J
Jul
Guest
If you want to talk about the issues about WHYY not truly serving Delaware and the city of license: Wilmington, this is the thread to do it in.
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The original thread did start out as a WHYY-FM thread, but the channel 12 stuff was introduced by someone and it became a channel 12 thread from that point on. Interestingly Julius, you didn't make a comment about the WKBS-TV thread on the Philly radio discussion board.
Some of you may or may not know that the FCC has always treated the Wilmington TV market as the "red haired step child". This goes all the way back to the early 1950's when then WRCV channel 3 NBC Philly, pressured NBC to take Wilmington's WDEL-TV channel 12's NBC affiliation away from them. This caused WDEL-TV to be in a difficult spot where they literally had nothing to air that could possibly compete with the network shows as there weren't reruns then or all the syndicated programming that an independent station could access today. That set the path for Wilmington to never have a real TV station. The FCC did nothing to stop NBC, from what I've been able to find out, from sticking it to the then WDEL-TV 12 (had started out as WDEL-TV channel 7 and the FCC moved them to channel 12 so as to not interfere with NYC and Washington's channel 7's.
Also, there is WPPX Channel 61, (ION TV) that is also licensed to Wilmington, which also has no presence in or programming for Wilmington.
Also Channel 64 Seaford that simulcasts Philly's WHYY Channel 12 to Lower Delaware. So there are really 3 Delaware TV licenses that have ignored their city and state of license. All three should be held to task by the FCC. Kind of makes you wonder what sort of lobbyists does WHYY have in Washington.
When WHYY moved from channel 35 to channel 12 back in 1963, even then their main studio of operations was in Philly (the old WFIL studios at 46th and Market Sts, Philly. The Wilmington studio was a broken down old very small school house at 5th and Scott Sts. They aired two shows from Wilmington then, Delaware Tonight at 6pm and 11pm and a weekly show called Dover Docket - a week in review, sort of a lesser tech version of this news magazine they now do.
The people in charge at WHYY realized or at least suspected that people from Philly would never financially donate to support a Wilmington NET, later a PBS station, but yet they fully expected Wilmingtonians to financially support a Philly PBS station. Go figure. Actually what they probably believed is IF channel 12 made Philly the target audience then they'd not really need financial support from Wilmingtonians or even Delawareans as the Philly audience has far more people (approx 2-3 million) than the entire State of Delaware (approx 880,000). So bottom line, the went for the money and not serving their city of license. As they say, follow the money. WHYY can spin it any way they want, but that is the bottom line. The sad part is the FCC has allowed WHYY to get away with that. So much for government oversight. It's this sort of poor management that we get from the Federal government that makes people even more uncomfortable with the Federal government running healthcare.
It would be great if the FCC finally made WHYY truly serve Wilmington, by requiring them to move back into their 8th and Orange St studio (since they haven't been able to unload it yet) and restart Delaware Tonight with an evening newscast at 7pm rather than 5:30 pm which is before most people are home from work (they wonder why their viewer ship was so low - can't watch TV and drive at the same time - that's what radio is for) and a later night live newscast either 10 or 11pm. Also require that they air the Delaware Governor's state of the state and inaugural address in the evening so the working tax payers could actually get to see it (WHYY airs the PA governors speeches at night so why not the governor in your state of license). They should also be required to feature some Delaware cultural programming, like the Delaware Symphony, etc, a Delaware cultural special a couple times a year to highlight the cultural life here. Yes, that is a pipe dream, but that would truly be a Wilmington oriented PBS station. Will this happen? I doubt it seriously. The FCC hasn't given a hoot about Wilmington as a TV market since WDEL tried to make Wilmington a TV city almost 60 years ago, so why should that change now. I'd sure like to be proven wrong.
Some of you may or may not know that the FCC has always treated the Wilmington TV market as the "red haired step child". This goes all the way back to the early 1950's when then WRCV channel 3 NBC Philly, pressured NBC to take Wilmington's WDEL-TV channel 12's NBC affiliation away from them. This caused WDEL-TV to be in a difficult spot where they literally had nothing to air that could possibly compete with the network shows as there weren't reruns then or all the syndicated programming that an independent station could access today. That set the path for Wilmington to never have a real TV station. The FCC did nothing to stop NBC, from what I've been able to find out, from sticking it to the then WDEL-TV 12 (had started out as WDEL-TV channel 7 and the FCC moved them to channel 12 so as to not interfere with NYC and Washington's channel 7's.
Also, there is WPPX Channel 61, (ION TV) that is also licensed to Wilmington, which also has no presence in or programming for Wilmington.
Also Channel 64 Seaford that simulcasts Philly's WHYY Channel 12 to Lower Delaware. So there are really 3 Delaware TV licenses that have ignored their city and state of license. All three should be held to task by the FCC. Kind of makes you wonder what sort of lobbyists does WHYY have in Washington.
When WHYY moved from channel 35 to channel 12 back in 1963, even then their main studio of operations was in Philly (the old WFIL studios at 46th and Market Sts, Philly. The Wilmington studio was a broken down old very small school house at 5th and Scott Sts. They aired two shows from Wilmington then, Delaware Tonight at 6pm and 11pm and a weekly show called Dover Docket - a week in review, sort of a lesser tech version of this news magazine they now do.
The people in charge at WHYY realized or at least suspected that people from Philly would never financially donate to support a Wilmington NET, later a PBS station, but yet they fully expected Wilmingtonians to financially support a Philly PBS station. Go figure. Actually what they probably believed is IF channel 12 made Philly the target audience then they'd not really need financial support from Wilmingtonians or even Delawareans as the Philly audience has far more people (approx 2-3 million) than the entire State of Delaware (approx 880,000). So bottom line, the went for the money and not serving their city of license. As they say, follow the money. WHYY can spin it any way they want, but that is the bottom line. The sad part is the FCC has allowed WHYY to get away with that. So much for government oversight. It's this sort of poor management that we get from the Federal government that makes people even more uncomfortable with the Federal government running healthcare.
