Indiana TV Station Lays Of Most Of News Staff
Wednesday March 9, 7:42 PM EST
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP)--NBC affiliate WISE laid off most of its television news staff - some 25 to 30 people - after an agreement was finalized for the same broadcasting company to manage it and the city's ABC affiliate WPTA.
All reporters and camera operators and some anchors lost their jobs Tuesday, said Ron Bame, business manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 23, which represents WISE and WPTA employees.
"We're going to lose all the reporters and all the photographers (at WISE), so there'll be no one to generate local news," Bame said.
Based on the two stations' news reports about the changes, a total of 50 to 60 workers have lost their jobs, but no WPTA - Channel 21 - employees were laid off.
New York-based Granite Broadcasting Corp. announced Tuesday it had finalized the sale of WPTA to Malara Broadcasting for $45.9 million. Granite bought WISE, Channel 33, from New Vision Television for $44.2 million this week.
In December, the Federal Communications Commission approved the deal and a shared services agreement for the operation of the stations between Malara and Granite. Granite will manage operations at the stations, according to the two stations' news reports.
With the Channel 21 station logo on the wall behind her, WISE anchor Linda Jackson called Tuesday evening's newscast the 21Alive News on WISE 33. The 6:30 p.m. newscast on WISE repeated stories from WPTA's broadcast a half-hour earlier.
WISE started on Nov. 21, 1953 as WKJG and was the first TV station in northeast Indiana.
The deal will make the two stations operate more profitably and efficiently, Granite said in a news release. It also said that linking the stations will improve and expand local news coverage.
Dow Jones Newswires
03-09-05 1942ET
© 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment