therealjm12 said:
If true this is excellent news for TV viewers in Utica & the Mohawk Valley. Target date in September. [...] Will they be in high def since it's a brand new operation? Maybe they will get hand me down equipment from one the larger co-owned stations as they go high def. How much of it will actually originate from Smith Hill? My guess is WROC in Rochester will have a big part in all this.
This certainly will be very interesting. There are plenty of factors that make it interesting.
First and foremost is the fact Steve Merren was the GM at WKTV for such a long time. When Robert Smith died, Merren became president of Smith Broadcasting until Boston Ventures (a private equity firm) took it over and decided his services would no longer be needed under the new "Smith Media." In other words, Merren knows the place inside and out. He knows how WKTV works, so he knows the weaknesses and he knows what it'll take for WUTR to match (and maybe surpass) WKTV.
Second is the fact that WUTR's revival of news will make WKTV more competitive. They've had it pretty easy for the last eight years. Even though Ackerley wasn't able to beat WKTV, there were a few years where WUTR really forced WKTV to step it up a few notches. I wouldn't say YNN counts as "competition" for WKTV since it's only available on cable, and the coverage is regional, rather than superserving the Utica market. Even though it'll be easier for WKTV to defend #1 than it will be for WUTR to attack, defending still requires some effort. I expect we'll see more "aggressive" presentations... more liveshots, faster pacing, hopefully fewer sponsored "news" segments, etc.
Third, it'll be interesting to see if Merren has any aces up his sleeve. Does he know anything that's not public yet? For example, I always thought the best time for WUTR to revive news would be whenever Bill Worden finally retires from WKTV. People love the guy; they always have. I don't see audiences leaving WKTV if Worden's still anchoring. And, with all due respect to the current anchoring staff at WKTV, there's just no match. For a few years, it seemed Vic Vetters would be the heir apparent, and that would have been a good move -- but now that he's GM of WKTV and the Smith stations in Burlington, his return to the anchor desk doesn't seem likely. The combination of Worden's retirement and strong talent at WUTR could really put a dent in WKTV's ratings.
Fourth, as therealjm mentioned, Nexstar has connections with Rochester. Meteorologists from WROC already provide weather forecasts for Utica. Also of note, the news director at WROC, like Steve Merren, also worked at WKTV for a long time. Jerry Walsh started as a photog, left, then came back as a producer, left again, and came back as News Director. So that's two people in the Nexstar camp who know quite a bit about the "inner workings" at WKTV.
Other things:
Article in Utica OD said $1M is being spent. Even if that doesn't include payroll, that's a pretty lean budget to launch news. Makes you wonder how much "new" equipment is being purchased, versus how much will be recycled from other Nexstar/Mission stations. If they can launch in HD, that would definitely be a major plus.
Article also said 12 people being hired. If WUTR and Fox will each have their own anchor teams, I predict 2 for WUTR and 1 for Fox. One weather, one sports. Assuming the Fox anchor and one WUTR anchor also produces the show and the other WUTR anchor doubles as ND or Assignment Editor, that leaves 7 slots left. Maybe 4 reporters, a dayside supervisor (since the anchors all work 3-11:30) and 2 production people (assuming robotic cameras).
