Tuesday, June 19, 2007
BLOGGER GOES MAINSTREAM: DAVIS TO LEAD KSPR
One of Springfield's best has accepted a position with one of Springfield's worst.
Ron Davis, chief wordmonkey at the Chatter blog, has accepted a position with KSPR-TV as a senior producer. KSPR, recently purchased by the same company that owns KYTV, has long suffered at the bottom of the ratings. The quality of the news product is not exactly known as the cream of the crop.
That's about to change, if I know my old boss.
Davis took me under his wing at 417 Magazine, and taught me much about journalism, growing a spine, being a community journalist and believing in the cause of journalism for journalism's sake. He is one of a few who believe that journalism is still a noble profession.
An interesting twist for his new job is his newspaper background -- Davis spent many years with the News-Leader, back in the Randy Hammer days. His story about the Acid Tunnels is stuff of legend. But, after landing a cake job with the NL, he and shutterbug extraordinaire Mike Wingo left the 800 lb. gorilla to start a little something called 417 Magazine. Since then, he's held the occasional talk-radio gig, run a media company, managed a campaign and started the occasional talk TV show. True, his strongest experience is with the written word, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a new technology with which he is unacquainted. My guess is he already has two of these in his pocket, and one is just for playing with.
Will KSPR news be -- dare I say it -- exciting to watch? I wish I could. Sadly, KSPR doesn't reach into the Joplin market. But, I suspect Davis will be changing that with the Internet. Other changes at KSPR will be revolutionary. At the very least, I suspect the David Kadushin drinking game will come to an end.
I wish the best of luck to Davis and everyone at KSPR. You're in for a wild ride.
Ron Davis, chief wordmonkey at the Chatter blog, has accepted a position with KSPR-TV as a senior producer. KSPR, recently purchased by the same company that owns KYTV, has long suffered at the bottom of the ratings. The quality of the news product is not exactly known as the cream of the crop.
That's about to change, if I know my old boss.
Davis took me under his wing at 417 Magazine, and taught me much about journalism, growing a spine, being a community journalist and believing in the cause of journalism for journalism's sake. He is one of a few who believe that journalism is still a noble profession.
An interesting twist for his new job is his newspaper background -- Davis spent many years with the News-Leader, back in the Randy Hammer days. His story about the Acid Tunnels is stuff of legend. But, after landing a cake job with the NL, he and shutterbug extraordinaire Mike Wingo left the 800 lb. gorilla to start a little something called 417 Magazine. Since then, he's held the occasional talk-radio gig, run a media company, managed a campaign and started the occasional talk TV show. True, his strongest experience is with the written word, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a new technology with which he is unacquainted. My guess is he already has two of these in his pocket, and one is just for playing with.
Will KSPR news be -- dare I say it -- exciting to watch? I wish I could. Sadly, KSPR doesn't reach into the Joplin market. But, I suspect Davis will be changing that with the Internet. Other changes at KSPR will be revolutionary. At the very least, I suspect the David Kadushin drinking game will come to an end.
I wish the best of luck to Davis and everyone at KSPR. You're in for a wild ride.
// posted by MoJoe @ 22:34 
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