[BC] Yes, A Good Finance Guy is our Best Friend

[Gary Glaenzer]

another knee-jerk reaction to a slight down-turn in the bottom line

what, do they just think these folks will sit on their thumbs and wait to be re-hired ?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Newman" <shnewman at alaweb.com>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 5:57 PM
Subject: [BC] Yes, A Good Finance Guy is our Best Friend


Story from my home town. Sad.

Emmy award winning reporters &14 newsroom employees canned and NO comment from the
management??

GREAT!


=======================================

03-31) 21:02 PDT San Francisco -- Several veteran TV news reporters, including Bay Area
icons Bill Schechner and Manny Ramos, were laid off Monday at CBS 5-TV (KPIX) in San
Francisco in an apparent cost-cutting move.
The reporters, well known to Bay Area viewers for decades, were among 14 newsroom
employees let go.

"When I walked in, they told me it was going to be a bad day in the newsroom," Ramos said.
"Then they told me it was going to be a bad day for me, too."

Ramos, who has worked at the station since 1980 and has won three Emmy awards for his news
coverage, said he was told by station executives that it was "purely a business decision."

Also laid off were Emmy-winning reporters Tony Russomanno and John Lobertini, along with
several producers and editors.

Schechner, 66, who has been at the station off and on for 17 years and won two Emmys, said
the announcement took him by surprise.

"I'm not ready to stop," he said with a smile. "There are still stories I want to do, and
I'm sad I won't be able to do them for KPIX."

The four laid-off reporters have, among them, a total of 61 years of service at the
station. Schechner has been on TV in the Bay Area since 1972.

CBS 5-TV communications director Akilah Monifa said the station had no comment on the
layoffs except that they were not disciplinary. General manager Ron Longinotti declined to
comment.

Ramos said he was trying to take the news philosophically and that a glass of scotch was
helping him to do it.

"I've had a great time at Channel 5," he said. "When I started in the business, people
always told you that you'd be fired every couple of years. But I was still pretty
surprised. I never expected it."

CBS 5-TV, the CBS affiliate in the Bay Area, first went on the air in 1948 and is the
oldest television station in Northern California.
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