It would be great if the FCC finally made WHYY truly serve Wilmington, by requiring them to move back into their 8th and Orange St studio (since they haven't been able to unload it yet) and restart Delaware Tonight with an evening newscast at 7pm rather than 5:30 pm which is before most people are home from work (they wonder why their viewer ship was so low - can't watch TV and drive at the same time - that's what radio is for) and a later night live newscast either 10 or 11pm. Also require that they air the Delaware Governor's state of the state and inaugural address in the evening so the working tax payers could actually get to see it (WHYY airs the PA governors speeches at night so why not the governor in your state of license). They should also be required to feature some Delaware cultural programming, like the Delaware Symphony, etc, a Delaware cultural special a couple times a year to highlight the cultural life here. Yes, that is a pipe dream, but that would truly be a Wilmington oriented PBS station. Will this happen? I doubt it seriously. The FCC hasn't given a hoot about Wilmington as a TV market since WDEL tried to make Wilmington a TV city almost 60 years ago, so why should that change now. I'd sure like to be proven wrong.
I agree completely that WBOC does serve Lower Delaware (Kent and Sussex Counties quite well.
Unfortunately the Wilmington Metropolitan Area which includes the City of Wilmington, New Castle County DE, Salem County NJ, and Cecil County MD do not get served today in any regular manner by any TV station. They should be served by both channel's 12 (WHYY) and channel 61 WPPX which both are Wilmington city of license stations. The fact that the FCC has allowed this to be the case since almost the inception of broadcast TV to the Delaware Valley is a real tragedy.
Unfortunately the Wilmington Metropolitan Area which includes the City of Wilmington, New Castle County DE, Salem County NJ, and Cecil County MD do not get served today in any regular manner by any TV station. They should be served by both channel's 12 (WHYY) and channel 61 WPPX which both are Wilmington city of license stations. The fact that the FCC has allowed this to be the case since almost the inception of broadcast TV to the Delaware Valley is a real tragedy.
The FCC deemed that every state was to have at least one VHF station located in it, which is NJ has WWOR, NH has WMUR(which does focus on NH) and DE has WHYY. In hindsight I wonder why the channel 12 wasn't allocated to be in Dover instead. Wilmington is like Worcester MA in that 's wayyy too close to a major city Philly, 35 miles if fact. Many assume Wilmington and Newark as nothing more than a distant suburb or exurb of the city. Now unless Wilmington was bigger like Baltimore or had important significance like Providence then I could see the justification of giving Wilmington TV stations. So I believe channel 12 should have been place in Dover to serve the entire state better rather than up in Philly.
No wonder why WDEL-AM and WILM-AM have extensive newsblocks scheduled. WHYY's canceled Delaware Tonight last year didn't it? I believe BBC World News airs in its former 5:30 timeslot. They muttered something about budget cuts yet still managed to give Patrick Stoner a raise...
No wonder why WDEL-AM and WILM-AM have extensive newsblocks scheduled. WHYY's canceled Delaware Tonight last year didn't it? I believe BBC World News airs in its former 5:30 timeslot. They muttered something about budget cuts yet still managed to give Patrick Stoner a raise...
I would disagree with only one point you made. Channel 12 should be for Wilmington, not Dover. The Wilmington market contains about 680,000 of Delaware's 880,000 population. The Wilmington Metro area is Delaware's only metro area containing two of Delaware's largest cities (#1 Wilmington and #3 Newark) [#2 Dover has a couple thousand more people than Newark, but doesn't come close to approaching Wilmington's population].
Delawareans do not consider themselves to be a suburb of Philly. Delaware broke away from PA back in 1775 (that's the reason the upper boundary of Delaware is rounded). As Dover and the Lower part of Delaware do get excellent TV news coverage from WBOC, meaning that 1/4 of Delaware's population gets reasonable TV coverage while 3/4's of Delaware's population gets ignored. No, the FCC should force channel 12 to do it's job correctly.
Yes, the Wilmington radio market is kind of unique that way, where we still have two very good News/Talk AM radio stations (WDEL and WILM) both doing AM/noontime/PM drive newsblocks as they are cross town rivals. They and the Wilmington News Journal paper are the only sources of Wilmington news available as we now do not have a solid TV newscast at all other than a once a week news magazine. That's pretty shabby for market #76 where market #150 Salisbury MD has two TV stations doing local news.
Delawareans do not consider themselves to be a suburb of Philly. Delaware broke away from PA back in 1775 (that's the reason the upper boundary of Delaware is rounded). As Dover and the Lower part of Delaware do get excellent TV news coverage from WBOC, meaning that 1/4 of Delaware's population gets reasonable TV coverage while 3/4's of Delaware's population gets ignored. No, the FCC should force channel 12 to do it's job correctly.
Yes, the Wilmington radio market is kind of unique that way, where we still have two very good News/Talk AM radio stations (WDEL and WILM) both doing AM/noontime/PM drive newsblocks as they are cross town rivals. They and the Wilmington News Journal paper are the only sources of Wilmington news available as we now do not have a solid TV newscast at all other than a once a week news magazine. That's pretty shabby for market #76 where market #150 Salisbury MD has two TV stations doing local news.
I
imhomerjay
Guest
And should the FCC force the residents to open their wallets? Sometimes things just aren't viable any longer.
My guess is, if Delaware Tonight was aired at 7pm rather than 5:30pm when hardly anyone is home from work to watch TV, Channel 12 could get plenty of corporate underwriting from Delaware corporations/stores/businesses, etc (PBS lingo for commercials) for it as any commercial TV station would do for their local newscasts (those local newscasts actually make money for their stations so why not for a PBS station), plus Delawareans who valued the local news, who are watching it, many would donate, wouldn't have to be forced to pony up some cash, but if the underwriting was done effectively might not even be needed (they'd still do a begathon during the local news - hey it's what PBS/NPR stations do).
The bigger point is WHYY doesn't really want to serve their city of license. They probably believe, correctly, that the FCC won't require them to do anything, so why bother.
The bigger point is WHYY doesn't really want to serve their city of license. They probably believe, correctly, that the FCC won't require them to do anything, so why bother.
UNC-TV down in North Carolina airs a nightly news/public affairs called North Carolina Now that airs across the state at 7PM. A few years ago there was fears that UNC would begin scaling back the program but it was saved. WTTW in Chicago also airs a 7PM magazine nightly called Chicago Tonight. Some college-area based PBS stations air daily student-run newscasts. Just a few examples of what Delaware Tonight could have been. (WHYY could have used U of Delaware?)
In any case, thanks Mike for shedding more light on Newcastle County. Like Worcester MA its a real shame that Wilmington has become a hole. I'm currently visiting relatives in Lebanon PA and they get WPVI in addition to the Harrisburg channels and I saw the other night a small story about a fire/burglary in Wilmington. Perhaps that's all people north of the canal can expect.
