[BC] RCA Busted Up??

[Rich Wood]

------ At 01:43 PM 12/31/2006, PeterH5322 wrote: -------

>RCA was never broken up, per se.
>
>As soon as GE bought RCA, GE liquidated all of RCA with the exception of
>NBC.

Most New Yorkers were horrified when the RCA building was renamed the 
GE building. Same with PanAm. In the brief time Mitsubishi owned 
Rockefeller Center we expected a name change to Mitsubishi Center. 
When the Chrysler building is renamed the Daimler building I expect 
to see rioting in the streets. At least more than normal. New Yorkers 
can be very possessive about their landmark buildings.

I have a hunch GE wishes it had liquidated or sold NBC. It clearly 
violates their "dominate the sector or get out" philosophy this 
season. Keep WNBC-TV. It traditionally gets higher ad rates than the 
others. Even when WABC-TV was consistently #1 in local news they 
couldn't come close to WNBC's rates. WCBS-TV is and was barely in the 
running. People who think citizens don't know who their legislators 
are can be comforted that they're even less aware of WCBS' on air 
talent. Even the executives can't keep up with who's the current News 
Director, what the slogan of the day is and if they're using the right set.

At ABC I constantly heard whining about TV ad rates. One big scandal 
was when WABC-TV got rid of all their "ethnic" talent allegedly to 
appeal to folks in Greenwich and Westchester. They were already #1 
but with the wrong ethnic makeup. There were more pretty white boys 
on the air than in all the city's gay fern bars. I won't comment on 
how many were accused of frequenting such places. The news 
personality that caused the rukus was Asian and a co-anchor. She 
surfaced at WPIX-TV. Kaity Tong, I think.

Whether or not it was an orchestrated attempt to cleanse the station, 
the newspapers had a field day with it.

Rich