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Issue # 2,883
Monday, March 5, 2012

Matt Stevens, the veteran newsman who was hired by Kevin O'Brien as news director of Adell Broadcasting's WADL-38 in Detroit (Market #11) but was fired nine days later by company president Kevin Adell, says he feared for his life and worried that "I might never be seen again," before a meeting with Adell officials last week.

Stevens had his wife secretly videotape his meeting in the station parking lot with WADL General Manager Matt Uhl and Adell Security Chief Rich Mazzari "just in case they decided to recreate the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa." 

During the brief meeting, Stevens handed over the keys to his company car and received, in return, "a box of my belongings (awards trophies and plaques) I had moved into my office" nine days earlier.

In a detailed chronology on his website, Stevens explains how he was hired by O'Brien after a 90-minute interview in Detroit on Tues., Feb. 14. It was the first time he had ever met O'Brien.

Three days later, Stevens returned to the station "to fill out my paperwork, move things into my office and have meetings with some of the department heads." Later that day, the station issued a press release in which General Manager Uhl promised, "This is the start of many great things to come.” Unbeknownst to Stevens, his new boss, Kevin O'Brien, had been clashing behind the scenes with station owner Kevin Adell.

On Tues., Feb. 21, Stevens was issued a security badge with his photo, was given keys to a company vehicle, met with the production staff, then returned to his home to Ohio in the company car. The next day, he learned that O'Brien had been fired for "violation of numerous corporate policies."

Three days later, Stevens spoke with General Manager Matt Uhl (left) on the telephone and was asked to meet him Sunday morning in Detroit. Stevens put their conversation on the speaker phone so his 12-year-old son could listen in. "When it was over, my son said the GM sounded like a guy who was about to kill himself."

On Sunday, Stevens had his wife follow him to Detroit, where she videotaped him, from a distance, getting fired in the station parking lot. "I asked the GM why this had been done to me," wrote Stevens. "He replied that it was because of my connection to Kevin O'Brien."

WADL later issued a statement saying, "Stevens was escorted from the station property by security." "I don't know if that was written just to make me sound like some sort of criminal, or if that was what Rich [Mazzari] had been ordered to do but decided not to do," Stevens writes. "Either way, it never happened."

As for Kevin Adell. "I've never met the man. I've never spoken to him."

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PROMOTED UP AND OUT

When it comes to making a news manager disappear, Adell Broadcasting could learn a thing or two from NBC.

Late Friday afternoon, at the tail end of the week's news cycle, Vickie Burns, the sometimes abrasive vice president of news at KNBC-4 in Los Angeles (Market #2), announced in an email to fellow employees that she was leaving the station (effective immediately) after a little more than a year and a half on the job.

According to KNBC, "Vickie is pursuing other opportunities."

According to Burns, she was making the move of her own accord after "discussions" with Valari Staab, head of NBC's owned stations, and Steve Carlston, general manager of KNBC-4. Burns said she had "decided to move my career back to my roots." She's originally from Chicago (Market #3), where she had worked at NBC-owned WMAQ-5.

In 2003, NBC "promoted" her to VP News at NBC-owned WRC-4 in DC (Market #9). In 2008, she was "promoted" to VP News at WNBC-4 in New York, where she spent 15 tumultuous months before being "promoted" to Los Angeles.

At KNBC, employees complained of Burns's confrontational management style. Latinos bitched about losing status in the news department. And Stations Group President Staab obsessed over NBC4's "sloppy" production. In the end, Burns was quietly promoted up and out at NBC. Her replacement will be the station's fourth news boss in four years.

As far as we know, no one videotaped her departure from a nearby grassy knoll.

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Dan Jacobson, who has been assistant news director at Time Warner Cable's NY1 since 2003, was promoted to news director late Friday. The job has been vacant since July, when Bernie Han was bumped up the Time Warner management chain to VP of News and Programming.

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Christine Tanaka is out as news director of Grupo Televisa's XETV-6-CW (formerly Fox) in San Diego (Market #28). She held the job just 15 months, hired in Oct. 2010 on the bounce from Media General's WRBL-3-CBS in Columbus, GA (Market #127).

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More than 300 curious tire-kickers waltzed through Andy Rooney's former home in Norwalk, CT, on Friday. 

"We never sold so many neckties. The cashiers said they were going 5 and 6 at a clip; a testament to the popularity of Andy Rooney," said Elizabeth Jackson, who organized the three-day estate sale. "Everybody wanted to see his office and everybody wanted to see the typewriter."

The typewriter, a 1923 Underwood manual, was bought by El Lay collector Steve Soboroff for an undisclosed amount. 

Soboroff also owns typewriters used by Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, George Bernard Shaw, Jim Murray, and John Lennon. A companion model from Rooney's office at CBS is reportedly headed to the Smithsonian.

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London's Daily Mail reported Friday that, prior to his death, Andrew Breitbart claimed he was "in early talks with CNN about a Crossfire-style show" that he would co-host with former House Rep. Anthony Weiner.

"It's totally false," said CNN's Edie Emery. "CNN was not in discussions."

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Susan Koeppen, the primary anchor at CBS-owned KDKA-2 in Pittsburgh (Market #21), is scheduled for heart surgery today to repair a damaged mitral valve. She'll be off the air for two months.

"Liquid diet before surgery = one hungry lady," she tweeted last night. "Doesn't my surgeon know I can't go an hour without a slice of pizza?"

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GALLOPING TOWER

Mission Broadcasting's WTVO-17-ABC and Nexstar sister-station WQRF-39-Fox in Rockford, IL (Market #134), ordered the building evacuated midway through Friday's 5:00 p.m. newscast when engineers noticed heavy snow and low altitude winds were causing the support cables to the broadcast tower to "bounce wildly, like a galloping horse." 

