cnymike said:
Eichorn isn't retiring on his own demeanor
Actually, I have it on very good authority that he IS leaving on his own accord. The station would be absolutely
bonkers to push him out. He's the most-experienced, most-qualified meteorologist in Syracuse TV. Eichorn has a teenage son, who is only a few more years away from going off to college. Several years ago, Eichorn managed to swing a deal where he can work earlier hours on Fridays, in order to get home and spend more QT with the family. A few years later, he got Mondays added into the deal. This time around, he wanted to get earlier hours every day. Otherwise, he only really gets to see his son on weekends... given the fact that a school-day schedule and an evening news talent schedule aren't really compatible with one another. From what I understand, Eichorn wasn't even asking for much (if any) more money... he just wanted the earlier schedule. The station said no. Both sides were probably hoping the other would back down, but it didn't happen.
As much as it really sucks that WSYR management (or perhaps this was all mandates handed down from Newport) couldn't come to an agreement. But, if you put yourself in their shoes, you can see how that could have been a logistical mess. The ideal schedule is one person does morning and noon, and the other person does 5/6/11. If Eichorn does something like 10:30 to 6:30, presumably he'd do the noon, 5 and 6. So that would mean Dave Longley would be getting paid for doing the morning show, and then the rest of the day doing nothing... and then on the flip side, you'd be paying Jim Teske to come in at 3:00 and do nothing until it's time to start working on the 11pm forecast. That would leave Mark Chapin doing ALL weekend shows -- something he's already attempted and apparently didn't enjoy. So you'd have Chapin doing weekend morning OR night, and then a 5th meteorologist to do the other show. Five meteorologists is unheard of in this-size market, and again, Newport's on a hiring freeze anyway.
Of course, with Eichorn's departure, there's a new question of how all the newscasts will be staffed with only 3 meteorologists. The station has already named Longley as the new Chief, but it hasn't said what's happening with morning/noon or weekends.
cnymike said:
As far as I'm concerned, WSYR has been a huge station for it's market size, mainly due to the Ackerley tenure, and all the hirings during the mid-late 80's. Now with from the CEO's past history will be a cheap company, and an economic rough road, they're going to adjust like all stations have. I think a public company should have bought CCTV. As far as I'm concerned, privatization of the television industry is the worst thing yet.
You're right about WSYR being bigger than the average station for this market size. Of course, the proof is in the pudding -- by gathering the best talent in town during the 80s and 90s, they managed to knock WTVH off the pedestal it held for such a long time (and 5's demotion of Ron Curtis to noon, followed later by his retirement only helped 9).
However, I'm not so sure it would have mattered whether the buyer of ClearChannel TV was public or private. In either case, the new owner would have a pretty hefty debt to pay down, especially with the economic downturn. Public or private, any buyer would be facing the same difficulty Newport is facing now. Being private may actually be a blessing -- as the company only needs to please the small group of investors who own the company. If Newport were public, you'd have the difficult task of pleasing shareholders -- and the stock price would probably be down in the toilet with most other broadcasting stocks right now.
That being said, there's still some downfall to being owned by a private equity group. They're investment bankers who don't really care about broadcasting. They just want to buy stations, increase profits, and then re-sell the stations off to a new owner, for much more than they originally paid. They probably figured this would only take 3-5 years, but that'll probably take at least 10 years now.
The ideal situation is being owned by a private owner who has deep pockets, plenty of patience, and is willing to leave "well enough" alone. The rare instances where a small family owns the station(s) and they're OK with "enough" profit, as opposed to trying to squeeze out every drop they can. WWNY in Watertown, WCAX in Burlington, and the "original" Smith ownership of WKTV in Utica are prime examples of stations under private ownership where folks are (or were) paid very nicely for the market size, the stations do well in ratings, and layoffs are pretty rare. Privatization can be good, as long as it's the
right kind of privatization.
