The local Fox News team has a new boss - and he won't be moving far when he joins KSTU-Ch. 13.
Jeff Roth, who has spent the past six months as executive producer of KTVX's News 4 Utah, will be the new boss man in the Fox newsroom.Roth replaces Tim Ryan, who's returning to Dallas as an anchorman. Roth was actually a finalist for the KSTU news director position when Ryan was hired.
"He's going to bring an energy and style that's the signature of Fox," said Steve Carlston, KSTU's vice president and general manager. "We're ecstatic."
At Ch. 4, Roth oversaw all news productions and served as No. 2 to KTVX news director John Edwards. Edwards expressed regret at losing Roth.
"But I've been in that position myself, looking for my first job as a news director," he said. "When the opportunity comes along, you've got to take it."
The hiring of Roth marks the first time KSTU has gone for someone with local experience for one of its top positions.
"I think you're going to see our efforts shift, now that we're up and running, to people who want to be in Salt Lake City," Carlston said. "Jeff is here and he's committed to staying here."
Not that he hasn't made a number of stops along the way, including stations in Richmond, Va., Washington, D.C., Denver and Miami.
Roth is scheduled to take over at Fox on Aug. 17. His last day at Ch. 4 was Wednesday.
LOOKING AROUND: KSTU is still looking for a new lead female anchor for its 9 o'clock newscast.
And it's possible that that search may not go far afield, either.
Carlston said he's looking both "inside and outside" his current organization - and that both a promotion from within and an attempt to hire someone currently working elsewhere in Salt Lake City were possibilities.
SETTING THINGS STRAIGHT: The woman Fox is looking to replace, Libby Weaver, left the station amid a good deal of turmoil.
And Carlston wants to make a "public apology" to his former anchorwoman for what happened.
Just before Weaver left the station, she was involved in a dispute over vacation time and pay. (A "heated discussion," according to Weaver; a "screaming and shouting match," according to some others.)
The end result was that the news director told Weaver to leave the station immediately, and she did not appear on the last three nights she was scheduled to anchor the Fox News.
As it turns out, Weaver was right about the vacation/pay issue. And Carlston said he regrets the way things turned out.
"The events of two weeks ago were certainly unfortunate," he said. "We made some errors in judgment and there were some misunderstandings. And we owe Libby Weaver a great deal of appreciation for how she helped Fox news grow.
"Libby was a true professional and a pleasure to work with. We will obviously miss her a great deal and wish her all the best in everything she does."
Weaver, who has taken a job as the weekend anchor and a reporter for the entertainment news magazine "Extra," expressed surprise over the way things ended at Ch. 13.
"I loved my two years in Salt Lake and, before this, it had been nothing but a good experience," she said. "I'll miss Utah and the station."
TO CH. 5 FROM CH. 4: KTVX is not only looking for a new executive producer, but it also has another reporting job to fill.
Mark Mesesan has left Ch. 4 to go to KSL-Ch. 5.
His contract specified a two-week notice, but news director John Edwards released him immediately to go to work for the competition. Mesesan's last day at Ch. 4 was also Wednesday.
Fortunately for Edwards, he doesn't have to start from scratch to find a new reporter.
"We're in the final stages of hiring Cindy Burns' replacement anyway, so we have a lot of good (audition) tapes here already," he said.
YET ANOTHER LOSS: Edwards has had plenty of work created for him this week, however. One of his top photographers, Rod Stevens, is leaving to take a job with station KGW in Portland, Ore.
"We'll really miss him," Edwards said.
Oh, well. At least he doesn't have to worry about impending network affiliation switches like his counterparts at Ch. 2 and Ch. 5.
"ABC has not walked into my office and resigned yet, so I'm OK," Edwards said with a laugh.
TO PROMOTE OR NOT TO PROMOTE: They're basically busting their buttons with pride at KSL-Ch. 5 over their big ad campaign to hype the station's impending switch from CBS to NBC.
And there's been some grumbling at KUTV about the fact that the station's current majority owner, NBC, won't let Ch. 2 promote its forthcoming switch from NBC to CBS.
There are two schools of thought on this. One is that Ch. 5 has gotten a big jump on Ch. 2 and is making Ch. 2 look somewhat foolish.
The other is that Ch. 5 has jumped the gun a bit with its campaign and may end up looking rather foolish itself.
Which interpretation turns out to be correct depends entirely on the Federal Communications Commission.
At press time, the FCC still has not approved Westinghouse/CBS's purchase of Ch. 2. Until that approval comes through, there's no way of knowing when the switch will actually take place.
If held to the letter of the regulations, even after the approval comes through there's a 40-day waiting period before the affiliation swap can take place. That would mean Ch. 2 and Ch. 5 would have to wait until mid-September to make the switch.
It is possible - perhaps even likely - that with the approval of the sale of Ch. 2 will come a waiver allowing the switch to take place sooner. But as the days slide past, it becomes less and less likely that the changeover will come on the penciled-in date of Aug. 27.
(Which means that the NFL regular season could well begin on Ch. 2 instead of Ch. 5.)
And, because no one seems to have any real clue why the FCC hasn't already approved the sale of NBC's stations in Salt Lake City and Denver to Westinghouse/CBS, no one can say that it might not be delayed far longer than anyone anticipates.
It's possible - not probable, but possible - that KSL's advertising campaign could be running a lot longer than anyone at Ch. 5 wants to see it run.
Stay tuned . . .
REVIEWING THE BUSES: Your local television editor has seen KSL-Ch. 5's Jay Leno bus. He's also seen KSTU-Ch. 13's "The Simpsons" bus.
Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are much more attractive on the side of a bus than the host of "The Tonight Show."