Bean Pot clips are.