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Local Bucs coverage wasn't always superBy ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV Critic
© St. Petersburg Times Yes, Sunday's Super Bowl win was a wonderful lift to the spirit of our community. And yes, both area daily newspapers went crazy with Super Bowl coverage, earning extra readers (and revenue) from special sections each day, leading to an orgy of game-related stories on both ends of the big day. The St. Petersburg Times, for example, sent 20 news staffers to San Diego to help produce a special West Coast edition, bonus sections, an edition that hit the streets on Super Bowl night and a commemorative magazine coming out Sunday. We printed 609,000 copies of Monday's newspaper, a 72 percent increase above normal production. But local TV stations' live coverage of the Super Bowl aftermath, Monday's rally and Tuesday's parade left me exasperated and with a question: How many times can you ask somebody in a Bucs shirt how much fun they're having? Since Sunday night, I've heard that question about 10,000 times, rolling off the lips of shamelessly cheerleading reporters and anchors covering events that mostly consist of people showing up in a single place and cheering. So I've decided to hand out some awards for particularly notable Super Bowl-related local coverage by the four broadcast outlets (with a nod to newspapers): Best product placement: This goes to WFTS-Ch. 28, which seemed to outfit every other fan in Raymond James Stadium on Monday with signs featuring its Action News logo and the "Go Bucs" slogan. WFTS general manager Sam Stallworth said the station's promotional director ordered 25,000 signs and sent about 10 people to the stadium to hand them out. For their initiative, WFTS' logo wound up on our front page Tuesday and even on some rival stations' newscasts. Honorable mention: This goes to both newspapers, which produced extra editions so fast Sunday night, they were plastered all over local and national TV coverage. Even corporate rivals WFLA-Ch. 8 (owned by Media General, which also owns the Tampa Tribune) and WTSP-Ch. 10 (which shares news and information with the St. Petersburg Times) showed the competing print outlet's pages on the air. Worst consequence of rampant boosterism: The about-face Sunday night as anchors shifted from effusive comments about revelers headed to locked-down Raymond James Stadium to serious reporting when traffic got tied up. Couldn't anybody have foreseen that encouraging people to visit a facility they couldn't enter would just create a massive, potentially dangerous traffic jam? Worst "homer": WFLA's Bob Hite, who spent days in his old stomping ground of Philadelphia before the Jan. 19 NFC Championship Game decked out in Buccaneers gear and offering reports of little substance. After the Bucs' Super Bowl victory, WFLA ducked out of an in-progress network show, cutting to a nearly speechless Hite caught up in the moment. Isn't talking on-camera during momentous events a news anchor's primary job? Runner-up homer: WFLA's Keith Cate, who hosted the rally that wound up Tuesday's parade for the Buccaneers. (Tampa Mayor Dick Greco's office said Cate was drafted when original host Jack Harris fell through; the team had requested the host come from one of its corporate "Pewter Partners," a deal WFLA recently signed.) Fun as it was watching rival stations point their cameras anywhere but at the stage when Cate spoke, a journalist leading a pep rally blurred the thin line between business interests and objective news coverage. Worst wearing of Buccaneers gear: WTVT-Ch. 13 anchor Kelly Ring, who not only donned a Bucs jersey for one of the station's promotional ads, but also put one of her children in one for the spot. Coolest Super Bowl-related TV story: I loved WTSP reporter Mike Deeson's story on how the Buccaneers' lucky number must be 27. He listed all the uncanny coincidences in which the number 27 pops up in the team's history: The Bucs were the 27th NFL team created, their phone number is 870-2700, they scored 27 points in the NFC Championship Game and they reached the Super Bowl after 27 years. The kicker: The difference between the Oakland Raiders' and Buccaneers' Super Bowl scoring was -- you guessed it -- 27 points. Most jarring moment: WTSP anchors and on-scene reporter Kathryn Bursch trading cheerleading comments as the camera focused on police handcuffing a fan. It would have been nice to hear at that moment what the guy had done. But that might have clashed with the numerous comments on every station about how orderly Bucs fans were compared with Oakland's rioting masses. The Hangin' in There Award: To WFLA and WFTS, which seemed intent on outlasting each other with Bucs coverage Sunday and Monday. Watching both stations broadcast live shots of their reporters standing in a nearly empty stadium in San Diego on Sunday (they also showed cars streaming away from Raymond James after Monday's rally), I wondered if that, finally, was enough. Also, I should have noted in my story Thursday that WTVT drew top ratings among area TV news outlets for its coverage of Tuesday's parade and rally. According to ratings provided by WTVT, the station attracted an average of about 14 percent of households watching TV from 3:30 to 5 p.m.
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