In any case, thanks Mike for shedding more light on Newcastle County. Like Worcester MA its a real shame that Wilmington has become a hole. I'm currently visiting relatives in Lebanon PA and they get WPVI in addition to the Harrisburg channels and I saw the other night a small story about a fire/burglary in Wilmington. Perhaps that's all people north of the canal can expect.
UNC-TV down in North Carolina airs a nightly news/public affairs called North Carolina Now that airs across the state at 7PM. A few years ago there was fears that UNC would begin scaling back the program but it was saved. WTTW in Chicago also airs a 7PM magazine nightly called Chicago Tonight. Some college-area based PBS stations air daily student-run newscasts. Just a few examples of what Delaware Tonight could have been. (WHYY could have used U of Delaware?)
In any case, thanks Mike for shedding more light on Newcastle County. Like Worcester MA its a real shame that Wilmington has become a hole. I'm currently visiting relatives in Lebanon PA and they get WPVI in addition to the Harrisburg channels and I saw the other night a small story about a fire/burglary in Wilmington. Perhaps that's all people north of the canal can expect./color]
Unfortunately, that is probably true. However, that probably will be the reason that WDEL and WILM as news/talk AM radio stations that both have newsblocks during AM/Noon/PM Drive times will continue to survive as well as the Wilmington News Journal paper. They are the only consistent place to get Delaware news in Northern Delaware.
In any case, thanks Mike for shedding more light on Newcastle County. Like Worcester MA its a real shame that Wilmington has become a hole. I'm currently visiting relatives in Lebanon PA and they get WPVI in addition to the Harrisburg channels and I saw the other night a small story about a fire/burglary in Wilmington. Perhaps that's all people north of the canal can expect./color]
Unfortunately, that is probably true. However, that probably will be the reason that WDEL and WILM as news/talk AM radio stations that both have newsblocks during AM/Noon/PM Drive times will continue to survive as well as the Wilmington News Journal paper. They are the only consistent place to get Delaware news in Northern Delaware.
J
Jul
Guest
WHYY President's response to stories about public station
http://www.ledgerdelaware.com/articles/2009/12/21/news/doc4b2fe8c3ba3fe123458906.txt
http://www.ledgerdelaware.com/articles/2009/12/21/news/doc4b2fe8c3ba3fe123458906.txt
Thanks for the history. I didn't know Delaware broke away from Pennsylvania, but I'd say New Castle Co. DE is to Philadelphia, much like Central NJ is to New York. There's a reason there is SEPTA rail service between Wilmington and Philadelphia And another thing there is no $4 toll each way put in place between DE and PA on I-95 like there is between DE and MD, where there is no bridge/tunnel/river either and just an arbitrary you're changing states, let's put up a toll. If they eliminated SEPTA service, and implemented the high toll like there is between Wilmington and Baltimore, there'd be fewer commuters each way from DE and PA and eventually Wilmington metro with much more indepndent. But I d think DE could use better TV service, like a cable news channel or a station like WFMZ. But there are newspapers to fill that void.MikefromDelaware said:
Thanks Julius for the info from New Castle County Business Ledger.
To add to this, I've been in an email dialog with both Chris Satullo (News Director for WHYY) addressing some Delawareans concerns about channel 12 and how they serve Wilmington, their TV city of license. Mr. Satullo gave me permission to copy and paste his replies to me and post them here. I also invited him to post here as well. So maybe we'll hear more from him directly here at RI. Below are his replies to my questions. My comments will be in Green, Mr. Satullo's will be in Black. ___________________________________________________________________________________________
Mike - Thanks for your very thoughtful note. Let me correct a couple of misimpressions rattling around in your memo - largely because they are common misimpressions in Delaware, so maybe if I can at least correct them for you, I can have hope.
Delaware is the ONLY place that we produce local news programming. We do NO local TV news in Philadelphia. The notion that we have some kind of bustling Philly studio to which Wilmington plays second fiddle, while widespread, is completely wrong. The only TV news resources we have are based in Delaware; those reporters you hear on FM 91 are still full time employees of WHYY based in Wilmington. The radio reports have been added to their duties, along with First and Web reports, as part of our reenvisioning of the Delaware operation.
Commercial local newscasts USED to make money because they could sell, well, commercials. Underwriting on public television is a very narrow, restricted undertaking, with lots of FCC rules governing it. It very much limits which kinds of businesses - established businesses with a reputational brand - can do it. And local newscasts are no longer the profit centers they once were; they are an endangered species. TV news is VERY expensive to do. I can do two to three times as much journalism, at higher quality and depth, for the same dollar if the platform is radio or the Web. Your thoughts on timing (moving Delaware Tonight from 5:30pm to 7pm) for the news may well have been dead on 10 years ago; but the moment for that move is long past, in my estimation.
The younger generation does not watch TV news, period, no matter when it's on. Or, put another way, they watch what they want when they want to, either via the Web or thru DVRs and on-demand. The audience for Delaware Tonight always was narrow, and is getting narrower and older. First, even in its infancy, amid all the erroneous flak being shot at us right now, is getting twice the audience that Delaware Tonight ever did.
Chris
Chris, Thanks for your reply. A couple of questions though. I understand the Delaware reporters today are still in Wilmington, but once you sell the 8th and Orange location won't they then be moved to the Philly studio, or are you going to get a smaller place to make into a studio in Wilmington to produce First. Bottom line, is you need a TV studio to produce First. So if not in Wilmington then it must be in Philly. Meaning that you'll be doing a show about Delaware, but producing it in Philly. Even Philly's channel 6 has a Wilmington studio (that gets even less use than your Wilmington studio) for whatever Delaware news they deem worthy to cover for Action News. The reason many Delawareans do have the impression that Wilmington plays second fiddle to Philly for Channel 12 is because everything else you do with Channel 12 is done in Philly. Patrick Stoner's Quick Pix, and the Saturday Night Movie he hosts would be examples, are produced in Philly ( I remember when he worked at WJBR years ago - it was a beautiful music station then). All TV production, other than First is done in Philly. Why couldn't that be done in Wilmington and close the Philly TV studio?
Even the fundraisers are done in Philly. Any time WHYY-TV produces some TV show (local or for PBS) other than Delaware Tonight or now First, it says produced at WHYY -TV Philadelphia. I don't mean to be hard headed on this, but other than the legal ID the word Wilmington is never used other than during First and then the legal id says Wilmington-Philadelphia, not Wilmington. For all intents and purposes, you are a Philly station, other than on paper.
