A few years ago, I fired off an email to my boss, the GM of a local TV station, to fight for two breakout anchors whose contacts were coming up. As senior executive producer of news & programming, I oversaw our afternoon personality-driven show. Those two hosts were the heart of the show and the audience loved them. Engagement was up. The data was strong. But metrics only told part of the story.
Guests would say, “I’ve always wanted to be on this show.” Celebrities were finally saying “yes” to appearances. Staffers packed into corners of the studio to watch it all live. CEOs and city leaders whispered, “We watch you every day.”
I’d seen this momentum before — when I launched the KTLA Morning News in the ’90s. Former Tribune President & CEO John Reardon called it the highest-rated local morning newscast in history during a stockholders meeting in 2006. I took that secret sauce to E! News Live, the Fox Sports TVG Network, Tribune’s Eye Opener and many others.
But the CEO I emailed couldn’t see it. He replied, “We don’t fall in love with our talent here.”
My response: “Then how do you expect our viewers to?”
Silence followed.
We all left that station with our potential mostly untapped. But this wasn’t about two rising stars, nor was it about me. It was about a mindset — one so transactional that it was afraid of something that can’t be quantified on a spreadsheet. Intangibles like emotion make