Media Watch
Musical Managerial Chairs at KEYE, Emmis
By Kevin Brass, Fri., Feb. 16, 2007
Black was hired as assistant news director in 2005, after a six-year stint as news director at the WB affiliate in San Diego, which dropped its news department a few months after she left. As soon as she arrived in Austin, the perennially gossipy tongues of local TV news staffers began wagging that Gardner was on the way out, considering Black's experience as news director in a much bigger market than Austin. More than a few noted that the KEYE newsroom seemed unusually top-heavy in executives who were getting paid to sit around and think deep thoughts. But Gardner stayed on, even after general manager Mike Reed was abruptly dumped by CBS last May. Now he's leaving to take a similar job at WVTM, Birmingham's NBC affiliate, a job he says he "couldn't pass up." Gardner grew up in Alabama, graduated from the University of Alabama, and still has family there. His first job in the business was at WVTM. "It was going back home," said Gardner, who will leave on Feb. 23, a week before the end of the current sweeps period.
In his six-year tenure at KEYE, Gardner oversaw a complete makeover of the news department, transforming a station widely regarded as the deformed stepchild of local TV news. Under his leadership, the station went on an unprecedented spending spree, blowing off big bucks on a new set, digital equipment, an expanded Web site, and, most noticeably, the hiring of longtime local anchors Judy Maggio, Ron Oliveira, and Fred Cantú. Gardner is viewed as a "serious news guy," which in the world of TV news translates as incessant crime news and "in-depth" reports on topics like this month's feature on "lip plumpers."
Under Gardner's reign, the station's news ratings have steadily increased, but there's been no rush to watch KEYE newscasts, despite all the cash poured into the product. If nothing else, Black appears to understand the task at hand. "Our challenge is getting viewers to watch television news," she said.
Her challenge will be complicated by the sale of the station to Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm, which has agreed to pay CBS Corp. $185 million for KEYE and six other stations. The deal represents the first foray into broadcasting for Cerberus, the 15-year-old firm with investments in everything from airplane leasing to Burger King franchises. Cerberus boasts that it develops "undervalued" companies, suggesting that it sees something missing in KEYE's economics, a secret value that only it can nurture and grow. That should worry KEYE staffers, considering that there are few ways to build value in a local TV station. One way is to increase advertising revenue, but that won't be easy, as any of Austin's wild-eyed, flesh-eating staff of television advertising professionals can attest. The only other way to find that darn missing "value" is to keep a lid on expenses. Suffice it to say that growing the news budget does not increase value. But cutting the number of rolls of toilet paper in the employee's bathroom goes right to the bottom line, so to speak. That's how equity firms traditionally operate, which is why KEYE staffers might be excused for spending a few nights sleeping in flop sweat, despite all the happy talk from management.
Villarreal believes her new equity firm employers understand the importance of investing in the product. "You have to be a player in local news – that's the future of TV," Villarreal said. "And they're big believers in that." Villarreal notes that KEYE was a minor cog to CBS but that it will be the "flagship" station for the fledgling broadcast company.
A staffer at Cerberus' public-relations agency said no one from the firm would talk about the local TV business, which speaks volumes about their views about the news media. She would only offer a written statement assuring that, "Cerberus believes in the viability of local television and believes this is a good investment that also makes good strategic sense for the stations" – just in case anyone thought Cerberus thought it was a bad investment.
More than a few local media peons spewed their morning lattes last week when they read the Austin Business Journal's list of nonprofit executive salaries, which showed KLRU-TV Executive Director Bill Stotesbery making $170,577 to shepherd the perennially troubled public broadcasting affiliate… There's been a management shake-up of sorts in the local office of Emmis Communications, parent of KGSR, KLBJ, and 101X, among others. The new operations manager for the FM stations is Thomas Chase, who most recently served as program director for a cluster of stations owned by Clear Channel in Tulsa. KGSR program director and local icon Jody Denberg is now content manager of KGSR and will relinquish some of his management duties. And Jeff Carroll, formerly operations manager of the rock stations, is now toiling as acting program director and afternoon deejay of KLBJ-FM.
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