Channel 12's city and state of license is Wilmington Delaware, yet you air the PA Governor's state of the state and inaugural addresses in the evenings during prime time. Oddly enough you do not air the Delaware Governor's addresses at night when most people would be home to watch. Actually, I'm not sure if you even air them live during the day (when few are home to watch), but I know Delaware Tonight used to play a clip from the speeches during their newscast so you had someone there covering the speech (I'm at work during the day so that's why I don't know if you carried it live during the day). In any case, the Delaware Governor's speeches should be carried during prime time, in their entirety (not a capsule or "Readers Digest" edited version on First, but the whole thing) just as the PA's governor's speeches are aired.
It's these sorts of things that I've mentioned that say loud and clear to the people of Delaware that Wilmington does play second fiddle to Philly at Channel 12.
That is encouraging news that First is getting double the viewers of Delaware Tonight. Maybe you've got a winner, at least in terms of growing some better ratings for a Delaware news type program. More viewers at less cost. Congratulations. Thanks for taking the time to help clarify the issues.
Mike /color]
Mike - The plan always was to find a newer, better but smaller Wilmington studio. The notion that we are moving out of Wilmington is, well, it's a lie being propagated by people who hope to steal the license from us. Patrick Stoner's things were in fact shot in Delaware for years. He has offices in both places. The fund-raisers are in fact the only TV produced in Philly; and we get about 30 times the number of volunteers from Philly than we do from Del., so how would it make any sense to shoot that in Wilmington?There are just a lot more people in Philly.
And we do cover the governor's state of the state address each year; when I came in this year, I decided it made much more sense to show it on tape delay at night, for the reasons you state, and we got blasted for not covering it live. That, too, was seen as evidence that "we didn't care about Delaware." I could leave my estate to the state of Delaware instead of my kids and people in Delaware would complain that the inheritance was too small and I must have hidden part of it somewhere. This year we broadcast the UD/Del State football game; we've never broadcast a game with Pa. schools.
In sum we do a lot of things for and in Delaware that make no business sense when you look at the fact that we are in fact the public broadcaster for Phila. and South Jersey as well as the First State. We do it in order to make good on the implicit promise of having the license, and right now all we get for it is to be bombarded with out and out lies that people in Delaware would rather believe than the truth, because the truth is more complimentary to WHYY. Thanks for all the time you've put it into this. chris /color]
Chris, I've not heard that anywhere, including on 91 FM or Channel 12, that WHYY was going to move to another smaller location in Wilmington after selling 8th and Orange. I have two ideas on how you can get that word out.
First contact Allan Loudell at WDEL 478-2700 and Mark Fowser at WILM 395-9800 ( I worked with both men during my 7 years as a part time news reporter and talk show host - both are decent people). Both do interviews during their respective newsblocks. I'm sure both would be interested in giving you an interview. Also you might try contacting the News Journal's media news person.
Second, with your permission, I could copy and paste some of the things you've said to me in your email exchange here and go to a radio chat room (Radio Info) and put that info out there as it has been of interest there on the Philly TV board. You could also go there yourself and post your comments - You could do this on the Philly TV board as well, but be prepared for comments coming back to you there. Some of those folks are tough.
Do you have any potential locations in mind for the new Wilmington studio? It would be great to know of these possibilities.
With the fund raisers, why not have a Delaware night(s) [depending on how many volunteers you can get from Delaware] where you do some of the fundraising from Wilmington? You might get more Delawareans to volunteer if they didn't have to go to Philly to do it [just as folks from Philly aren't going to want to drive to Wilmington - it does work both ways]. Plus it would give you an other excuse to do something on TV from here. Maybe even the mayor, county council Exec, and President, some state legislators (in other words some well known Delawareans) might be willing to come on and help Ed Cunningham pitch channel 12 to the viewers, or just help on the phones, etc.
Do you plan on broadcasting more Uof D football next year? That probably would be a popular item to pull in Delaware viewers and possibly a good tristate event when UofD is playing a Philly college. Thanks for your willingness to discuss this with me. Mike/color]
Great ideas all. You are a good man. Thanks.chris
There you have it, unedited, Mr. Satullo's answers and comments to my questions regarding Channel 12. I give him credit, as I'm not a reporter today, just a viewer of channel 12 and listener to 91FM and he took a great deal of time to offer me his point of view and explain some of the realities as he sees them.
I must admit, even though I'd like to see more Wilmington and Delaware focus to channel 12, as a donor I also appreciate the fact that they are in search of a smaller less expensive studio location for their Wilmington operations. As all business, both industry and broadcasting all are struggling to make ends meet in this economy, a non-comm possibly has it even more difficult as a majority of their money comes as discretionary spending from our incomes as we donate. Also, as the world of broadcasting is changing - it's discussed here all the time, the younger demos, channel 12 and 91 FM are at least trying to reach those younger folks via the web, etc, and stay vital to the tristate area which does include Delaware.
Maybe he'll post here some day offering more insight as to what WHYY is doing.
To add to this, I've been in an email dialog with both Chris Satullo (News Director for WHYY) addressing some Delawareans concerns about channel 12 and how they serve Wilmington, their TV city of license. Mr. Satullo gave me permission to copy and paste his replies to me and post them here. I also invited him to post here as well. So maybe we'll hear more from him directly here at RI. Below are his replies to my questions. My comments will be in Green, Mr. Satullo's will be in Black. ___________________________________________________________________________________________
Mike - Thanks for your very thoughtful note. Let me correct a couple of misimpressions rattling around in your memo - largely because they are common misimpressions in Delaware, so maybe if I can at least correct them for you, I can have hope.
Delaware is the ONLY place that we produce local news programming. We do NO local TV news in Philadelphia. The notion that we have some kind of bustling Philly studio to which Wilmington plays second fiddle, while widespread, is completely wrong. The only TV news resources we have are based in Delaware; those reporters you hear on FM 91 are still full time employees of WHYY based in Wilmington. The radio reports have been added to their duties, along with First and Web reports, as part of our reenvisioning of the Delaware operation.
Commercial local newscasts USED to make money because they could sell, well, commercials. Underwriting on public television is a very narrow, restricted undertaking, with lots of FCC rules governing it. It very much limits which kinds of businesses - established businesses with a reputational brand - can do it. And local newscasts are no longer the profit centers they once were; they are an endangered species. TV news is VERY expensive to do. I can do two to three times as much journalism, at higher quality and depth, for the same dollar if the platform is radio or the Web. Your thoughts on timing (moving Delaware Tonight from 5:30pm to 7pm) for the news may well have been dead on 10 years ago; but the moment for that move is long past, in my estimation.
