This totally unsubstantiated rumor comes in over the transom: "At least four people were not "rehired" by the new owners of WNEP. Assignment editor Mike Rudolf; Operations Mgr, Len Modzelski; Engineer Bob Schacht; and Photog Dan Harvey were all let go. Everyone at WNEP, I'm told, had to meet with GM Lou Kirchen and was either led out the door or were told they're staying. Word is this is just the first stage of possible changes."
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Firings at WNEP
This totally unsubstantiated rumor comes in over the transom: "At least four people were not "rehired" by the new owners of WNEP. Assignment editor Mike Rudolf; Operations Mgr, Len Modzelski; Engineer Bob Schacht; and Photog Dan Harvey were all let go. Everyone at WNEP, I'm told, had to meet with GM Lou Kirchen and was either led out the door or were told they're staying. Word is this is just the first stage of possible changes."
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9 comments:
This totally unsubstantiated rumor...
Not sure what you mean by that, but one of the people named had previously sent me an e-mail saying he had been sacked.
Was the sale approved? Or is this just the NYT doing some "spring cleaning" to make the place ship-shape for the new owners?
Looks to me as if the numbers crunchers are at work. Too bad it's people who get crunched!
Oak Hill took control last week. The TV news web site "NewsBlues" reports that Oak Hill is already trimming branches and clearing the land.
In Oklahoma City GM Tim Morrisey (a former WNEP news director and recently a NYT VP) was kicked out at KFOR, along with a handful of staffers.
Word from Memphis's WREG is that the station manager, production manager, comptroller and an audio engineer were shown the door.
At KFSM in Fayetteville, NewsBlues got word that ten were fired Friday, including the station manager, two producers, on-air personalities Fred McLure and Robert Houston, receptionists, and traffic personnel.
Final word from NewsBlues: "More cuts are expected as the new owners settle in this week."
Ouch!
Oak Hill is barely in the door and already tossing bodies overboard - not a good sign. Watch for WNEP to barely resemble its present self within a year, kind of like what Nexstar did to WBRE and WYOU.
9:59 a.m. is right on the money. People who care about journalism won't matter. The bottom line is about the money. Turn a huge profit while degrading and uprooting careers. It's not the same business as I once knew it.
Know what WNEP needs to make it all work? Maybe five new delivery vans, a couple of digital billboards and a new "16" logo in "Perpetua Titling Bold."
I was one of "the four" at WNEP. Worked there most of my adult life. Last Friday afternoon, the General Manager told me Local TV wasn't hiring me. The implied message was: "Local TV told me this was an opportunity to cut the people we'd like to cut, but without all those messy discrimination rules." And what really ticked me off: she just sat back and waited until the acting News Director walked me back to my desk, so I could clean it out and get my butt out the door in about ten minutes. No "Thank you for three decades of service to WNEP." One minute I was a "valued employee" with impeccable performance ratings. Next minute, I'm told to just pack up and go.
I never liked or trusted the current WNEP G.M., Cora Lou Kirchen, and it appears my instincts were right. She's a cold-blooded reptile with an ever-present fake smile.
I can't even look at a Channel 16 newscast now. I've started picking up the Times-Tribune every day for my news. Screw WNEP; they're the Devil's Child now.
7:31 PM is obviously an ink-stained wretch (or is that "retch"?).
12:28 a.m. I completely agree. Lou Kirchen is dishonest, a coward, and will do whatever it takes to get ahead. She has absolutely no people or human resources skills. Lou hasn't had a good idea in her life. I look forward to the day when Lou is looking for a job and someone looking at her resume says, "hey, isn't she the one who ran WNEP into the ground?"
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