Tegna Station Experiments on Air

A longtime ago, I had a boss that said you never experiment on air. The thought was you could upset or confuse viewers when. you do on air experimenting.

If our station wanted to try something new, we would test the experiment off the air and bring in research focus groups to gauge the reaction.

That way, nothing hit the air until it was tried and true and went through a comprehensive process.

That doesn’t seem to be the case of Tegna’s KHOU in Houston. Mike McGuff reports that the station is doing a number of on air experiments on their newscasts. McGuff writes that former morning anchor Ron Treviño (current 4 p.m. anchor) has been back on the AM newscast ever since Kimberly Davis left.

Also, a KHOU viewer says the sports segment disappeared from the 6 p.m. newscast about three weeks ago but is still in the 5 p.m. newscast. Also, sports anchor Jason Bristol was anchoring the 4 p.m. newscast.

McGuff asked KHOU GM David Loving what was going on. "At KHOU11, we're incredibly fortunate to have a wealth of talent and creativity," Loving said, "As the new general manager,  my focus is on harnessing that potential and exploring various avenues to see what opportunities we can unlock. We're in an exciting phase of experimentation and innovation, and I’m eager to see how we can leverage our diverse skills and ideas to bring fresh, engaging content to our audience. We are looking forward to seeing if some of these recent experiments can help us do an even better job of Standing for Houston!"

If you ask us, it sounds like the act of a station that is desperate.

Just saying…