The younger generation does not watch TV news, period, no matter when it's on. Or, put another way, they watch what they want when they want to, either via the Web or thru DVRs and on-demand. The audience for Delaware Tonight always was narrow, and is getting narrower and older. First, even in its infancy, amid all the erroneous flak being shot at us right now, is getting twice the audience that Delaware Tonight ever did.
Chris
Chris, Thanks for your reply. A couple of questions though. I understand the Delaware reporters today are still in Wilmington, but once you sell the 8th and Orange location won't they then be moved to the Philly studio, or are you going to get a smaller place to make into a studio in Wilmington to produce First. Bottom line, is you need a TV studio to produce First. So if not in Wilmington then it must be in Philly. Meaning that you'll be doing a show about Delaware, but producing it in Philly. Even Philly's channel 6 has a Wilmington studio (that gets even less use than your Wilmington studio) for whatever Delaware news they deem worthy to cover for Action News. The reason many Delawareans do have the impression that Wilmington plays second fiddle to Philly for Channel 12 is because everything else you do with Channel 12 is done in Philly. Patrick Stoner's Quick Pix, and the Saturday Night Movie he hosts would be examples, are produced in Philly ( I remember when he worked at WJBR years ago - it was a beautiful music station then). All TV production, other than First is done in Philly. Why couldn't that be done in Wilmington and close the Philly TV studio?
Even the fundraisers are done in Philly. Any time WHYY-TV produces some TV show (local or for PBS) other than Delaware Tonight or now First, it says produced at WHYY -TV Philadelphia. I don't mean to be hard headed on this, but other than the legal ID the word Wilmington is never used other than during First and then the legal id says Wilmington-Philadelphia, not Wilmington. For all intents and purposes, you are a Philly station, other than on paper.
Channel 12's city and state of license is Wilmington Delaware, yet you air the PA Governor's state of the state and inaugural addresses in the evenings during prime time. Oddly enough you do not air the Delaware Governor's addresses at night when most people would be home to watch. Actually, I'm not sure if you even air them live during the day (when few are home to watch), but I know Delaware Tonight used to play a clip from the speeches during their newscast so you had someone there covering the speech (I'm at work during the day so that's why I don't know if you carried it live during the day). In any case, the Delaware Governor's speeches should be carried during prime time, in their entirety (not a capsule or "Readers Digest" edited version on First, but the whole thing) just as the PA's governor's speeches are aired.
It's these sorts of things that I've mentioned that say loud and clear to the people of Delaware that Wilmington does play second fiddle to Philly at Channel 12.
That is encouraging news that First is getting double the viewers of Delaware Tonight. Maybe you've got a winner, at least in terms of growing some better ratings for a Delaware news type program. More viewers at less cost. Congratulations. Thanks for taking the time to help clarify the issues.
Mike /color]
Mike - The plan always was to find a newer, better but smaller Wilmington studio. The notion that we are moving out of Wilmington is, well, it's a lie being propagated by people who hope to steal the license from us. Patrick Stoner's things were in fact shot in Delaware for years. He has offices in both places. The fund-raisers are in fact the only TV produced in Philly; and we get about 30 times the number of volunteers from Philly than we do from Del., so how would it make any sense to shoot that in Wilmington?There are just a lot more people in Philly.
And we do cover the governor's state of the state address each year; when I came in this year, I decided it made much more sense to show it on tape delay at night, for the reasons you state, and we got blasted for not covering it live. That, too, was seen as evidence that "we didn't care about Delaware." I could leave my estate to the state of Delaware instead of my kids and people in Delaware would complain that the inheritance was too small and I must have hidden part of it somewhere. This year we broadcast the UD/Del State football game; we've never broadcast a game with Pa. schools.
In sum we do a lot of things for and in Delaware that make no business sense when you look at the fact that we are in fact the public broadcaster for Phila. and South Jersey as well as the First State. We do it in order to make good on the implicit promise of having the license, and right now all we get for it is to be bombarded with out and out lies that people in Delaware would rather believe than the truth, because the truth is more complimentary to WHYY. Thanks for all the time you've put it into this. chris /color]
Chris, I've not heard that anywhere, including on 91 FM or Channel 12, that WHYY was going to move to another smaller location in Wilmington after selling 8th and Orange. I have two ideas on how you can get that word out.
First contact Allan Loudell at WDEL 478-2700 and Mark Fowser at WILM 395-9800 ( I worked with both men during my 7 years as a part time news reporter and talk show host - both are decent people). Both do interviews during their respective newsblocks. I'm sure both would be interested in giving you an interview. Also you might try contacting the News Journal's media news person.
Second, with your permission, I could copy and paste some of the things you've said to me in your email exchange here and go to a radio chat room (Radio Info) and put that info out there as it has been of interest there on the Philly TV board. You could also go there yourself and post your comments - You could do this on the Philly TV board as well, but be prepared for comments coming back to you there. Some of those folks are tough.
Do you have any potential locations in mind for the new Wilmington studio? It would be great to know of these possibilities.
With the fund raisers, why not have a Delaware night(s) [depending on how many volunteers you can get from Delaware] where you do some of the fundraising from Wilmington? You might get more Delawareans to volunteer if they didn't have to go to Philly to do it [just as folks from Philly aren't going to want to drive to Wilmington - it does work both ways]. Plus it would give you an other excuse to do something on TV from here. Maybe even the mayor, county council Exec, and President, some state legislators (in other words some well known Delawareans) might be willing to come on and help Ed Cunningham pitch channel 12 to the viewers, or just help on the phones, etc.
Do you plan on broadcasting more Uof D football next year? That probably would be a popular item to pull in Delaware viewers and possibly a good tristate event when UofD is playing a Philly college. Thanks for your willingness to discuss this with me. Mike/color]
Great ideas all. You are a good man. Thanks.chris
There you have it, unedited, Mr. Satullo's answers and comments to my questions regarding Channel 12. I give him credit, as I'm not a reporter today, just a viewer of channel 12 and listener to 91FM and he took a great deal of time to offer me his point of view and explain some of the realities as he sees them.
I must admit, even though I'd like to see more Wilmington and Delaware focus to channel 12, as a donor I also appreciate the fact that they are in search of a smaller less expensive studio location for their Wilmington operations. As all business, both industry and broadcasting all are struggling to make ends meet in this economy, a non-comm possibly has it even more difficult as a majority of their money comes as discretionary spending from our incomes as we donate. Also, as the world of broadcasting is changing - it's discussed here all the time, the younger demos, channel 12 and 91 FM are at least trying to reach those younger folks via the web, etc, and stay vital to the tristate area which does include Delaware.
