Talking Shop with Mike Smythe

Q: You retired from KFVS in November 2011 and moved to Ohio. What brought you out of retirement?

A: I retired from KFVS on Nov. 30, 2011, and was going to be a sales consultant for the company that currently works with KFVS 12. My job was going to be to go out and recruit new sales opportunities for small business advertisers. It entailed a lot of travel, and I was in the process of doing it when I got a call from Sinclair Broadcasting. I lived in Toledo, Ohio, and I got a call from them and they wanted to know if I had any interest in coming back to Cape Girardeau to operate Fox 23 and MyNet, WDKA 49, and I thought about it and thought, "Why not?" I have a lot of friends here.

Q: How has this second round been?

A: Good. It's a different operation. I've always worked for stations that produce their own news. News is a very expensive proposition. A lot of stations have news partners. Before I left in 2010, I negotiated a contract with Sinclair Broadcasting to carry 9 p.m. news from KFVS. We have the same anchor team at 9 p.m. as they do at 10 p.m. This is a rural market and people are confused all the time because they think they're watching KFVS, which they are, but they're watching it on Fox 23. News is a big viable portion of the Heartland; without any question KFVS produces a good product.

Q: What have media providers had to do to survive the difficulties in the economic landscape?

A: There's no question, 2009 was not a good year for anyone in the media. It's too expensive to get into the news media business for most operations so they partner with somebody else. One of the good things about it is it provides a lot of news. Technology has been a challenge for all of us. One thing that upsets me is they say television and newspapers are dinosaurs. Not true. Good content prevails. You get good content out of anything, it prevails.

Q: Tell us about your commentary, "Perspective."

A: It's the last thing that runs three times a week before we end the newscast. There's a three-minute window that KFVS has to have to go to the 10 p.m. news. That's our time, and we run Sunday, Monday and Wednesday and won an Emmy in 2010. One of the things television stations like to do is to get feedback. You [the Southeast Missourian] have feedback with Speak Out. We put people on who don't like me or whatever, and we use their names. What we're trying to do is get people to watch and have people say something. It's all about having the people have interest. I couldn't take "Viewpoint" with me, so "Perspective" became my segment.

Q: How can the media consumer cut through all the noise?

A: I think the consumer is the ultimate test, and they cut through it all the time. Studies are showing the people who watch the most TV also own a laptop. If you're watching a movie on television and you stop and see someone and think, "Who was that?" you look it up and find it. Sixteen percent of the market uses antennas. They can get more channels now because of the compressed signal, but primarily 85 percent get their signals from another source, either cable or satellite. The network TV stations are the highest viewed. There are 300 channels but they want CBS, FOX, NBC and ABC. They want the local stations. Sunday we're carrying the Daytona 500. Danica Patrick is the first woman pole sitter. You don't think that's going to be a huge audience? Just by women who will tune in who don't normally watch NASCAR, but they'll watch. Where do you get that? You get that on a local station.

Q: What advice would you give to people wanting to go into broadcasting?

A: It's quicker than it ever was. When I started in television, we'd go out and film a fire. From the time I got back to the station it took 30 minutes until you got it on the air. The reason for that is you had to process the film. Right now, people are sending in traffic accidents through their smartphones. People have better pictures than the stations because they're on the scene quicker than we can be. News happens so quick; writing is a key element of being successful and we have an issue with accuracy. How many times do we have a problem with accuracy with media because it happens so fast? Almost anyone can be a news reporter today, just look at Skype, look at YouTube. Everyone's on TV if they want to be; that's changed our business a lot. What has happened to sports on the local TV level is they've had to become ultra-local to get people to watch.

Q: What are the perks and challenges of doing business in Southeast Missouri?

A: It used to be we had 20 to 25 percent of the business was local and the rest came through the national door. Now it's totally reversed. Now it's local. You can't count on the national dollars because they're constantly doing things you have no control over. If we're going to survive in the economic environment we're in, which isn't easy, we have to develop our own game plan. All the stations do a pretty good job of developing their business and making their business happen in their own local market. Local is the future. For local media, local dollars are where it's going to come from. This is a great media town, and it's part of the reason I came back.