WOWK Leaving Huntington

[Steelerfan18]

If WSAZ is smart they will hire Sandra Cole and sit her next to Tim Irr at 5 and 6 and leave the 10 and 11 to Jessica.

[cgarison]

If WSAZ is smart they will hire Sandra Cole

The "smart" people who ran WSAZ were out the door way before Lee Enterprises sold it to Gray.

[oldtvman2]

I was just told that they have already closed out the Huntington studio and were moving to Charleston in August of 2011. I was told that this was posted on facebook.

[CRWturtle]

looks like they've lost another Huntington reporter, I guess Dan Matics moved over to wchs.
http://www.wchstv.com/newsroom/eyewitne ... 6393.shtml

[Steelerfan18]

looks like they've lost another Huntington reporter, I guess Dan Matics moved over to wchs.

Good for him! Great young reporter.

[oldtvman2]

I went by the Huntington studio last evening and it looked like business as usual. cars in the parking lot and lights in the news room windows. dosen't wowk have a non compete clause any more? I had to sign one when I joined but that was a long time ago like 45 years. but that was only for on air people and I was engineering.

[NewsShoot]

Amazing how Bray's story changes, depending on who he's talking to...

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/business ... n-presence

[Mr. Tom Jones]

I know next to nothing about the technical ins and outs on how local television operates.
My comments were looking at this move from an outside perspective.
Looking at the business model of centralization and consolidation, if you will.

What would be the best solution here from a technical standpoint?

The problem with the centralization approach is that television news is supposed to mean "pictures." You can't get pictures from the sticks, or outlying bigger towns even, if everyone is tied to the studio building. I am convinced in this day and age some decentralization is needed in news operations. At the same time, convincing people to send in their news video while working for free does not work as a business model, as WVMH has demonstrated. So there has to be someone out there paid enough to make a living creating local news stories with pictures.

IMO what has happened in this industry over the last decade or so as a result of cutbacks and consolidations is that management became convinced the "presenters" (or news writers) knew what the hell they were doing with video and editing. Many of them don't, but their egos won't let them admit it.

Some have gotten better with practice, especially when given some of the newer, more idiot-proof cameras. Keep in mind in doing so, they made (and make) mistakes day in and day out that would have gotten the "shooters" (or straight news photographers) fired in years gone by. It's a b**ch.

To answer your question about the "best solution from a technical standpoint" is not so easy. The short answer is to have the best content with the best pictures, and as much bandwidth as one can afford. Some broadcast station groups understand this better than others.

[oldtvman2]

I was just wondering where bray is going to put all of the sat. dishes when he moves to charleston? down in the heart of Charleston between all those buildings will make it hard and with very little space for those dishes. and he still feeds the transmitter with microwave and this could get really bad with a hard rain or snow storm or even fog. CW feeds their transmitter with fibre but not WOWK. WOWK was even to cheep to get water at the transmitter when it was brought in the area. there are even lines buried to the road for this but he would not do it. I have not seen a live shot in the Huntington area for quiet some time or from any other location their "live local" and the quality of cell phone video is super bad. but it is cheep. and you get what you pay for. I want to hear and see what happened when that car turned over off the road on rt 2? never heard a word. If this had Happened in Charleston WOW would we have heard complete with pictures. then again let this have happened in Ashland or Ohio and Never would we have heard, even if someone was killed. just not Charleston.

[Mr. Tom Jones]

I was just wondering where bray is going to put all of the sat. dishes when he moves to charleston? down in the heart of Charleston between all those buildings will make it hard and with very little space for those dishes. and he still feeds the transmitter with microwave and this could get really bad with a hard rain or snow storm or even fog.

Oooh. Seriously good point, enough to make me come back and comment. I haven't seen Bray thinking that far ahead, ever, since he's taken over the stations. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the standard CBS/ABC/NBC/Fox dish 5.7 meters or something like that? I think CBS Newspath and NBC News Channel dishes run 3 meters, that's one thing. Where the crap does he think the CBS-primary and secondary network dishes will go? At the transmitter site?

Keep in mind this is the guy who thinks those little red amateur cameras are perfectly acceptable ones for a commercial broadcast television news operation. What does that suggest to you about the quality of the engineering he's getting? Or is it a matter of telling the emperor he has no clothes? Or maybe a matter of people who have houses and kids' college educations to pay?

