My view of losing my job in broadcasting (Part 1)
Erie-Meadville: Over recent years, there have been several job losses due to either the economy or automation taking over what was once your job. I was informed back in mid June that my job as a Master Control Operator with WQLN Public Media would end by October 1st due to automation. Unfortunately, most people who were let go by media outlets in Erie or elsewhere did not have this luxury of knowing ahead of time like I did. In fact, I reported here that a few of my co workers were let go due to state budget cuts. They only learned that they would no longer be needed and shown the door the very same day. So, I cannot complain that I was suddenly out of a job without any advance notice so I would like to thank WQLN for keeping me until October. Well, October was a guess but the date for me was actually moved up to 9/11/09 since the automation system was installed much earlier than anticipated. Still, I cannot complain since I still had advance notice of my job being terminated. Most people did not have this luxury or a website to share his or her thoughts about losing their job. I feel that having an inside view of a job loss happening to me in the broadcasting field should be shared with the readers of PBRTV. By sharing my story, I would hope that other former broadcasters will also share their experiences about being terminated. The subject is not a pleasant one but is increasingly becoming the norm and needs to be addressed by those who were terminated and need a place to share their thoughts and vent if necessary. Please do not use any foul language in your posts because we will delete them before they get on the site. Thank you in advance PBRTV Nation.98.3 to be K-Love tomorrow
Pittsburgh:Speculation has been mounting since the announcement that Froggy would be ditching 98.3 FM on September 1, and today the speculation was announced as being true. Educational Media Foundation will be taking the signal over tomorrow with their K-Love format - a contemporary Christian network feed. No price has been announced in the LMA-to-buy deal but it is considered to be a boost to Froggy owner Keymarket which has been dealing with some financial issues.
The WOGI calls will move to 104.3 replacing WOGF and 104.3 out of Racoon State Park will become the main signal for the station. Simulcast on 94.9 (WOGG - Oliver, PA) and 103.5 (WOGH - Burgettstown) will continue.
WOGI moving to 104.3
Pittsburgh:WOGI-FM (98.3) is making a move up the dial to 104.3 FM for what the Froggy website calls "50,000 watts of fun!" The move will take place September 1 with no other changes occurring. The people remain the same and the simulcasts on 94.9 FM (WOGG) and 103.5 FM (WOGH) will also remain.
98.3 FM used to be licensed to Charleroi and best known as WESA and WZKL before being purchased by Forever/Keymarket in 2000 and moved to Duquesne PA in 2002. This signal has always been a "Class A" and therefore is licenced to a smaller community. The ERP is 3500 watts. No word on the plan for this signal.
104.3 FM is currently WOGF and was once WELA licenced to East Liverpool, Ohio. The license was recently moved to Moon Township, PA and is a 13,000 watt class B.
Tip of the hat to Brian for tipping us to this story.
Shall we gather at the river?
Pittsburgh:Rick Sebak returns with a new local history special. He's back along the three rivers in a documentary called "Right Beside the River". Unlike his previous river documentary, "The Mon, The Al and The O", (1987!) Sebak goes beyond Pittsburgh's boundaries and visits riverside towns like Vandergrift and Moundsville, WV. One story from his 1987 documentary about the Fredericktown Ferry has been updated and retooled for the new special.
The program airs (interrupted by a pledge drive) at 8:00 tonight.
Thompson retiring
Pittsburgh:WPXI (11) morning news reporter Dee Thompson will retire from the station September 1. Thompson has been out on medical leave over the summer, but there's no word on whether that is the reason for his retirement. According to the Post-Gazette, he was hired by the station (then WIIC) in February 1975 and spent the first twelve years doing sports with Sam Nover. Over the last several years he has worked overnights - arriving at midnight and working through the morning newscasts.
There still isn't any word on what Thompson's ailment has been but apparently he is gradually feeling better.
Fink leaving DUQ
Pittsburgh: WDUQ's local host of NPR's "All Things Considered, Katherine Fink is leaving the station to pursue a Ph.D. at Columbia University's School of Journalism. Fink has been hosting the program since February 2001. She has also served as a contributing reporter in the WDUQ newsroom and has won local, regional and national awards for her stories. The search for a replacement is underway. Fink's last day is Friday, August 21."Don't think, just listen..."
Musings From Eric:I will again be a guest Online with Bill Alexander: The Netio Show this Wednesday (August 19) at 10:06 p.m. In Bill's words, we'll be discussing the state of broadcasting in Western PA. My last appearance on the program was June 17. (Program 351)
This past Sunday, Bill interviewed Lynn Cullen as she was about to embark on her own online talk program. The program began today and you can find it here.
The Internet...the new home of talk radio?
WYTV goes after WFMJ.
Youngstown: For Cleveland Browns fans in the Mahoning Valley, Saturday night was an experience picture wise. WYTV aired the HD version of the Browns first pre season game against Green Bay. While the score (17-0) was not what Dog Pound fans wanted to see, you must give props to WYTV for airing the same clear HD feed that airs on pre season flagship WKYC. Speaking of WYTV and 33 News, it looks like they are setting their sights on crosstown rival WFMJ. WYTV has recently began airing spots stating that they are first with late breaking news while WFMJ will get to a breaking news story eventually if at all. Of course, WFMJ has been the news leader for several years while both WKBN and WYTV tried to make inroads into their dominance. Will this strategy work? Possibly though I doubt that WYTV will go after WKBN in the same fashion.Ira Apple dies
Pittsburgh:50+year broadcast veteran Ira Apple passed away Tuesday after suffering a brief illness. He was 74.
