dustintv said:
Did WSYR, WIVT, or WXXA see any of the cuts that WHAM was seeing? I did hear something about a veteran anchor leaving WSYR, who was it?
About a dozen people left WSYR, but word on the street is that most were voluntary buyouts for off-camera people. They're unionized, so firing people by seniority wouldn't have accomplished much in the way of cost savings. The few who were let go flat-out were non-union management or sales types. No on-air personalities were fired, but Mike Price retired, while Michael Riecke and Shelby Stafford both left for new jobs elsewhere. Price had been on the channel 9 payroll since before it even signed on as WNYS back in the 60s. Riecke could be considered a "veteran anchor" because he had spent several years anchoring weekends and then co-anchoring mornings.
Don't think there were many, if any, cuts at WIVT... their newsroom is already pretty slim to begin with. They went through a round of cuts a few years ago which resulted in the elimination of their 5 and 11pm newscasts. They do a morning show, and then they do an hour at 5:30pm. Some say
that only exists because of heavy sponsorship from the Oakdale Mall, from which the 5:30 hour is anchored on location every night. It's bizarre that this even gets any kind of ratings.
WXXA, on the other hand, did lose quite a few people. A friend out that way told me it was on the order of 15-20 people, give or take a few. I don't remember the exact number, seems like it was a lot longer than a month and a half ago.
