WSAZ-TV shifting production work to Huntington, will cut 8

CoolBreeze · Post by **CoolBreeze** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:51 pm

WSAZ-TV is cutting eight employees from its Charleston staff as it prepares to transition its local news to high-definition broadcasts, said Don Ray, vice president and general manager.

Three full-time and five part-time employees in Charleston will be affected by the station's decision to shift behind-the-scenes news production to Huntington, Ray said.

WSAZ-TV broadcasts news from both Huntington and Charleston and has audio, directing and graphics staff in both locations.

"If you're going to generate high-definition, you've got to change parts of your physical plant," Ray explained. "We were going to have to make changes in two places."

Moving the production work to Huntington means the physical changes required for high-definition broadcasts will only need to be made there, he said. "It's going to save us nearly $2 million to not have to take those things in Charleston digital. It's progress.

"From an economic and technical standpoint, the decision was a no-brainer," he said. "From a people standpoint, it was a very difficult thing to do.

MORE....

http://www.dailymail.com/News/Kanawha/200803030257

drunksailor · Post by **drunksailor** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:10 pm

Wonder how much more Donnie Ray's bonus will be for cutting so much out of the budget?

genlock · Post by **genlock** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:58 am

Actually WSAZ has tried to do the right thing with their departing employees.
They were told over a year ago that this was going to happen and to be prepared. Better than the 'bums-rush" that the channel 13 people got.

OSIGURU · Post by **OSIGURU** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:53 pm

Gray also thought it was a wonderful money saving idea to let go of about 25 traffic employees and move all traffic department duties to WSAZ. This has been a diaster so far and I see the traffic departments being added back to each station before the end of the year.

Big Media · Post by **Big Media** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:36 pm

OSIGURU wrote:Gray also thought it was a wonderful money saving idea to let go of about 25 traffic employees and move all traffic department duties to WSAZ. This has been a diaster so far and I see the traffic departments being added back to each station before the end of the year.

It must be mismanaged. I have seen several "Hub Manager" openings over the past year, too.

I was surprised to learn that the hub seems to be ran (run) by the sales manager.

OSIGURU · Post by **OSIGURU** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:04 pm

The last hub traffic manager left after working only 6 months as the hub manager. The GSM was over the traffic department. Maybe explains why she left the station. I bet it is very difficult for someone sitting in Huntington, WV doing the traffic work for a station five states away.

WSAZ was rumored to become a master control hub for several stations, but I quess since the nightmare of this hub stuff, those plans were put on hold.

Waveguide · Post by **Waveguide** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:07 pm

So.... with this news, what happening with the WV Lottery Broadcasts??
Or is that been stolen by another station? I shure thought that would "pay"
for WSAZ-Charleston, with the leftover free money to run everything else.

With what used to be a very ol' and clunky microwave system from
Chas-Town to the transmitter and then to the Huntington studios........
(and, God, I still have nightmares about that junk!!! )
Question is, "Just what kind of transport for this new and improved
bandwith between Hunt & Chas are they using"???
And that shit ain't cheap either!!!

genlock · Post by **genlock** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:19 am

WOWK has the lottery cash cow in it's pasture.

Don't know about the transport, maybe fiber.

Clay JD Walker · Post by **Clay JD Walker** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:07 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, after that ice storm of early 03 SAZ installed fiber links between Charleston and Huntington for feeds, Clay Center links, ect. Microwave still there for the split, though, right?

Traffic in other markets seems difficult, until I saw it being done for my radio station when I came into town...granted, my clocks are simple in comparison to TV, certainly, but we never had any issues...

Again, comparing apples to Nunley's mom and all...

Big Media · Post by **Big Media** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:30 pm

OSIGURU wrote:I bet it is very difficult for someone sitting in Huntington, WV doing the traffic work for a station five states away.

Actually, with OSI, it is quite simple and it is now common place to hub traffic operations.

Traffic is clerical. The system pretty much takes care of itself.

OSIGURU · Post by **OSIGURU** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:29 pm

Traffic work is very simple if there are no advertisers and all you have to do is fill each program with promos and psa's.

Besides the Charleston employees being let go, I have heard there
have been numerous lay offs in the Huntington office.

Could be since the political ad dollars were not spent in this
market they thought there would be.

Big Media · Post by **Big Media** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:03 pm

OSIGURU wrote:Traffic work is very simple if there are no advertisers and all you have to do is fill each program with promos and psa's.

Actually, it is simple either way. Again, input... wait for the results... shift a few things... preempt some exceptions.... print. Done.

Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking traffic. It is by far the funnest job I have ever done but it is still clerical in nature. The information system runs the show, alls you have to do is check the results and maximize those revenues.

drunksailor · Post by **drunksailor** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:56 pm

"If you're going to generate high-definition, you've got to change parts of your physical plant," Ray explained. "We were going to have to make changes in two places."

Moving the production work to Huntington means the physical changes required for high-definition broadcasts will only need to be made there, he said. "It's going to save us nearly $2 million to not have to take those things in Charleston digital. It's progress. "

The article says nothing about eliminating the Charleston split. So it looks as if Penny Moss will stay... Here's my question:

All they are doing is moving the equipment normally maned in Charleston to Huntington where someone will do the switching remotely. Won't they still have to purchase double of the major items (switcher, audio board, etc...) to keep the split? I don't see much savings...

Sounds to me like they are moving towards phasing out the split in the next few years and making Charleston a straight newsroom.

Ace Purple · Post by **Ace Purple** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:45 pm

It's interesting to hear that the Huntington/Charleston split may eventually go away. It was rather fascinating to see it take place in real-time when I went to WSAZ for my interview there in November 1999. And while I never had to deal with that while producing the morning news there, I thought that the staff that was on board at the time usually did a strong job on synching up without too much trouble.

Waveguide · Post by **Waveguide** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:40 pm

drunksailor said:

Sounds to me like they are moving towards phasing out the split in the next few years
and making Charleston a straight newsroom

I KNOW....... we'll just go back to the way they orginally
did the two city news cast back in 1956.
The viewers will never notice, ( their too young ).
And we'll call it a new idea........ BRILLENT!!!!!

Or what ever the hell year it was...... I know some nice A-Hole will correct me.....