417 Has the 411

Read how the "411 on 417", 417 Magazine's weekly partnership with KSPR, was born.

The media are strange beasts. Every organization is competing for audience and advertising . Yet sometimes, it turns out that partnership is more beneficial than loggerheads—or maybe it’s just that television, radio or print people just like to hang out together a lot. So it is with 417’s first large-scale partnership with a local TV station, the recently revamped KSPR, Springfield’s ABC affiliate. Late last summer, station higher-ups approached 417 Magazine Publisher Gary Whitaker—the former station manager of KSPR, coincidentally enough—about a weekly, branded segment on KSPR’s 10 p.m. newscast.

What was KSPR thinking? “I think they sought us out because of our scrumptious goodness when it comes to finding cool things to do,” says Whitaker.
And the “411 on 417” was born.

The face of the “411” is Logan Aguirre, associate publisher of GO Magazine (another Whitaker Publishing enterprise) and coordinator of several marketing enterprises for the company. She is a 2001 Missouri School of Journalism advertising grad who was previously communications director of Magic House, the St. Louis–area children’s science museum (and happens to be Whitaker’s daughter).

Aguirre records the segments on Tuesday afternoons, with KSPR photojournalist Paul McReynolds, dubbed P-Mac by Aguirre. “He’s young and fun,” she says. The two of them go on-location throughout 417-land to film Aguirre’s on-air presentation of the main events. The rest of the package is a mix of KSPR video and 417-ish voiceover by Aguirre. She does a couple of on-air lines per segment, usually requiring only a couple of takes.

Videotaping the “411” means finding fresh locations at which to shoot every week, says Aguirre (as well as finding a new outfit for each segment). During the first few months, “411” shoots have taken her and P-Mac to the Titanic museum in Branson, to the Ozark city park along the Finley River, Landers Theatre and the Tower Club, to name a few.

So what gets chosen for TV? 417 Magazine chooses its own content—a team of editorial and event staffers decide what local events deserve airtime every week. It’s an arrangement that works for both the mag and the the TV station. 417 Magazine gets a regular, on-air television presence for the very first time; KSPR and its viewers get the event-scouting and reporting clout that 417 Magazine has become known for.

KSPR News Director Brad Belote says that as station management considered the station’s much-publicized makeover last spring and summer, partnerships became a priority as the station sought new content while working with fewer staff. “Certainly it’s unique in the marketplace,” says Belote. “We’re consistently delivering a franchise that lets people know what’s going on in the community.”

Wanna Watch?

The “411 on 417” airs Thursdays during KSPR’s 10 p.m. newscast and again on Friday mornings toward the end of the 6 a.m. newscast. You can watch the segment at either KSPR.com, or on our home page.