This is how my right-brain news producing creates hit TV shows — every time:
I’m Ray Brune (brun’ – nee) – a Right Brain Rainmaker. I’ve spent 30+ years creating personality-driven strategies that have generated billions in revenue for TV stations, networks, cable, and digital platforms. For the left-brainers out there, my track record — over there on the right → is quantifiable, undeniable, and massively profitable.
As a veteran Executive Producer of more than 15,000 hours of live television and streaming, I’ve:
- Launched the highest-rated local morning news franchise ever;
- Launched a cable network that earned a $3 Billion valuation in its third year;
- Created global entertainment news formats and syndicated prime-time series;
- Discovered and mentored household names in broadcast and streaming;
Here’s the Hard Truth
Your left-brain newscasts are obsolete. And no one on your team will tell you — because they don’t even know – they’re all left brainers. They can’t feel it. It’s essential that you do your due diligence and start the pivot toward right brain content.
Back when syndication was king, local stations relied on right-brain, personality-rich shows — talk shows, sitcoms, court dramas — to attract eyeballs and revenue. But syndication collapsed. The audience migrated. And now, local stations are forced to create their own original programming – which ends up being based on familiar left brain formats – data-heavy; scripted to death. No wonder your newscasts can’t connect. Here’s what no one else will tell you:
My playbook is all about turning news readers into dynamic, screen-commanding personalities. Faces facilitate connection. Check out any local news website and chances are you will not see the station’s “faces” on the splash home page. That demonstrates how local stations are misjudging the power of personality. Step One to evolving news readers into personalities is (metaphorically) unplugging the damned teleprompter. It’s killing the connection between your talent and their viewers. With 15,000 hours in a live TV control room, I’ve mastered the psychology needed to inspire talent to take risks and confidently step out of their comfort zones. And I’m paid handsomely for successfully doing it over and over again. Here are a few excellent examples:
“Producing” producers is an art all its own. Today’s producers have become glorified data processors, who, if we’re lucky, might have some common sense news judgment to boot. That’s why I go out of my way to transform a producer’s image of themselves drastically – into a showrunner. The results are spectacular:
This all started for me back in 1991 with a little experiment called The KTLA Morning News. It’s a show I launched in Los Angeles that became a cultural phenomenon — copied around the world, and still going strong decades later. Each show in this format becomes its own living, breathing thing. My job? Let that uniqueness thrive — and allow that thing to evolve – unencumbered.
This is the one area of hiring talent that trips up so many news directors and TV executives. NBC hired Megyn Kelly for a reported $69 million. Problem is, none of the network’s highly-paid consultants, news managers and/or network executives were able to identify the one thing Megyn was missing (IMHO): Warmth. Viewers could identify the lack of warmth in Megyn almost immediately. And that’s what fascinates me: I literally watch news directors constantly hiring news anchors and show hosts who have zero warmth – because they can’t identify what it is – much less quantify it in a data Excel sheet. Here’s a quiz to see if you can identify who is warm – and who is not:
I’ve created a two-hour “Mastermind” video course explicitly showing all the little things, the minutia involved in creating a genuinely authentic, jump-off-the-screen, right brain, personality-driven newscast. It’s a valuable tool for me when I am working with a group of news people to create a brand new franchise. It can only be seen by clients of mine, but here’s a short teaser of some key concepts:
My Right Brain News Reel:
My Right Brain Programming Reel:
A Record That’s Clear & Quantifiable:
I’m currently off-contract and operating as a selective, high-impact creative transformation partner. While I’ve worked extensively with talent and producers via Zoom, and with stations and networks on-site, I no longer take on projects casually.
I partner only with teams ready to make a radical creative shift — not a cosmetic one. For the right kind of transformation — start-ups, reinventions, or legacy franchises looking for a defining pivot — I’ll consider either contract or short-term, on-site engagements followed by remote calibration. Let’s talk.
I am eternally grateful to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for award the KTLA Morning News its own star! July 8, 2021 was the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere and I am so proud of all that we have accomplished. Thank you to all the original staff members who created a format that would be copied around the world – and pushed the KTLA Morning News to the highest-rated local morning show in the history of TV by our 14th sweeps period.