I highly doubt it. It's unfortunate, considering they should still have quite a bit of gear leftover from before, which is a great leg-up over a station that's never had news at all.
But, the big hurdle, I'm guessing, is the salaries. At the very least, and with rather modest guesses on salaries, you need a news director ($35k), a lead anchor ($30k), a meterorologist ($25k), a sports director ($25k), two producers (2 x $20k) and at least four reporters (4 x $20k).
And this is assuming the reporters are all one-man-banding, you can use an existing engineer to operate the live truck, and existing production people can handle the control room. We're also assuming you're only doing weekdays, 6, 10 and 11, with a producer for 6, a producer for 11, and the anchor produces the 10 (for WFXV). No dedicated assignment desk coordinator, no dedicated video editors or shooters. Production is likely one person, all controlled by Parkervision. Maybe a part-time floor manager if that's cheaper than buying robotic cameras. Maybe also a part-time or on-call weekend shooter to grab big stories that would still have some newsworthiness come Monday night.
Already we're up to $235,000+ on salaries alone. Doesn't seem like much, but now let's add in benefits, along with the company's federally-mandated matching contributions to things like social security and disability. We can go a step further, adding the costs of newswire and video feed services, news vehicles, gas for said vehicles, cell phones, and the increase in office supplies for things like paper, toner, pens, pencils, notepads, phone calls, electricity, and so on.
And this is assuming all the equipment is still intact, but it's been said many times that ClearChannel took away a lot of stuff before they handed they keys over to Nexstar/Mission. It could cost tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars to restock the station with enough cameras, edit bays, monitors, computers, and so forth, in order to rebirth the news department.
Obviously, if you invest all this money, you're intending to get back into the news game for the long haul. If you've got your people signed to multi-year contracts, usually that means they'll be making more each anniversary date. Even if they're on just a one-year deal, they'll likely want more to stay, especially if the ratings are good. Some people won't be missed if they go to a bigger market, but others are worth matching (or trying) the offer to get them to stay... especially the anchor, a position which should not become a revolving-door if at all possible. In other words, you need to be prepared to see that $235k salary estimate go up at least a little bit each year. The sales department better be able to keep up with it, especially if the ratings aren't stellar.
I really can't see WUTR/WFXV putting up that much money (we'll estimate
at least $500,000 for salaries plus startup equipment), especially at a time when they, like many small market stations, aren't even up to speed on HD yet. This is probably a great time to try to catch WKTV being lazy and stale, but the bigger priority is to get HD up and running. Get that project out of the way, and then re-build the savings account as you wait for Bill Worden to retire. I'm still not sure who among WKTV's staff is the "heir apparent" to take over. Every time it seems someone is finally "getting there," they take off for a bigger market. After Worden, the 2 "lifer" anchors who have the most seniority in the market, are the GM and the News Director! There's no way a GM or ND could work a 3 to 11 shift; you need to be there during business hours. Would either of them give up their managerial role to become lead anchor? My gut says no, but stranger things have happened. Staying with my gut though... who would be next in line? Beyond those two, I can't honestly say ANY current WKTV anchor is worthy of replacing Worden. That could change as the current lineup gets more experience, and assuming they don't take off. But as long as there's no heir apparent, WUTR could have a shot at it, if they could get a "decent" team assembled within a relatively short time frame after Worden's retirement. Of course, a "decent" team (anchor and at least 1 or 2 reporters who have actual experience, as opposed to fresh out of college) would likely require a bigger checkbook than estimated above.
The bottom line is... well, the bottom line. That's a lot of scratch for a small market station. And while it
could turn out to be very profitable, WKTV's long-running dominance over WUTR (even WUTR's news was at its best) can scare even the most daring of station owners into keeping their checkbook firmly shut. And when it comes to checkbooks, Nexstar isn't known to open theirs very often in the first place. Just ask the folks "
Rockin'
on
Cocaine" about 15 Thruway exits to the west.
