About KOVR

Every market must have a cellar-dweller.  And KOVR fits that description very well.  Currently, KOVR is without a sports director.  And they haven't hired a temp to fill in.  When John Henk left to start up the sports department at the Twin Cities' WFTC, they just shut down the sports department.  That's right, no more sportscasts during the newscasts.  So I stopped watching KOVR.  And so has the few viewers who actually watched in the first place.  This is a prime example of how the Sinclair Broadcast Group is a cheap, old fart company who runs nasty, rat-infested, poor excuse, bottom-rated, craphole television stations.  KOVR REALLY sucks.  

KOVR currently screws up primetime programming by running its hour-long "THE Ten O'clock News," which pushes the CBS primetime back to 7:00pm, and moves Letterman up to 11:00pm.  Who knows about the station's current news music package.  I can't get an answer about it from the station itself, and the package isn't any good anyway, so I gave up trying.  KOVR doesn't have a single meteorologist on staff.  Now that really pisses me off.  Instead, they have dweebs that run around pretending to be meteorologists, when all they're doing is making the National Weather Service forecast sound really stupid.  And I can't stand Chief Weatherdweeb Dave Bender.  He's unprofessional, unreliable, and I simply can't stand the guy.  KOVR's set stinks.  Don't bet on a chopper here, sweetheart.  The station's building has a helipad on the roof, but not a single helicopter has actually set down on it in more than 20 years.  Their music sucks.  Overall, I hate this station more than I hate Hearst-Argyle.  And I REALLY hate Hearst.

Here's what I would do to KOVR if I owned it:
1.  Build new studios in downtown Sacramento right on the Capitol Mall.  The news studio would have big windows that opened up to a plaza, complete with a fountain and everything.
2.  Change the newscast title to "CBS 13 News" and from KOVR TV-13 to "CBS 13."
3.  Fire the whole weather department and hire new people, who are all real meteorologists.  Build a new weather center with technology that would be an exclusive in the Sacramento market, like Advanced Real-Time Doppler with storm-tracking capabilities.  
4.  Bring back the sports department, and have John Walls (Currently the chief co-anchor at KJRH in Tulsa, formerly the first anchor of FOX Sports News on the FOX Sports Net) as the new sports director.
5.  Buy a chopper for the station.  Not lease a chopper through Helinet or Helicopters, Inc., but have the station actually own the chopper and base it at the downtown studios.  It would be a Eurocopter AS350 A-Star, complete with a GyroCam.  Nickname: NewsChopper 13.
6.  Recruit Dan Elliott from KXTV in Sacto and Jane Clayson from CBS in New York to anchor new one-hour 5:00pm newscast and new 11:00pm newscast.  And that wouldn't be too hard, since Sacramento is Jane's hometown, and she's got to be getting sick of the smart-ass co-anchor of her's on the Early Show.  Retain Jennifer Whitney and Paul Joncich to anchor new one-hour 4:00pm newscast and half-hour 6:00pm newscast.
7.  Pick up Edd Kalehoff's "WCBS-Grand" news music package.  Sample open: "Live, from street-level along the Capitol Mall in Sacramento, with Dan Elliott, Jane Clayson, Angela Buchman's weather, and John Walls on Sports, you're watching CBS 13 News at 5:00."

Newscasts/Talent Lineups
 

Screenshots
 

KOVR 13 News Daybreak (Weekdays 5:00am to 7:00am)
Michele Kane
Weather: Dewey Hopper

KOVR 13 News at Noon (Weekdays 12:00pm to 12:30pm)
Michele Kane
Weather: Dewey Hopper

KOVR 13 News at 5:00 (Weekdays 5:00pm to 5:30pm)
Jennifer Whitney
Paul Joncich
Weather: Dave Bender

KOVR 13 News at 5:00 (Saturdays 5:00pm to 5:30pm)
Marcy Valenzuela
Weather: Bill Kelly
Sports: Jennifer Whitney

KOVR 13 News at 6:00 (Weekdays 6:00pm to 6:30pm)
Jennifer Whitney
Paul Joncich
Weather: Dave Bender

KOVR 13 News at 6:30 (Sundays 6:30pm to 7:00pm)
Marcy Valenzuela
Weather: Bill Kelly
Sports: Jennifer Krier

The Ten O'clock News (Weekdays 10:00pm to 11:00pm)
Jennifer Whitney
Paul Joncich
Weather: Dave Bender

KOVR 13 News at 11:00 (Weekends 11:00pm to 11:30pm)
Marcy Valenzuela
Weather: Bill Kelly
Sports: Jennifer Krier

Multimedia
 

Video:   2001-Present: News10 at 11:00 open
              2001-Present: News10 at 5:00 talent open 

Audio:   Present: KOVR News (Unknown Composer)
           

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