Apple began his career in Kittanning when he was in high school. He would sign the local station (I'm guessing 1380 AM) on the air each morning, go to school and then go back to work to sign the station off. He was a pioneer in the world of Talk radio and worked at KDKA-AM (1020) and KQV-AM (1410) locally among other well-known stations like WBZ in Boston and WBAL Baltimore. He also served as an adjunct professor at Emerson College in Boston.
He was honored with the Freedom Foundation Award by President Eisenhower at a ceremony at the White House.
Apple worked as a Regional Sales Manager for Custom Business Systems, Inc. from the mid-1980s until it was taken over by Wicks. Most recently he served as a liaison of the Traffic Directors Guild of America.
Source: RBR-TVBR
More from: TGDA.org
Regional Emmys
Pittsburgh:The 2009 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Nominations have been announced. WQED has received 12 - the most - despite not paying the entry fees due to finances. Individuals from the station submitted their own work and paid the entry fee on their own.
WTAE and WPXI typically don't participate as stations, but reporters often submit pieces on their own. WTAE's Wendy Bell has received 3 nods while WPXI's Alby Oxenreiter has received one.
KDKA-TV has six nominations total, Fox Sports (FSN) has two and Comcast Pittsburgh received one.
WPXI sleeping anchor makes national news
Musings From Eric:ABC News did a piece Sunday night about napping on the job and this clip was in it.
Wake up Bob...
RIS funds dried up; set to shut down
Pittsburgh:Pittsburgh-based Radio Information Service (RIS) - a non-profit reading service to those with visual imparements - has run out of money and will be off the air next Friday. Since 1976, the service has been available through WDUQ's Sub-carrier frequency over special receivers one could rent from the non-profit.
"The money is gone - more than gone," WDUQ general manager Scott Hanley told the Tribune-Review. WDUQ took over the operation of RIS in 2005. RIS's 200 volunteers were notified by email on Monday that the station would be shutting down while the 1000 - 2000 listeners learned on Sunday.
Reading services like RIS all across the country have been struggling since losing government funding over the last decade. RIS's budget of $300,000 earlier in the decade was cut to nearly $200,000 last year and the funding from foundations had dried up due to the economy problems.
Despite these plans, WDUQ and the RIS Board of Directors are hoping to keep the service running as best as possible through the help of volunteers.
Ingram Featured
Pittsburgh: WKHB-AM (620) Operations Manager Clarke Ingram is receiving some national accolades from Radio-info's Ross on Radio in today's newsletter. Ingram recently started doing survey countdowns on Saturday evenings highlighting that day's date on any given year.CP, neighbors: WTAE overreacted
Pittsburgh: Neighbors say that WTAE-TV "overreacted" in a report last month about a break-in at an empty elementary school.
According to Marty Levine in Pittsburgh City Paper, three members of a Swedish rock band (no, not ABBA) were at a party in Polish Hill on June 15 when they decided to sneak into the abandoned building to check out the view.
Police were called and arrested six people --- but the building's owner dropped the charges and one of the guilty parties agreed to help clean up the grounds and secure the structure.
All's well that ends well, right? Yes, until WTAE-TV got hold of the police reports.
Citing unidentified sources, WTAE reporter Shannon Perrine said on July 15 that police were investigating "whether six people arrested in June" had ties to anarchist groups.
The building is "a perfect training center" for "people who would like to cause damage to Pittsburgh during the G-20 summit," Perrine said, and these "six young people" (she emphasized the word "young") with a "European connection" might have links to terrorists.
Er, except the head of the Polish Hill Civic Association was interviewed by Perrine, and he tells City Paper he made it "very clear" to WTAE that such speculation was "absolutely false."
Yet those remarks were edited out of the report that aired, according to City Paper.
WTAE's response? City Paper says that WTAE News Director Alex Bongiorno told Perrine "not to discuss the story."
Stay tuned for WTAE's next "ONLY ON 4" exclusive: "TV NEWSCAST HYPE: IS IT GOING TOO FAR?!"
Root, root, root for the broadcast team
Monday Morning Nostalgia Fix:
Above: Pioneering sportscaster Graham McNamee interviews hall-of-fame Babe Ruth sometime during the slugger's tenure with the Yankees. (NBC photo)
. . .
Mr. Monday Morning Nostalgia Fix has been getting nostalgic again for the days when Pittsburgh had a professional baseball team.
But since this isn't Pittsburgh Baseball Online, he decided he'd showcase some prominent baseball broadcasters of the past instead.
These photos, by the way, are borrowed from a long-out-of-print book called The Trouble Is Not in Your Set, an entertaining (if disjointed) collection of anecdotes by the late Mary Ann Kelly, a writer and advertising executive from Cincinnati's WLW radio and TV. (more)