Power to the station was cut and a dozen homes near the tower were also evacuated.

"Seeing the wires behave that way, in all the years that I've been here I've never seen them like that," said Chief Engineer Mike Real.

"We went to commercial and didn't come back," the station explained later on its website, assuring everyone, "The tower is not expected to collapse, but if it did, it is engineered to fall on itself to minimize external damage."

Tower specialists were brought in Saturday morning, but their efforts were delayed by continuing snowfall and low visibility. Finally, on Sunday, after climbing the 700-foot structure and looking for everything from "chipped paint to missing bolts," the all-clear was given, and the stations returned to the air.

"We are confident in the structural integrity of the tower," said VP-GM Jon Skorburg, "but we always want to err on the side of caution when it comes to safety of our staff as well as the safety of those living in the shadow of our tower."

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SPINNING THE DEMOTION

Steve Kersh, chief meteorologist at Barrington's KVII-7-ABC in Amarillo (Market #130) since 1998, has been demoted to the morning shift. No, no, wait. Kersh is looking forward to getting up at 2:30 a.m. "I'm looking forward to making the switch," he actually said.

According to KVII President Thom Pritz, Kersh's arrival on the morning shift...beginning today...signals "a new era for morning TV in Amarillo, the Panhandle of Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern New Mexico."

In fact, Kersh is being replaced on the primary evening newscasts by popular former morning weather guesser Brian James (right), who held the a.m. job for eight years before resigning last April to "switch careers to make more time for his wife and two daughters."

James's return to prime time and Kersh's move to mornings will result in the departure of Tony Derda, who worked the morning shift just 10 months.

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The Las Vegas Review-Journal profiles Dayna Roselli, the morning news anchor at KLAS-8-CBS in Las Vegas (Market #42), who says she loves getting up at 2:30 a.m. "I love the morning shift," she said. "I wouldn't want to do any other shift."

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ROYAL SUCCESSION

One of the great guessing games in Central Florida television has been "who will replace Bob Opsahl" if/when he retires as the primary news anchor at WFTV-9-ABC in Orlando (Market #19). Opsahl joined the station in 1978 and has been anchoring since the mid-1980s. He's 64 and still going strong.

A long string of eager heirs apparent have come and gone. Josh Benson (right) was hired from KVOA-4-NBC in Tucson (Market #70) two years ago and was carefully groomed...starting on the weekend shift, then moving to the 10:00 p.m. news on sister-station WRDQ-27. Last June, Benson replaced Opsahl at 11:00 p.m., usually the first step in decommissioning a long career.

But when sweeps returned, so did Opsahl. Now, for reasons unexplained, Benson has apparently fallen out of favor and, on Friday, the station announced that former sports reporter and longtime morning news anchor Greg Warmoth, 48, would replace Opsahl in the evenings...someday.

“Bob Opsahl is not going anywhere,” said News Director Bob Jordan. “He’s in no hurry to retire, and we are in no hurry to have him retire.”

For now, Warmoth will move from mornings to the 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. newscasts. Early this summer, he'll add the 11:00 p.m. show. Jamie Holmes, who has anchored weekend mornings for more than a year, will replace Warmoth on the morning and noon shift.

And the waiting continues. “Greg must feel a little bit like Prince Charles,” said Jordan. “How long is Mom going to be around?”

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REMARKABLE COVERAGE

While your Surly Editor® was cowering in his office Friday, afraid to venture north into the teeth of fierce weather in Alabama, our pal Al Tompkins was busy monitoring local television coverage of the storms. What he saw was "simply remarkable." He has plenty of video clips on his website.

"WSMV in Nashville was pounded by a hailstorm as a big cell passed right over the station on Knob Hill. The hail was so strong that the sound of it pinging off the roof overwhelmed the weathercaster’s voice on the air. The station cleared the studio but the warnings went on despite it all," according to Tompkins.

"I was struck by how important it is to have seasoned veterans, especially weathermen, who know their communities like the back of their hand. Birmingham’s James Spann, for example, seems to know every street in Alabama, he calls them by name. He Tweets, Facebooks, blogs, does radio chats plus stays on TV non-stop.

"WLKY [in Louisville] made exceptional use of its helicopter to get video from Southern Indiana quickly after the storm cells passed. The chopper shots were particularly useful because it was so difficult for journalists to get to the scenes because of traffic and debris.

"WSMV, WTVF and especially WKRN in Nashville weathercasters warned viewers street-by-street as big storms approached. Then, as the storms passed, they told people it was safe to come out of their 'safe places.'”

"Sometimes newsies get so caught up in the coverage they forget that step," noted Tomkins. "It is a real caring act to remember to tell folks it is okay now."

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MRS. BLUEZETTE'S GRAMMAR YAMMER
"A PBS mind in an MTV world."

Mrs. B shares a letter from a Biloxi station manager/news director:

I am sending you part of an email from a viewer questioning how we used the word soldier. I thought it would be interesting if you could enlighten us in one of your columns on what is the correct usage. I just heard the anchor read a report regarding "the most soldier deaths in one year." The use of the term "soldiers" is incorrect when addressing military personnel as a whole.

Two NATO troops were killed in what may be the latest incident involving an Afghan serviceman. (The Daily Beast, 3-1-12)

 

Veterans’ advocates say Captain Carlson stumbled upon evidence of something they had long suspected but had struggled to prove: that military commanders pressure clinicians to issue unwarranted psychiatric diagnoses to get rid of troops. (nytimes.com, 2-25-12)