The Buffalo News reports that 5 staffers at WBFO/88.7 have been released, likely in a round of cost-cutting. Omar Fetouh and Chris Caya are two of the staffers who have been let go(Fetouh confirmed this in a post to his Twitter account; he's been with WBFO for 19 years). Mark Scott, who will be retiring after this weekend, has been with the station for 39 years.
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WBFO cuts staff
- Thread starter ckg279
- Start date
"Covid cuts." Public Radio is not immune to the economic impact of the pandemic. The problem with Ch 17 and its stations, I have been told by many who work(ed) there is the numerous layers of upper management that rarely if ever seem to get cut. Is the highly compensated president of WNY Public Broadcasters sharing the pain to any extent? Asking for a friend.
Upper management will always save themselves first. They will give a public statement expressing remorse, but it rings hollow as always. This behaviour is not limited to Radio. In this case listeners can stop their financial contributions in protest, even though it won't change anything...
Upper management runs any company, and part of the job of preserving a company or entity is keeping it running. The alternative is liquidation where everyone loses.
In this case, liquidation losers include all the listeners. Belt tightening to preserve an operation is the only way to survive. Without management, there would be no chance for survival.
The staff cuts are in keeping with similar cuts around the entire public broadcasting system. Even well-heeled systems such as Minnesota Public Radio have made staff and programing cuts, including the nationally syndicated Saturday night program "Live From Here."
https://variety.com/2020/music/news...thile-american-public-radio-cutss-1234637341/
Staff cuts have also hit NPR and PBS:
https://current.org/2020/06/pbs-cuts-jobs-changes-up-departments/
The reason is local sponsorship money has almost completely disappeared. it's not unlike the problem local commercial stations are facing with advertising losses. Local businesses were closed for a few months, now they're operating at lower capacity, so they aren't advertising or doing public radio sponsorships. If and when the local business situation changes, they may be able to hire some of the staff back.
https://variety.com/2020/music/news...thile-american-public-radio-cutss-1234637341/
Staff cuts have also hit NPR and PBS:
https://current.org/2020/06/pbs-cuts-jobs-changes-up-departments/
The reason is local sponsorship money has almost completely disappeared. it's not unlike the problem local commercial stations are facing with advertising losses. Local businesses were closed for a few months, now they're operating at lower capacity, so they aren't advertising or doing public radio sponsorships. If and when the local business situation changes, they may be able to hire some of the staff back.
The difference is that in liquidation, upper management usually gets a nice Golden Parachute. You'll have forgive the people who have been "dislocated" if they don't attend your Management Pity Party...
Similar to the mantra used by banks and auto industry after the economy collapsed in late 2008-09. Got to protect the people in the corner offices. Golden parachutes for upper management, a long dry bone for the service people. Same with Farid and his $30 million parachute when Citadel went deep into the septic tank.
Along with the listeners, the remaining staff members lose as well. They'll have to pick up the work load. It's already happened with extended shifts.
In which case, WNYPB should last for a few hundred years because upper management is that thick. It's a protected fiefdom. Scores of ass-covering and homage-paying.
You're talking about two very different kinds of operations here. WNYPB isn't anywhere near to being on the verge of bankruptcy. They just laid off 5 people. That's fairly moderate compared to other similar sized NPR stations around the country. Let's not start talking about the death of a station that's still better staffed than most of the other operations in town. Especially as far as news.
Fetouh once was Assistant New Director and most recently served as a reporter-program host. How and why he lost the Assistant ND position is curious. Caya was an accomplished WNED-AM/WBFO reporter. Where might they migrate? WBEN? Entercom has been cutting staff across the board. Buffalo TV stations' news departments seem adequately staffed, as Buffalo News TV critic Alan Pergament in a column months ago pointed out, with an abundant number of female reporters. BTW, his column was fact-based and was not gender biased. Nor is the reference to it here.
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There are three jobs right now at Spectrum News.
CEO Don Boswell makes over 300,000 a year. The combined salaries of the people he let go is likely less than half that. He should be able to live quite well in Buffalo on 100,000 a year. His company reportedly got the COVID loan money as well...
His salary is set by the board of trustees. If they think he's overpaid, they'll take care of it. This isn't a reality show where TV viewers get to vote the CEO off the island. No matter where you work, the boss makes more than the employees. If that's a problem, start your own business.
The gulf between workers and CEOs is at an all time. If you think it's just about the Boss making more, you're missing the point...
"You say you want a revolution? Well you know, we'd all love to see the plan." ---John Lennon 1967
Public station managers are both station operators and fund raisers. The good ones get good salaries, and if a station does not pay a competitive salary, they will get a lesser manager and raise less money.
Nobody gets excited if a baseball player gets millions a year. Yet if a station manager is a star in their own field, people like you get all bent out of shape.
Few players bat .400 and those that do or approach that level are paid huge salaries. A good public station manager who raises many millions is highly talented, yet getting a much lesser salary. If anything, they should make more; their skills keep the team alive.
The point you are missing is that there are millions and millions of workers. There are relatively few star managers in any field, and they are often the subject of competitive bidding and counter-offers.
Are you making $300 thousand a year? If the manager of WBFO makes that and you don't, perhaps he has a unique marketable quality.
Managers brought in by a troubled BOD to take care of a troubled company are generally offered "prizes" if they manage to keep the ship afloat and manage a successful sale or Chapter 11. Otherwise, why would a skilled manager go into a very risky situation that could, potentially kill their career?
For several decades, I did turn-arounds. I was offered huge incentives if I achieved pre-set goals and even better ones if I continued on at the job instead of leaving. I could ask for deals because I was a last recourse; I took the risks and got a nice reward. That is how business works... stars in any area are well rewarded as there are not that many of them.
Or if you do, and you're not, then you haven't conveyed your irreplaceable credentials to anyone who can pay you for it.
That's the difference between those who have, and those who don't. Ask the president. He's an expert.
I really don't understand a word of what you say in the first two sentences; I don't event think Marie Antoinette would know what the cake reference means.
However, your final statement about radio is wrong.
Radio is growing in new media and certainly holding its own in terrestrial broadcasting. It's in the middle of a transformation in delivery systems, not the basic concepts of programming.
The problems radio has in that transformation to new media are not of its own origination; the issue is the cost of digital delivery due to artist, label and composer/author rights.
Radio survived the Great Recession of our prior decade and the nearly simultaneous introduction of smartphones and tablets as a new distribution system. There is no revenue growth in the terrestrial portion of the industry, but that does not take into account the huge growth and future potential of new distribution systems. One of the effects of the Internet is to nearly eliminate regionalism and we'll soon see national broadcast radio formats being the majority, just as they are in much of the rest of the world.
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