Ninety eight content surveys done, ninety eight content surveys... Get Boston done, out of the road... ninety nine content surveys done...
As we reach out to the world in 2026 and beyond (a teaser for the future perhaps), we are emphasizing your safety on the internet in the age of AI. And, that is why we believe the best choice for a VPN (where you can lock in US pricing for your trip to Faneuil Hall, or figuring out what is it actually like at Cape Cod (and wondering if there are actually cod at Cape Cod, or just a nice chowdah (chowder) meal), or just checking out pricing at Walmart/Target without leaving your house in Australia) is Surfshark VPN. A VPN can make your life a whole lot easier when organizing your next trip to Boston and greater New England in general, (or Australia, if reading from the US: we'll leave the shrimp out to defrost while you come across the Pacific). Follow our link, and it helps deliver better content for you, and drives the challenge home.
And, now: onto the ground rules.
THE GROUND RULES
Our focus, in Content Survey Live will be monitoring multiple news services over a significant timespan (a benefit of technological change, now allowing us to watch American news bulletins here in Australia), using a slight modification of the same criteria we used in the “Great Local News Study” from Kuttsy's Pitch XI in August, 2019 and in Content Survey Live between 2020 and 2024.
-Locally sourced stories: that is stories reported by local journos. Really big local market stories with national impacts, also fit here. Voiced over local stories are counted separately.
-Live crosses: stuff that is used to embellish a story.
-Weather and traffic reports are not counted.
-Sport stories are counted for one point if it’s a voiced over piece: but… if you have a reporter on the scene reporting on the event, it counts for two points. This sports reporting scoring system is a modified version of the “Ray Robinson Number” from the 2024 special event, and the 2025 edition of Content Survey Live, which was utilized to examine overnight news, and will be counted up at the end of the regular season as a special secondary achievement going to the market who has the highest sports score.
This number, will be named… the David Hill Number: in commemoration of the role Hill played in revolutionizing sports coverage in Australia (as VP for sport for Nine in the mid eighties), the United Kingdom (launching UK cable powerhouse Sky Sports) and in the US (the founding father of Fox Sports, whose innovations reshaped NFL and other sport coverage for the better).
In addition, all scores in 2026 will be reported in a new format: a ranking out of 10: David Hill Number (e.g. 5.8/10 and a David Hill Number of 3) rather than separating these figures out.
THE TALE OF THE TAPE... BOSTON.
Boston isn't just a market with it's local news generators, such as Fenway Park or MIT, but a market that has wide distribution throughout the New England area, as it's main city, one of America's earliest significant ports, and is rightfully rich in history going back hundreds of years.
A Boston story could well come from as far north as Maine, while the traditions of the town meeting in New England still live and breathe like they did in the 1770's: even agricultural competition shows unity amongst the New England states: The "Big E" in West Springfield, acts as a state fair for all six New England states: with the unusual setup including pavilions that are effectively state enclaves within Massachusetts (and can sell their own states lottery tickets).
Tonight, it's 11pm. WBZ's news, is about to come on air, like it has done so for many years: the spirit of it's past success lives and breathes in it's soul.
We open up tonight's bulletin, with a heaping spoonful of Celtics NBA playoff shock: a Game 6 loss against the Philadelphia 76ers, and are now headed to a Game 7 at TD Garden on Saturday, American time with their season on the line, inc. a live cross to a sports bar near TD Garden.
Because, would you trust a sports segment to get a actual dealer, and a sports star doing their ads?
We get a wider wrap of the Game 6 NBA Playoffs loss for the Celtics, preparations for the Bruins's own Game 6: tomorrow night at the same venue as the Game 7 for the Celtics, and a piece on the Boston Fleet womens ice hockey team facing it's own playoff challenge.
AMERICA, YOUR SEASON LAUNCH IS READY.
7. We’ve Got The Touch: CBS, 1983-86.
The longhaul effort by CBS to counter the NBC rise, was to be applauded. But, the biggest problems were laid early on, as post-M*A*S*H choices failed to fire. And, yet this campaign lasted three straight years for CBS… just as “Be There” (whether it was straight or prefixed by “Let’s All”) became engrained onto the American television viewer psyche.
By the time CBS dared to change… ABC pushed their take on the Be There style of message in 1987, and after three years of poor campaigns post-1986 (and the 1988 writers strike to boot) CBS finally delivered their attempt at a Be There-style promo… at the end of the decade of excess.
That's it for tonight. Tomorrow night, the first Saturday night survey of this season: Content Survey Live hits a milestone. We're celebrating 100 surveys... and the only CBS affiliate for this season (although Atlanta's former CBS affiliate may well have to pinch hit next round) will be surveyed to within a inch of it's life. Houston... has the unenviable job of being that milestone... in a milestone season for the Content Survey Live format.
See you tomorrow night.
A reminder of our socials:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kuttsywoods.couch
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/veritasonkw.bsky.social
Substack: https://veritasonkw.substack.com/
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