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TV50 cuts leave void in local coverage
Station says it will rely on contributions from viewers for local content
by BARRY W. DUGAN, Managing Editor
The drastic reduction in the TV50 News department announced suddenly last Friday has created a void in the county's news gathering industry and has critics bemoaning a continued decline in local and national news organizations.
Twenty six years after its founding, KFTY TV50 last week announced 13 layoffs in its news department, eliminating its nightly news programs and telling viewers it would now depend on them for programming content.
TV50 General Manager and Vice President John Burgess said the layoffs were “a business decision we had to make. I certainly understand the concern of the public but it's a decision that just had to be made.”
Burgess, who started at the station in 1990 as news director, said “the advertising base was not there to support these two long-form newscasts. We will continue to look for ways to deliver content to viewers and users ... we truly want to engage the viewers so that it becomes more of a two-way conversation. We would like viewers to play a greater role in content production.”
One idea is a new show that will debut in March, called “Your Take” that is “more of an entertainment show using content contributed by viewers,” said Burgess.
He said that four news staff will remain at the station to produce four news updates, with news, traffic and weather, which will air during the two hour “Armstrong and Getty” show in the morning. The updates will include news from throughout the Bay Area, said Burgess.
TV50 is owned by Clear Channel Communications, a national radio and TV media giant that has announced its intentions to sell all its television stations. Burgess said the news department layoffs were not related to the pending sale of the station. Asked about the future of Sonoma County's only commercial television station, Burgess said, “I honestly don't know.”
Jim Johnson, who helped start the station as a consultant to owner Wishard Brown in 1980, said the advertising market has always been difficult for a small independent station in a larger Bay Area market. “Local news programming is very important, but hard to justify on a financial basis,” said Johnson. “It's expensive ... as a journalist, I hate to see any medium that has been covering the news come to that point. It's not good for Sonoma County, the North Bay, or America, to have that happen. We live in a community but we have more interest in what Paris Hilton is doing than what the police chief is doing.”
Sonoma State University Professor Peter Phillips, a media critic and director of Project Censored, said he was not surprised about the decision to cut local news. “That's not surprising for Clear Channel,” he said. “As they consolidate, this is what happens. News is expensive ... a decline in news has been something that has happened with media channels all over the country. It's one of the problems with media consolidation in this country. You lose local access ... this plan to have local bloggers and video cam people do the news and post it is very lame ... it's almost like overt censorship. Let's entertain ourselves to death and not have any real news about our communities or the world around us ... to make that your primary source of news on a local basis is a disservice to the community.”
News staff who were laid off were prohibited from discussing the station's decision as part of their severance agreement
Longtime news anchor Ed Beebout said his 23 years at TV50 were very enjoyable. “It really has been a pleasure and privilege to be working on a local TV newscast and bringing people stories that they wouldn't see on a San Francisco station,” said Beebout, who also teaches journalism at SSU. “I'm trying to be positive ... every so often in our lives we get a shakeup and sometimes you look back and say that was for the best.”
Burgess said he was impressed with the professionalism of the news staff following Friday's announcement. “They are a very talented and professional group of people ... they handled themselves very well,” he said.
Phillips said there needs to be more tax and grant support for public access television stations. “We need to value the knowledge and talent in our communities,” he said. “We can't just rely on the Press Democrat.”
Phillips bemoaned the state of the country's media in general: “We have become the best entertained and the worst informed society in the world.”
Twenty six years after its founding, KFTY TV50 last week announced 13 layoffs in its news department, eliminating its nightly news programs and telling viewers it would now depend on them for programming content.
TV50 General Manager and Vice President John Burgess said the layoffs were “a business decision we had to make. I certainly understand the concern of the public but it's a decision that just had to be made.”
Burgess, who started at the station in 1990 as news director, said “the advertising base was not there to support these two long-form newscasts. We will continue to look for ways to deliver content to viewers and users ... we truly want to engage the viewers so that it becomes more of a two-way conversation. We would like viewers to play a greater role in content production.”
One idea is a new show that will debut in March, called “Your Take” that is “more of an entertainment show using content contributed by viewers,” said Burgess.
He said that four news staff will remain at the station to produce four news updates, with news, traffic and weather, which will air during the two hour “Armstrong and Getty” show in the morning. The updates will include news from throughout the Bay Area, said Burgess.
TV50 is owned by Clear Channel Communications, a national radio and TV media giant that has announced its intentions to sell all its television stations. Burgess said the news department layoffs were not related to the pending sale of the station. Asked about the future of Sonoma County's only commercial television station, Burgess said, “I honestly don't know.”
Jim Johnson, who helped start the station as a consultant to owner Wishard Brown in 1980, said the advertising market has always been difficult for a small independent station in a larger Bay Area market. “Local news programming is very important, but hard to justify on a financial basis,” said Johnson. “It's expensive ... as a journalist, I hate to see any medium that has been covering the news come to that point. It's not good for Sonoma County, the North Bay, or America, to have that happen. We live in a community but we have more interest in what Paris Hilton is doing than what the police chief is doing.”
Sonoma State University Professor Peter Phillips, a media critic and director of Project Censored, said he was not surprised about the decision to cut local news. “That's not surprising for Clear Channel,” he said. “As they consolidate, this is what happens. News is expensive ... a decline in news has been something that has happened with media channels all over the country. It's one of the problems with media consolidation in this country. You lose local access ... this plan to have local bloggers and video cam people do the news and post it is very lame ... it's almost like overt censorship. Let's entertain ourselves to death and not have any real news about our communities or the world around us ... to make that your primary source of news on a local basis is a disservice to the community.”
News staff who were laid off were prohibited from discussing the station's decision as part of their severance agreement
Longtime news anchor Ed Beebout said his 23 years at TV50 were very enjoyable. “It really has been a pleasure and privilege to be working on a local TV newscast and bringing people stories that they wouldn't see on a San Francisco station,” said Beebout, who also teaches journalism at SSU. “I'm trying to be positive ... every so often in our lives we get a shakeup and sometimes you look back and say that was for the best.”
Burgess said he was impressed with the professionalism of the news staff following Friday's announcement. “They are a very talented and professional group of people ... they handled themselves very well,” he said.
Phillips said there needs to be more tax and grant support for public access television stations. “We need to value the knowledge and talent in our communities,” he said. “We can't just rely on the Press Democrat.”
Phillips bemoaned the state of the country's media in general: “We have become the best entertained and the worst informed society in the world.”
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