Maybe he'll post here some day offering more insight as to what WHYY is doing.
D
DX
Guest
For the record, WDEL on-the-air - and in the Allan Loudell blog - did note that WHYY TV, in fact, was seeking a smaller studio in the Wilmington area.
The city of Wilmington's John Rago - even as he summed up the reasons for the city's license-challenge to WHYY TV - did note that WHYY was seeking a smaller Delaware studio. In fact, Rago insisted one of the aims of the license challenge was to prod WHYY to make sure it continued to pursue another studio location.
Admittedly, previous stories about WHYY did not mention the point of seeking another studio location in Delaware.
This was a revealing back and forth between Mike and Chris. But, note that Chris never really addresses the point that the Delaware viewers and benefactors who contributed $ don't seem to care about all those new platforms. Yet, one sees little evidence that a younger generation used to downloading free content and navigating between and among various news sources -for free (when they seek news content at all!) - will suddenly be inspired to contribute to WHYY.
Let's be blunt. Older audiences have always been a staple for news & talk formats -- and for public broadcasting -- except on special occasions, or except for the kiddie offerings.
And, of course, the ratings for the newsmagazine show are apt to be higher, because they concentrate all the Delaware viewers who want to see Delaware visual news content.
But contained within Chris' response(s) is the sense that WHYY wants to function as a (quasi) commercial station. At the risk of sounding sarcastic, I know one very well-known news station in a major market (not KYW) that found it was getting the most "hits" on its website for its panorama of photographs of young female teachers around the country accused or convicted of having an inappropriate relationship with their young male students. Lots of hits. How far does WHYY intend to "bend" to bring in that younger audience it so craves?
In doing so, does it risk not only betraying its city of license, but the very mission of public broadcasting?
There is something insidious about this new media environment. Everyone -- even alternative sources -- is so hell-bent on getting "hits" from as many people as possible (In broadcast terms, this would be "cume").
But, traditional alternative outlets are learning the price. Case in point: The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - surely a publication with a unique mission similar to public broadcasting - found an exponential leap in hits to an international story about a priest kidnapped by Islamist separatists in the southern Philippines. What could it be about such a story which drew so many independent views? Turned out the headline or a lead used the abbreviation for Moro Islamic Liberation Front... Do you see why that acronym suddenly drew threads from adult sites?
But to return to WHYY, at what point does this slavish search for new platforms - and content appealing to younger audiences - betray the very justification for public broadcasting?
The city of Wilmington's John Rago - even as he summed up the reasons for the city's license-challenge to WHYY TV - did note that WHYY was seeking a smaller Delaware studio. In fact, Rago insisted one of the aims of the license challenge was to prod WHYY to make sure it continued to pursue another studio location.
Admittedly, previous stories about WHYY did not mention the point of seeking another studio location in Delaware.
This was a revealing back and forth between Mike and Chris. But, note that Chris never really addresses the point that the Delaware viewers and benefactors who contributed $ don't seem to care about all those new platforms. Yet, one sees little evidence that a younger generation used to downloading free content and navigating between and among various news sources -for free (when they seek news content at all!) - will suddenly be inspired to contribute to WHYY.
Let's be blunt. Older audiences have always been a staple for news & talk formats -- and for public broadcasting -- except on special occasions, or except for the kiddie offerings.
And, of course, the ratings for the newsmagazine show are apt to be higher, because they concentrate all the Delaware viewers who want to see Delaware visual news content.
But contained within Chris' response(s) is the sense that WHYY wants to function as a (quasi) commercial station. At the risk of sounding sarcastic, I know one very well-known news station in a major market (not KYW) that found it was getting the most "hits" on its website for its panorama of photographs of young female teachers around the country accused or convicted of having an inappropriate relationship with their young male students. Lots of hits. How far does WHYY intend to "bend" to bring in that younger audience it so craves?
In doing so, does it risk not only betraying its city of license, but the very mission of public broadcasting?
There is something insidious about this new media environment. Everyone -- even alternative sources -- is so hell-bent on getting "hits" from as many people as possible (In broadcast terms, this would be "cume").
But, traditional alternative outlets are learning the price. Case in point: The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - surely a publication with a unique mission similar to public broadcasting - found an exponential leap in hits to an international story about a priest kidnapped by Islamist separatists in the southern Philippines. What could it be about such a story which drew so many independent views? Turned out the headline or a lead used the abbreviation for Moro Islamic Liberation Front... Do you see why that acronym suddenly drew threads from adult sites?
But to return to WHYY, at what point does this slavish search for new platforms - and content appealing to younger audiences - betray the very justification for public broadcasting?
I
imhomerjay
Guest
How does it betray anything to try to find new ways to reach audiences? No, not all efforts will pan out, but that hardly is an excuse not to be open to new ideas; failure is part of how we all learn, and the foundation for ultimate success if lessons are well learned. It's not hard to understand why the support for PBS comes from older folks, and none of them are being betrayed by efforts to expand into new platforms. It's not as if today's middle-aged folks well versed in such areas will suddenly give up the Web et al as they age into the demo most likely to donate. Ditto future generations; I, for instance, while unable to swing support of PBS now in any significant way would hope to be able to do so in the future, to pay back both what I received from the service over the years, but what my children are getting out of it. Whether those operations are on TV, online or in some yet-to-materialize incarnation doesn't matter to me so long as the content is what I value.
Thanks for the history. I didn't know Delaware broke away from Pennsylvania, but I'd say New Castle Co. DE is to Philadelphia, much like Central NJ is to New York. There's a reason there is SEPTA rail service between Wilmington and Philadelphia And another thing there is no $4 toll each way put in place between DE and PA on I-95 like there is between DE and MD, where there is no bridge/tunnel/river either and just an arbitrary you're changing states, let's put up a toll. If they eliminated SEPTA service, and implemented the high toll like there is between Wilmington and Baltimore, there'd be fewer commuters each way from DE and PA and eventually Wilmington metro with much more indepndent. But I d think DE could use better TV service, like a cable news channel or a station like WFMZ. But there are newspapers to fill that void./color]
The reason SEPTA has service between Wilmington and Philly is that the State of Delaware pays for it. SEPTA has raised what Delaware pays and when they want to raise it, they say, if Delaware can't meet the new amount then the service to Delaware will be discontinued and the R2 line will end at the last station in PA just above the Delaware line.
