Leaderboard

I'm trying to make sense of your ramblings best I can, bear with me. I remember the Watercooler too... but let's ignore the fact that you're citing all of your knowledge from conversations in a toxic cesspool 15+ years ago... there's a reason why that message board isn't around anymore (and why this website was created). Public media has absolutely had layoffs, even during 2008. That said, when a beloved 50+ year old institution gets attacked and defunded, of course it's going to make the headlines. If you think public media doesn't report on the local media industry, you're wrong. Just because you didn't see it, and let's be real... you probably aren't a viewer/listener, doesn't mean it didn't happen. CPB's looming shutdown this fall is akin to Scripps closing up shop overnight and leaving all of their stations out in the cold scrambling to survive without any infrastructure support. If that actually happened, public media newsrooms would absolutely report on it. But that hasn't happened. Scripps, Allen, TEGNA... they're all still alive. Commercial media has been slowly bleeding out these past 15+ years like numerous other industries that public media newsrooms are also reporting on. The media industry across the board, public and commercial, is in a tailspin. Public media isn't immune to the changing landscape and has been doing what it can to reinvent itself, just like local news has been trying and both have been doing this as financial resources and viewership numbers drop. With PBS moving into streaming via Passport and NPR getting into the podcast game, their viewer/listener/donor base's average age is trending downward. If you think there aren't public media stations that have staffers doing the work of 2-3 people or that positions haven't been reduced for consolidated/centralization efforts like in commercial media, well, I really don't know what to tell you. Has your local NBC affiliate been reporting on that during the last 15+ years prior to the federal funding fight? Saying that no one is interested in public media and that people are flocking to local television news in droves is the most nonsensical thing you've included in your diatribe. One of the great things about public media is that it is for everyone. If you think an independent press and educational programming aren't worth fighting for or funding, I totally understand that. Not everyone values facts, nuance, or public service. Some people just want noise that confirms their biases. Please, just don't confuse your personal disinterest with the facts. Some of us still care about democracy and the truth. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/26/americans-more-likely-to-support-than-oppose-continuing-federal-funding-for-npr-and-pbs/ https://current.org/2017/02/farewell-tote-bags-pbs-passport-draws-younger-donors-as-membership-reward/ https://current.org/2021/06/how-to-build-the-next-generation-of-public-radio-listeners/ https://www.npr.org/2008/12/10/98098442/npr-cuts-jobs-cancels-programs https://current.org/2009/06/fiscal-year-end-layoffs-include-10-of-pbs-staff/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/gannett-journalists-across-the-nation-walk-out-over-pay-management-issues https://www.pbs.org/video/how-sinclair-broadcasting-puts-a-partisan-tilt-on-local-news-1507678399/

Little public service announcement. Please don't report posts that you simply don't like. That's an abuse of the feature. Don't let it happen again, and I hope to not see anyone else report a certain post in this thread. No rules are being broken by having a differing opinion.

You have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about.

And another thing PBS stations run by colleges and universities do is to educate and train journalists. This is basically their first job and hands-on experience reporting on the news in the communities they are attending school in. In return, these areas (some of which are VERY under-served) get local news coverage from a mix of students and professionals who work together. Some notable ones that run daily newscasts include WUFT in Gainesville, FL (University of Florida) and WOUB in Athens, Ohio (Ohio University). Even in the 1990s after Paxson shut down WAKC's news department and stripped their ABC affiliation away in favor of infomercials (and later PAX), WNEO and WEAO stepped in with NewsNight Akron which was a discussion show about news in the Akron area. They couldn't afford to start a news department (the stations were a joint venture of the local universities, Akron, Kent State and Youngstown State at the time) but this was a way to fill the void until WKYC partnered with Paxson to start up a local newscast again in 2001 that ran on WVPX (the old WAKC).

I'd bet my entire next paycheck on that not happening. This FCC is corrupt and slimy and they want triopolies and quadopolies and quintopolies in every market when the buyers are companies they like. These purchases are coordinated and deliberate.

You'd think with ABC going this far promoting ABC Miami that it's like an O&O.

Change the callsign to WWAJ at this point.

My takeaways from your analysis... It sounds like WDRB's news department will be a goner. That stinks, especially for folks like Candyce Clift, Valerie Chinn, Scott Reynolds (going back to his old home, if it happens), Marc Weinberg, and others. WLKY is #1? With WDRB, WAVE, and WHAS in that order behind 'LKY? I mean, its great analysis from you, but man. I hope this is one of those few times where Gray divests WDRB just to keep a fourth news department operational in the market (not counting SN1 KY, of course).

But not to worry. Job creation numbers are about to go through the roof once a lying hack is doing the orange one’s bidding.

This is a bad thing?

"wind-down of its operations" and cut a majority of its jobs by the end of September" commeuppance, as they say. PBSers snickered and thumbed their noses at local newsers losing their jobs bEcAusE tHeY d0n't d0 rEaL nEwS and serve the cuhmuneteeeh... now the chickens have come home to roost. "Much health" as we would say in Bulgaria all the people bitching about PBS/NPR could just donate, they pay $10 for tub of "latte" every day we've been lectured about how essential PBS is, if it were essential PBS now won't have to lay anyone off just like they didn't during the 2008 crash when stations like WTVJ were almost wiped off the map