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A General Review of WDRB

A General Review of WDRB


From my time watching WDRB while doing this blog, I have mixed reviews. It isn't perfect and doesn't strictly adhere to the somewhat utopian yardsticks and guidelines, but most of its stories are relevant and from looking at the early data our class has gathered, it appears to be the best local news station we've got.

WDRB has a fair mixture of populist and elitist stories. The ever-chastised sports stories are limited to only about three short stories at the last three to four minutes of each half-hour broadcast. While crime stories are sometimes a large part of the show, there are usually important stories mixed in. WDRB always has two weather stories per broadcast, which seems a reasonable number considering that weather directly affects the lives of every viewer, but time is very limited in a thirty minute broadcast with ten or so minutes of ads. I've been impressed by many of WDRB's stories on social issues and government programs such as a story about how an agency tasked with fixing ugly houses isn't doing its job and one on how a program to help homeless foster kids has become extremely underfunded as the number of homeless children in Kentucky has spiked. These stories show how WDRB also has a fair balance between being a watchdog and reporting when agencies aren't doing their jobs, and also fairly reporting when those agencies are incapable of achieving their objectives. WDRB has some good reporting, but it isn't all ideal.

While primarily focusing on local stories can helps keep the stories relevant to local viewers, WDRB has almost exclusively local stories. While we have watched there have been a grand total of zero international stories. There have only been six national stories, many of which have been national in only the most technical of senses, taking place in Indianapolis, Lexington or other parts of Kentucky. Surely there would have been more than zero stories from our wide world more relevant than "Triple A does a free battery check" or "An unknown incident took place in a Newburg apartment building". In a time period in which Jamal Khasshogi was killed, Brazil elected a new president and Angela Merkel announced that she wouldn't run for the German chancellorship again, at least one story from the wide world should have made the cut. I have already detailed my many problems with one incomplete lead story WDRB aired, but that very poor story has thankfully been an outlier.

If I had to choose, I would give WDRB four stars out of five. There is room for improvement with the lack of national and international stories, but most stories aired are relevant and many are investigative and of a high standard or journalism. I can't speak for WDRB's competition, but from my experience watching other local news it is bad. Other local stations have broadcasts dominated by sports and crime stories, unlike WDRB. WDRB isn't the perfect local news station, but it is the best Kentuckiana currently has.

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