The reason there isn't a toll on I-95 going into PA as there is for the Del/Md border is how the road was funded. The original Delaware Turnpike and Maryland Northeast Expressway ran from I-695 - just North of Baltimore to Del/Md line (approx 68 mile section the Maryland section) and then from Del/Md line to I-295 /Del Memorial Bridges (the 11 mile Delaware section). Those two parts of the interstate were designated as a toll road. They were completed and dedicated by then President John F. Kennedy one week before he was assassinated ( I was there as a 12 year who rode his bicycle out onto the Interstate from my childhood home in Brookside, Delaware to the state line to see him cut the ribbon).
The second section of I-95 from I-295 through Wilmington to PA line wasn't built until around 1968 and designated as a non-toll road. This did cause some problems as all the exits from the original Delaware Turnpike (JFK Memorial Highway as it was later named after Kennedy's death), the first section had tolls and the exits on the second part did not. Much fuss was made by the people who lived along the original part that it was unfair for them to pay tolls and the other section didn't have tolls. Eventually those tolls were removed from those exits and the decision was made to make up the difference in the one toll at the Maryland border. So it had nothing to do with any deals with PA or that so many Wilmingtonians commuted to Philly or vis versa.
Delaware was originally part of PA and was known as the Lower Three Counties. Folks in those lower counties felt that their needs were ignored by the PA colonial government and broke away in 1775. Some 234 years later, we still seem to get the short end of the stick by being so close to Philly. Besides having no TV station to call our own, there isn't any scheduled airline service to any place in Delaware, even though there is a fine airport located just outside of Wilmington near New Castle. Interestingly, Wilmington has the 11th busiest train station in the nation, and has about 5 shuttle companies that shuttle Delawareans to and from Philly's airport. So there are people from Wilmington who do travel, but with Philly being only 23 miles from Wilmington, the airlines just won't fly here.
Getting this back to TV/Radio news. Northern Delaware (Wilmington has two AM news/talk stations WDEL and WILM that both offer AM/Noon/PM drive time news blocks and the Wilmington News Journal paper are the only reliable sources for Wilmingtonians to get Delaware news. That's why folks are worked up about the lack of local TV news from channel 12. There aren't many options for getting local news here.
The reason SEPTA has service between Wilmington and Philly is that the State of Delaware pays for it. SEPTA has raised what Delaware pays and when they want to raise it, they say, if Delaware can't meet the new amount then the service to Delaware will be discontinued and the R2 line will end at the last station in PA just above the Delaware line.
The reason there isn't a toll on I-95 going into PA as there is for the Del/Md border is how the road was funded. The original Delaware Turnpike and Maryland Northeast Expressway ran from I-695 - just North of Baltimore to Del/Md line (approx 68 mile section the Maryland section) and then from Del/Md line to I-295 /Del Memorial Bridges (the 11 mile Delaware section). Those two parts of the interstate were designated as a toll road. They were completed and dedicated by then President John F. Kennedy one week before he was assassinated ( I was there as a 12 year who rode his bicycle out onto the Interstate from my childhood home in Brookside, Delaware to the state line to see him cut the ribbon).
The second section of I-95 from I-295 through Wilmington to PA line wasn't built until around 1968 and designated as a non-toll road. This did cause some problems as all the exits from the original Delaware Turnpike (JFK Memorial Highway as it was later named after Kennedy's death), the first section had tolls and the exits on the second part did not. Much fuss was made by the people who lived along the original part that it was unfair for them to pay tolls and the other section didn't have tolls. Eventually those tolls were removed from those exits and the decision was made to make up the difference in the one toll at the Maryland border. So it had nothing to do with any deals with PA or that so many Wilmingtonians commuted to Philly or vis versa.
Delaware was originally part of PA and was known as the Lower Three Counties. Folks in those lower counties felt that their needs were ignored by the PA colonial government and broke away in 1775. Some 234 years later, we still seem to get the short end of the stick by being so close to Philly. Besides having no TV station to call our own, there isn't any scheduled airline service to any place in Delaware, even though there is a fine airport located just outside of Wilmington near New Castle. Interestingly, Wilmington has the 11th busiest train station in the nation, and has about 5 shuttle companies that shuttle Delawareans to and from Philly's airport. So there are people from Wilmington who do travel, but with Philly being only 23 miles from Wilmington, the airlines just won't fly here.
Getting this back to TV/Radio news. Northern Delaware (Wilmington has two AM news/talk stations WDEL and WILM that both offer AM/Noon/PM drive time news blocks and the Wilmington News Journal paper are the only reliable sources for Wilmingtonians to get Delaware news. That's why folks are worked up about the lack of local TV news from channel 12. There aren't many options for getting local news here.
D
DX
Guest
To imhomerjay...
"Betray" in the sense that if Public broadcasting's quest for young audiences forces it to merely replicate the material available from entertainment media, what's the point for its existence?
Whether or not WHYY TV was licensed to Wilmington, let's face it: Local news content - whether for Wilmington or Philadelphia - especially of the kind that attempts to serve as an alternative to the commercial Philly TV channels (more on politics, social, economic, and religious trends) - will NEVER draw a significant chunk of the younger audience, regardless of platform! Should public broadcasting yank the News Hour at six because it draws a much smaller audience than the traditional national 'casts on ABC, CBS, and NBC?
And if remaining news staffers are stressed providing content for multiple platforms, the on-air content inevitably suffers.
Having said all of the above, I believe - for the foreseeable future - you'll always have SOME younger audience for serious content on traditional platforms; it just won't be a mass audience.
I was struck when a longtime Rowan University professor of communications told me this month that his students seemed disinterested in all his talk about new platforms; they were still drawn to traditional broadcasting. Now maybe we could dismiss these students as atypical; maybe they're all geeks. But, public broadcasting was NEVER intended to reach mass audiences; it was intended to fill the holes left by commercial broadcasting.
Now, if we had the sort of broadcasting structure that exists in Commonwealth countries (for example, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation north of the border!), then you'd have slightly different rationale.
The CBC plays a much more central role in Canada. Many Canadians saw it as the guardian - and bastion - for Canadian content against the commercial onslaught from south of the border. Yes, CBC carries some U.S. commercial content, but the key evening news hour is much more influential in Canada.
But, we're ignoring the elephant in the room: WHYY's grossly-overpaid CEO, a team of PR people, a bloated bureaucracy which presided over WHYY in its heyday. THAT component of WHYY should have gotten slashed before the Wilmington operation.
