Local newscasts in need of recast

Maybe Greg Braxton, who reported on Paul Moyer’s retirement [“KNBC Anchor Moyer Retires,” April 2], could explore why, in the face of declining viewership, the local newscasts insist on greatly annoying the few viewers they still have remaining.

There is that extremely overused and misused riff for “breaking news”: If it is the evening newscast and the event happened in the morning, it is not “breaking news.”

“Coming up next” means next (first story after the commercial break), and not much later in the newscast with additional teasers for it.

Why would Chuck Henry think that “you will not believe” that burning popcorn in the office microwave oven would set off the sprinklers? I found that easy to believe, as with many of the other stories with “you will not believe” teasers.

Then there are all those redundant “person in the street” interviews (“it’s too hot” and “we need the rain”) instead of more news.

How long did Channel 4 think it would take for me to realize that the last 15 minutes of their 5 o’clock newscast was virtually all commercials?

Paul Moyer was great, I will miss him, but maybe with the money KNBC will be saving from his salary, they could consider making their newscast an actual newscast with many news stories and fewer teasers. It is now a few news stories and many teasers. My question is, why do I still watch the local newscast?

Jim Elder

Calabasas