KUTV-Ch. 2, which went through a round of layoffs last year, has just gone through another. Eight people lost their jobs, and six vacant positions will not be filled.
As always, it's a matter of money. Ad revenues are way down, and so the cuts were inevitable."In order to just stay in business, we've got to keep profitability," said Maria Smith-Moore, KUTV's station manager. "We've made as many cuts (elsewhere) as we could. The next thing we could cut was people."
The layoffs won't be readily apparent to Ch. 2's viewers - no on-air personalities lost their jobs. The cuts came "across the board" with behind-the-scenes staffers in various departments, including news.
Visible or not, the loss of 14 positions will make the job of running the station that much more difficult.
KUTV's financial woes have been no secret. And the station is by no means alone - money is tight both at other stations in town and across the country.
"I don't know of a market in the country that hasn't had a similar situation," Smith-Moore said.
She said the immediate problem was beyond KUTV's control. National advertisers, who provide a big chunk of local station's budgets, just aren't buying air time the way they used to.
"As with all broadcasters around the country, we've got a real problem with national sales," Smith-Moore said. "We can do all kinds of creative things with local sales, and that's not the problem. But when the national advertisers aren't buying they aren't buying."
KUTV is more vulnerable to short-term financial difficulties than many of its competitors. Owned by the Hatch family, it doesn't have the backing of a large outside company.
(KTVX-Ch. 4 is owned by cash-rich Chris Craft; KSL-Ch. 5 is owned by Bonneville; KSTU-Ch. 13 is owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Co.; and even KXIV-Ch. 14 has Skaggs behind it.)HE'S BAAAACK: Well, fellow couch potatoes, we're back together again. I'd like to say that there's been a whole lot going on in the past few weeks while your local television editor was away, but that would be lying.
It's August, after all. The deadly dull doldrums of television.
There were, however, a few notable exceptions (in addition to the layoffs at Ch. 2):
- Longtime KSL anchorwoman Shelley Thomas up and announced her impending departure from Ch. 5. Sure, the biggest local TV news story of the year breaks while your local television editor is 2,000 miles away visiting family. (How could you, Shelley!)
Fortunately, the ever-versatile DesNews associate features editor Ray Boren was here and did a wonderful job with the story.
- The Emmys were handed out. (However, the show itself qualified as deadly dull.)
The infamous Gilbert Gottfried incident (he told a number of completely tasteless jokes that had even the extremely liberal Fox network apologizing) brings up one interesting point. Fox edited the sequence out on the West coast, where it aired on a three-hour tape delay - but not in the Mountain Time Zone, where it aired on a one-hour tape delay.
Either the censors are slow or this time zone was once again ignored.
Of course, the Gottfried incident overshadowed another atrocity - that HBO's awful "The Josephine Baker Story" won anything, let alone statues for best director and best actress in a movie or miniseries.
(But wasn't it nice to see Burt Reynolds win the Emmy for best actor in a comedy series?)
- Fox debuted a new sitcom called "Roc." For those of you who haven't seen it, it's about a working-class black family in Baltimore and will air Sundays at 7:30 p.m.
It's relatively well produced, has talented actors, a good premise - but the pilot (which will be repeated on Sunday) just wasn't funny. That's a major failing for a comedy.
But there's hope. It's the kind of show that could turn out to be worthwhile.
- Nickelodeon debuted three new cartoons, "RugRats," "Doug" and "The Ren and Stimpy Show" - and each of them is better than anything you'll see on the networks on Saturday morning.
"RugRats," produced by people who used to worked on "The Simpsons," is a look at the world through the eyes of baby Tommy Pickles. "Doug" is a charmer about an 111/2-year-old who feels painfully average - it's a show both kids and adults can relate to.
"Ren and Stimpy" is the most far out of the three, the wild adventures of a dog (that sort of looks like a rat) and a cat (that sort of looks like a dog).
"RugRats" airs Sundays at 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.; "Doug" airs Sundays at 8 a.m.; and "Ren and Stimpy" airs Sundays at 9 a.m.VACATIONING: Among the strange things your local television editor did while vacationing in New York and Pennsylvania:
- Went to Sea World - the one near Cleveland. (Really.)
The 4-year-old Tater Tot, having seen whales and dolphins and sea lions and penguins and high divers and water skiers, knew immediately what her favorite part was - the chipmunk she saw in the picnic area.
Oh, and she kept calling the whale "Shampoo."
- Went to Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Non-baseball fan wife, after seeing the video presentation, said, "Gee, that almost made baseball seem exciting."
- Climbed inside the B-17 bomber used in the film "Memphis Belle." Hit head on something, tearing open a big, bloody gash.
- Watched the first episode of "Designing Women" and the last episode of "Newhart" on television.
Some things never change, even on vacation.