Chris is a good egg, but he can't exactly attack his boss!
Let me draw a parallel. I'm much more inclined to donate to the Salvation Army - or some other efficient charity - then to a non-profit charitable organization which, nonetheless, has a highly-compensated CEO.
...Seems to me if you believe in the cause, you believe in the cause!
Doubtless, a lot of out-of-work broadcasters who believe in the spirit of public broadasting would glady take some of those jobs at a lower compensation level. For the record, I'm NOT a disgruntled, out-of-work broadcaster. Nor have I ever drawn a paycheck from WHYY.
"Betray" in the sense that if Public broadcasting's quest for young audiences forces it to merely replicate the material available from entertainment media, what's the point for its existence?
Whether or not WHYY TV was licensed to Wilmington, let's face it: Local news content - whether for Wilmington or Philadelphia - especially of the kind that attempts to serve as an alternative to the commercial Philly TV channels (more on politics, social, economic, and religious trends) - will NEVER draw a significant chunk of the younger audience, regardless of platform! Should public broadcasting yank the News Hour at six because it draws a much smaller audience than the traditional national 'casts on ABC, CBS, and NBC?
And if remaining news staffers are stressed providing content for multiple platforms, the on-air content inevitably suffers.
Having said all of the above, I believe - for the foreseeable future - you'll always have SOME younger audience for serious content on traditional platforms; it just won't be a mass audience.
I was struck when a longtime Rowan University professor of communications told me this month that his students seemed disinterested in all his talk about new platforms; they were still drawn to traditional broadcasting. Now maybe we could dismiss these students as atypical; maybe they're all geeks. But, public broadcasting was NEVER intended to reach mass audiences; it was intended to fill the holes left by commercial broadcasting.
Now, if we had the sort of broadcasting structure that exists in Commonwealth countries (for example, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation north of the border!), then you'd have slightly different rationale.
The CBC plays a much more central role in Canada. Many Canadians saw it as the guardian - and bastion - for Canadian content against the commercial onslaught from south of the border. Yes, CBC carries some U.S. commercial content, but the key evening news hour is much more influential in Canada.
But, we're ignoring the elephant in the room: WHYY's grossly-overpaid CEO, a team of PR people, a bloated bureaucracy which presided over WHYY in its heyday. THAT component of WHYY should have gotten slashed before the Wilmington operation.
Chris is a good egg, but he can't exactly attack his boss!
Let me draw a parallel. I'm much more inclined to donate to the Salvation Army - or some other efficient charity - then to a non-profit charitable organization which, nonetheless, has a highly-compensated CEO.
...Seems to me if you believe in the cause, you believe in the cause!
Doubtless, a lot of out-of-work broadcasters who believe in the spirit of public broadasting would glady take some of those jobs at a lower compensation level. For the record, I'm NOT a disgruntled, out-of-work broadcaster. Nor have I ever drawn a paycheck from WHYY.
J
Jul
Guest
US Senator Kaufman to FCC: WHYY Should Earn Its License
Watch: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=9084515
Watch: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=9084515
Thanks Julius, for sharing that video.
I
imhomerjay
Guest
DX said:
Without getting too deep in the weeds of “replication” (for instance, would covering the death of Michael Jackson, arguably one of the world’s most popular performers, be fair game for Newshour? Even if treated as a straight news story, it would to some degree be replicating something covered on Entertainment Tonight), I don’t see evidence of that being a widespread, pervasive issue. To some extent, one must be cognizant of the audience and changing tastes; public broadcasting can no more do precisely what it did a generation ago than commercial broadcasting can if it wants to remain viable. As tastes and desires change, there needs to be some flexibility to follow the audience while still staking out a unique approach.
DX said:
Agreed. By and large, we see people aging into watching local news, and that should hardly be a surprise given the general changes in one’s life over time. It’s far from an absolute rule, to be sure. But an over-emphasis on a half-hour newscast indeed isn’t all that significant in the larger scheme of things here in 2009.
DX said:
At this point, probably not. What the future holds….well, none of us has a perfect crystal ball. Financial realities are what they are, and will change over time. If the time comes when the audience is simply too small/unsupportive, and the costs simply too high, then reassessing the situation is the prudent approach.
DX said:
Modern technologies have managed to make people more productive in many areas. To the extent that some work in preparing for broadcast/on-air is made easier by digital technologies, it can and does allow more flexibility. Public broadcasting isn’t immune to the demands of “doing more with less” that the rest of the world faces. Yes, there’s a point of diminishing returns that varies by situation, but there are ways to mitigate some of the concerns on that front.
DX said:
I’m not at all surprised. For all the hype and pronouncements by “experts,” every reputable study shows that traditional TV viewing (not type of content, but platform) has held steady or increased among every age group, including younger adults, like those college students. Obviously, much of that viewing is of satellite/cable channels (“Daily Show,” anyone?), but the platform itself remains strong. Splitting hairs about the transmission method is a red herring; the reality is people young and old will watch content they like on TV regardless of how it technically gets on to the satellite/cable system.
I know what it means to be a geek. Even back in the old days of my youth, I was the one taking newspapers from the school library intended for seniors (for a civics/economics course) as an underclassman…and getting no grief from the teacher because he couldn’t get his seniors to take them, anyway. I was the one watching Nightline in college, not Letterman. It’s a good life.
Agreed, but you still have to acknowledge the realities, one of which is the bottom line. If you must get enough funding to continue to exist, then there needs to be some level of appeal to the people who donate. You can’t pretend that the audience in 2009 is the same as it was in 1979 and wants the same type of content. (Well, you can if you want to go belly up.)DX said:
DX said:
Each approach has its good and bad points, to be sure.
DX said:
Agree with that last sentence, and I’m not ignoring the CEO. That is what it is, and to each their own when it comes to decision making. Does it seem out of line all things considered? Yes. But I do believe in the overall mission, and personally wouldn’t let quibbles over pay grades keep me from trying to support what I do feel is good programming. My kids, for example learned a great deal from the PBS kids shows, and whether one station’s CEO gets a bigger paycheck than his peers doesn’t change that fact for me. [/quote]
DX said:
And perhaps that can change over time, but rather than being the elephant in the room, it seems to me to be not central to the issue. A lower-paid CEO doesn’t necessarily mean keeping a newscast produced in a particular city on the air, nor necessarily a staffing increase, or what have you.
- Status