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Monthly Archive for September, 2008

Post Newsweek Execs: You Are “Ground Clutter”

Published by admin on 9/29/2008 in Local Media and WTVJ Sale.

Yes people. Post-Newsweek executives think you and your standing in the way of them buying WTVJ is the usual “ground clutter”.

This from an article today in the local Daily Business Review (reg. required):

Post-Newsweek executives say the petition filed this month with the FCC against its purchase of WTVJ, Channel 6, by the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for Competition and Fairness in Broadcast Journalism is nothing but the usual “ground clutter” found in such acquisitions. The executives say the sale is best for WTVJ and its viewers in what has become a saturated and rapidly changing news market.

The article also says a lot of the people involved in the opposition are WTVJ staffers! Hm, so much for yelling and threatening people with firing for talking to this blog then.

/via Save WTVJ/

9 Comments Tags: WTVJ, WTVJ Sale.

Sauer Might Kiss WPTV Goodbye With a Lawsuit

Published by admin on 9/29/2008 in Local Media.

Uh ohs!
The Palm Beach Post’s Page 2 reports that freshly bounced Laurel Sauer may not get a glitzy send off from her station. When asked for comment Sauer told Page 2 “I can’t comment, I just hired a lawyer”. Ow! We wonder what’s up.

Page 2 says she was either fired or quit, depending on whom you ask. Her lawyer says they’re “exploring their options”.

When Sauer was removed from the 11pm at WPEC in 1988 and left the station she filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit which was later dismissed.

Sauer was also removed from WPTV’s 11pm newscast last fall and replaced by Kelley Dunn

WPTV-ers what have you heard? What’s all this drama about?

0 Comments Tags: kelley dunn, laurel sauer, wptv.

Rick Sanchez on The Economy in 2 Minutes

Published by admin on 9/29/2008 in Videos.

It wasn’t long ago when Rick Sanchez was pontificating reading (while almost falling trough my TV) news about the latest shooting in Miami.

Then he went on to bigger and better things, at MSNBC, came back to WTVJ as a daytime show host. Left for CNN where he got tasered in the name of journalism, sparred with anti-immigrant loudmouth Tom Tancredo.

Here’s Rick talking economy on CNN.

And he’s super hip. He knows what Twitter is and reads tweets from twitters. Cool!

4 Comments Tags: cnn, rick sanchez, WSVN.

Laurel Sauer Leaving WPTV!

Published by admin on 9/26/2008 in Local Media.

update 4.25pm: TCPalm article says Sauer will be out September 30. No comment from station prez/vp Steve Wasserman either.


The Palm Beach post says WPTV’s lead woman Laurel Sauer is leaving the station.

What’s striking though is the Post 2nd paragraph:

News Director Peter Roghaar sent a terse e-mail to staff Thursday, right before the 6 p.m. show that Sauer still hosted with Jim Sackett.

It read: “Laurel Sauer’s employment with WPTV ends on September 30. I know you join me in thanking Laurel for her years of service to WPTV and offering her your best wishes.“

The Post’s article also notes Sauer hasn’t been in any of the station’s promos for the last year and that there may not be any tearful goodbyes and week long send offs. When asked for comment WPTV ND Peter Roghaar answered with “I’ve got no comment”.

Sauer has been with WPTV for 20 years anchoring along with Jim Sackett. She worked at WPEC before that for 8 years.

8 Comments Tags: laurel sauer, peter roghaar, wptv.

Rival Denver, St. Louis Stations Combine Operations

Published by admin on 9/18/2008 in Media Headlines.

Here’s another twist on TV station cost cutting.

Denver FOX affiliate KDVR, until recently a Newscorp station but owned by Local TV Stations LLC is moving in with Tribune-owned KWGN, a CW affiliate.

The two stations will combine their facilities, news operations, share programming (!) and offer advertisers an easier way to buy advertising at both stations.

The two companies are doing the same in St. Louis. Combining KPLR, CW station owned by Tribune with KTVI, a FOX station owned by Local TV LLC.

KTVI is moving into KPLR’s facilities and both stations will produce 9-hours of news daily “with no overlap”.

“These arrangements enable us to create efficiencies between the FOX and CW affiliates in each market to serve the local community like never before,” said Ed Wilson, president of Tribune Broadcast. “On top of that, we can provide advertisers the ease and efficiency of one-stop shopping, delivering even greater reach.”

Tribune and Local TV have been running some administrative, corporate and engineering functions via a broadcast management company since December 2007.

Locally Tribune only has CW, there are no Local TV-owned stations in Miami. For now, the closest to sharing we’ve come is WSVN and WPLG sharing choppers during refueling and building a new broadcast tower together. Of course the WTVJ-WPLG merger is still pending.

/via Lostremote/
MediaWeek: Tribune and Local TV Holdings Combine Denver, St. Louis Stations

0 Comments Tags: kdvr, kwgn, local tv llc, mergers, tribune.