When the results from the November 2007 ratings sweeps appeared on his computer in the WBZ-TV (Channel 4) newsroom, Jeff Kiernan was quietly thrilled. The station, perennially stuck in third place in most of the day's newscasts, had captured first place in the hotly contested and lucrative 11 p.m. newscast.
"There was a genuine sense of accomplishment and a genuine sense of pride in the work that was done that month and a tremendous amount of appreciation that viewers tuned in," says Kiernan, WBZ's new news director. "At the same time, there was a sense of, 'Golly, we can turn some eyeballs.' To sustain that will require a tremendous amount of hard work and further evolution."
Part of that evolution is happening off-camera in WBZ's newsroom, where Kiernan quarterbacks a team of more than 100 news, weather, and sports employees. Affable and soft-spoken, Kiernan has helped reenergize morale, expectations, and ratings at the station that brought television to Boston more than 50 years ago.
Some employees say Kiernan has brought a fresh outsider's perspective to a newsroom that in recent years has endured layoffs, management shake-ups, and name changes - the station was formerly known as CBS4 and WBZ 4 News.
For Kiernan, that was both the appeal and the challenge in coming to WBZ last September, when he left his job as news director at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Five months into his new job, Kiernan is trying to maintain the ratings and the buzz that eluded WBZ for so long. So far, the new year looks promising. The station bought the rights to bill itself as "the official Patriots playoff station," which got it exclusive access to the players and coaches.
During his brief tenure, Kiernan has continued some subtle changes to the newscasts and inherited others. Among them: unveiling new blue and yellow graphics, airing consumer investigative stories such as how to invest and spend tax refunds, and picking up the pace of newscasts by limiting the amount of anchor banter.
Ed Piette, vice president and general manager of WBZ and sister station WSBK-TV (Channel 38), worked with Kiernan in Minneapolis. "He is very unique in this business," says Piette, who was Kiernan's boss at WCCO, where both were credited in boosting ratings. Piette tapped Kiernan after his predecessor, Jennifer Street, left WBZ to become vice president of communications at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
"He doesn't have a big ego, but he knows how to win," Piette says. "He is very patient."
"I knew from my earliest days that there was always something about the microphone," says Kiernan, 42, who was also inspired by watching "60 Minutes" on Sundays with his late father. "Fire trucks, police cars, and always wanting to know what was going on - I always had that natural curiosity, the why, the how, and the what. It is a gift and an awesome responsibility to be a part of informing, and educating and, in some cases, inspiring people."
He followed that curiosity to Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he worked as a radio reporter.
"I always thought I'd be the guy in the trench coat outside the fire or outside the state capitol. I always wanted to do television [on-air] work, but I have never done it," says Kiernan, who found broadcast opportunities through the assignment desk. In 1990 he was hired at Milwaukee's WTMJ-TV as a news assignment manager. He worked there for eight years and eventually was promoted to managing news editor. Piette then brought him to WCCO, which was suffering low morale, employees say.
At WCCO, Kiernan introduced two regular segments that appealed to viewers. One, called "Good Question," answered on-air viewers' questions such as, "Why do gas prices go up and down?" The other segment, called "In the Know," featured main anchor Don Shelby candidly talking for 45 seconds about his observations in town.
"He made it a newscast that got in all the news of the day in a traditional manner but with a touch of grace," Shelby says. "The relevancy that he was seeking was not to make sure that we were hitting the proper demographic but stories that related more on the human level."
Kiernan worked at WCCO through last summer, when the bridge between Minneapolis and St. Paul collapsed. At the time, Kiernan was in Miami for the Asian American Journalists Association conference and had to direct news coverage en route as he returned to Minneapolis.
"In our newscasts, we are striving for the how and why," says John Daenzer, former assistant news director at WCCO under Kiernan. "He had equipped the people he had worked with to respond in a way that was aggressive and thoughtful. Even on that night: Here's what happened, but let's get into the why."
At a recent afternoon news meeting, producers, editors, and on-air talent squeeze into Kiernan's first-floor office in WBZ's Allston headquarters. They discuss story ideas and updates on the day's news. Kiernan sits back and listens. At the end of each story's discussion, Kiernan considers different ways to handle the story, or advises how to broaden the focus.
"Jeff has a lot of experience and a management style that is truly inclusionary," says David Hatcher, WBZ's assistant news director. "He wants everyone to be open and honest about what we're doing."
That includes the station's current and former viewers. During his daily travels in his South Boston neighborhood, Kiernan, who is single, often solicits opinions about WBZ from local sales clerks, as well as staff and customers at the Quiet Man Pub, one of his hangouts.
He hears a common theme. "They say, 'I may not watch it necessarily as much as I used to,' or 'Oh yeah, WBZ.' People still care about it. There's a sense to a degree that they might be disappointed by how the television station performed for many years."
Changing those perceptions is one of the challenges Kiernan and his staff face as they enter the February sweeps period. Despite the November ratings win, WBZ will contend with the return of TV giant "American Idol" on WFXT-TV (Channel 25), which added an 11 p.m. newscast in November. The ongoing writer's strike has limited the plate of fresh original programming on all networks, but WBZ relied on the lead-in from its popular crime dramas such as the trio of "CSI" shows.
But Kiernan says WBZ can continue its progress in the ratings by providing compelling local reporting and by listening to the viewers.
"I am a big believer in listening, because you can't learn when you are talking. You've got to listen," says Kiernan. "From that, we will create and we will evolve along with other anecdotal perspectives we get from what viewers are looking for. The goal is for our newscasts to match that and win."
Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com.
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