Hauser Off The Morning Show

Our local ABC affiliate, KSTP News, has struggled the past few decades,
consistently coming in third and sometimes fourth (gasp) in local
ratings.

One of the station’s repeated blunders is a series of mystifying
choices about who sits in the anchor chairs. The next chapter in the
mystery was written, yesterday, when KSTP announced that current
Morning Show host Tom Hauser
would be vacating the anchor desk to return to the political beat.
That’s both good and bad news for Minnesota politicos. The good news
is we’re glad to have him back in politics full-time. Hauser is one of
the finest reporters who is highly respected on both sides of the
aisle. For example, the last few years, Hauser has been asked to MC one
of our state’s biggest public affairs evenings, the annual Minnesota
Chamber of Commerce dinner at which the Governor and all four
legislative leaders participate in the program.

Hauser also created and hosts
"At Issue," one of only two local government affairs news shows.
Confession: I have been part of that show since its inception. Over the
years, I’ve had the opportunity to witness firsthand what a true pro
Hauser is. The teleprompter breaks down, and Tom wings it without the
audience ever having a clue. Taping snafus are frequent and Tom will
do the third take on a segment with the same enthusiasm as the third.
That guest is a no-show? Tom works around it.

Perhaps more important is Tom’s sixth sense about what content to choose for the show. This is not always an easy feat on a program about the political events du jour that is taped days in advance of airing.

So, while it’s great to have Tom back full-time focusing on politics,
the bad news is that it’s always comforting to those working in public
affairs to have someone anchor a newscast who knows how the Minnesota
political process works. Tom does — and like dearly departed "Anchor
God" Paul Magers on KARE-11 –
that’s a big draw when news breaks calling for Minnesota institutional
knowledge. [Tom was born here, educated here (St. Thomas) and stays
busy with his wife and four children living in Eden Prairie.]

What’s most mystifying about Hauser’s change in status at KSTP is that
by all the traditional measures, Hauser, as an anchor, has been one of
KSTP’s few success stories. For the last 14 months that Hauser has
anchored the Morning Show, ratings have increased every month, bringing
it to number two in its time slot. And, the show won an Emmy last
October.

The Hauser announcement was made yesterday afternoon in the newsroom.
The buzz after the meeting, was, justifiably, "what kind of place is
KSTP to build a career when you do everything right and this is what
happens?"

What kind of place, indeed.