[oldtvman2]

after wowk just moved in to the 5th ave building they changed nets from ABC to CBS Charlie Goode was crying about that it was going to cost him (the station) $60,000.00 to have tha ABC dish moved to Charleston. all the hardware had to be replaced. he said after a bolt was tightened down it would no longer meet specks and had to be replaced. he said if he had known about it before he would not have installed the dish as at the time we were not even using it to program but AT & T. bray could put the dish at the transmitter but then he would have to get the signal to Charleston. and this is a guy that would not put in fibre to the transmitter. if he would switch the net direct to the transmitter they could not do all those anoying supers. but that could be a blessing to the viewers. and then all those other sat. dishes along with the net back up dish and the weather dishes and other syndicated programs along with their controll lines that could be a major headache control wise. I don't know how big tha net dish is but it is one big dish. the motors that move it are about 2 feet in diameter and 3 feet long. I believe they would have to buy new dishes so they could operate while the construction was going on. they have the room at the transmitter. another thing is that they feed the local cable company direct this would have to now be taken from off the air and when the transmitter is off the air no local wowk. I can see all kinds of problems and they have very few engineers and they are mostly computer operators. maybe they will hire me back?

[Mr. Tom Jones]

bray could put the dish at the transmitter but then he would have to get the signal to Charleston. and this is a guy that would not put in fibre to the transmitter. if he would switch the net direct to the transmitter they could not do all those anoying supers. but that could be a blessing to the viewers. and then all those other sat. dishes along with the net back up dish and the weather dishes and other syndicated programs along with their controll lines that could be a major headache control wise.

I don't know if 13 has enough room at their transmitter site to put the dishes there. Switching the net directly at the transmitter is an option... but, as you point out, there are annoying supers that have to be dealt with.

I agree with you it could be a major headache for the engineers and master control to deal with. It's pretty obvious Bray is in typical form. Money first, people later, and quality, what's that stuff anyway?

[oldtvman2]

13 has more than enough land at the transmitter to place a lot of dishes if I remember right they have aprox 300 acres there and the fromt yard is mostley flat with just a little roll. perhaps 10 feet rise from the road level to the transmitter building if the tower would fall with the exception of one direction it would fall on their land.

[Mr. Tom Jones]

13 has more than enough land at the transmitter to place a lot of dishes if I remember right they have aprox 300 acres there and the fromt yard is mostley flat with just a little roll. perhaps 10 feet rise from the road level to the transmitter building if the tower would fall with the exception of one direction it would fall on their land.

Ok, IMO that would be the logical solution. Move Master Control to the transmitter site, along with the necessary satellite dishes. If Bray wants his newsroom in Charleston, fine, beam it back via the existing microwave setup.

It's not certain if, well... never mind.

[oldtvman2]

why not just leave everything as it is but move the news room to charleston. then they could rent out the space vacated by the move. having master controll at the transmitter could cause some problems like when it snows it can be very hard to get there. when the transmitter was manned each engineer kept at least a three day supply of food and drinks there. if he was stuck longer he could eat the others food but was expected to replace it when he could. I am sure that bray hasen't thought ahead except for the money and that he could say wowk was a Charleston station reguardless of what the gutless fcc says. I can not see what he expects to gain in this move other than ticking off all the people from Huntington. bray needs to get out and let someone that knows how to operate a tv station do it. he still wants it to look like he is a big political figure in West Virginia. can he run for office while owning a TV station ?

[Hoosier Daddy]

Bray Cary sees himself as the Roger Ailes of West Virginia.

[Ace Purple]

The "smart" people who ran WSAZ were out the door way before Lee Enterprises sold it to Gray.

That's not exactly how it happened. Lee Enterprises sold WSAZ (and the rest of its TV stations) to Emmis in 2000. Emmis owned the station until 2005, when it sold WSAZ to Gray Television.

I remember that everyone at WSAZ received one share of stock in Emmis in certificate form in 2000 when the sale went through. I held onto my one share for several years, well after I left WSAZ, before ultimately selling it off a few years back along with some Travelzoo stock that I also had in certificate form.

Sometimes ownership changes can be difficult for those working for the affected station, but I remember the switch from Lee to Emmis being very smooth, almost seamless. I can't speak for the time after that since I left WSAZ in April 2001, but I will always look back fondly at the roughly 1½ years that I spent working there.

[the jive talkin one]

Bray Cary sees himself as the Roger Ailes of West Virginia.

No...that position has been held by John Raese for decades now!