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Matt Sampsell out/Kristi Powers in at KRIV

S

snoman

Guest
I got word this morning that popular sports reporter/anchor Matt Sampsell is out, due to corporate budget cuts. They also eliminated a newsroom asst., and a couple of live truck operators. This after last month eliminating the entire part-time production staff. The strange thing is that they hired a FOURTH weather anchor/meteorologist. Kristi Powers, who used to do weekend weather at KHWB/KHCW 39 will be the new morning Meteorologist, and Mike Iscovitz will move to the noon show and do a lot of webcasting and will fill in at 9pm, when Dr. Jim is off. With Fox 26 being known for its GREAT sports department, I am rather shocked by this move. I am sure that Mark Berman is not happy about this terrible decision. :mad: I am happy for Kristi, who has most recently been at the FOX O&O in Orlando. She did some fill-in work at KRIV a few months ago, when both Mike and Dr. Jim were out, and she was great.
 
It's going to be a rough summer for many TV groups. Gannett has been making corporate-wide chops this week. Belo just blew out a bunch of people in Phoenix, with rumors of more to come elsewhere. And Pappas (KAZH/57) is in bankruptcy.

That along with all the recent downsizing at the CBS and NBC O&O's.

I'm also doubtful that Tribune's news operations at KHCW and KDAF are going to survive.
 
yragha said:
What will happen with 57? Retro TV Network by chance?
Click to expand...

It would be a good time for KAZH to give up on targetting Spanish dominant Hispanics, and refocus on Houston's large (and unserved on OTA TV) Asian community. Pretty significant market for Vietnamese, Chinese, and Hindi programming, not to mention Arabic and Urdu. Perhaps the digital signal could have a multicast with one stream for each language.

However, that will probably require fresh ownership. But the door might be opening for that.
 
snoman said:
I got word this morning that popular sports reporter/anchor Matt Sampsell is out, due to corporate budget cuts. They also eliminated a newsroom asst., and a couple of live truck operators. This after last month eliminating the entire part-time production staff. The strange thing is that they hired a FOURTH weather anchor/meteorologist. Kristi Powers, who used to do weekend weather at KHWB/KHCW 39 will be the new morning Meteorologist, and Mike Iscovitz will move to the noon show and do a lot of webcasting and will fill in at 9pm, when Dr. Jim is off. With Fox 26 being known for its GREAT sports department, I am rather shocked by this move. I am sure that Mark Berman is not happy about this terrible decision. :mad: I am happy for Kristi, who has most recently been at the FOX O&O in Orlando. She did some fill-in work at KRIV a few months ago, when both Mike and Dr. Jim were out, and she was great.
Click to expand...

With budget cutting Fox, especially KRIV, is the toughest place to work. The GM is completely beholden to Fox Corporate and will do nothing to protect anyone at the station if their job is questioned. There are other GMs in the Houston and Dallas markets that will actually go to bat for their people, especially if those people are basically indispensable.
 
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