77 posts tagged “wsav”

My blog buddy Savannah Red kinda got onto me this morning for NOT doing what I do here very much lately.  No excuses offered – I’m here, you’re here, let’s do this thing.

I have a couple of bones to pick about the coverage of the Project Derenne thistimeitbetterworkorelsewe’rejustgivingup big plan unveiling last night. I didn’t go for a couple of reasons, mainly because they held the meeting south of Derenne and I don’t like to travel that far out of town at night.

Who are you people?

From what I could gather from the coverage – there were a bunch of angry people there who somehow managed to go for the past two years and hear absolutely nothing about this thing called Project Derenne.

What’s more, these knownothings claim to be property owners in the area of Derenne. HOW in the world is it possible? Your livelihood is tied directly to the future of Derenne and yet you haven’t noticed the billboards, the ads in the paper, the full color mailings from the project to property owners…

Is any of this ringing a bell?

I would, at this juncture, complain about the media seeking out these knownothings and only telling their story – but I know why that happened. They were the loudest people at the meeting and reporters are simple folk who respond to bright colors and loud noises much like the creatures on that Meerkat Manor show.

The people who have been paying attention and have taken part in the process didn’t have to yell last night because they pretty much got all their yelling done at meetings over the past TWO YEARS.

A few things that should have never made the air or print:

Under the heading “Recommendations” Ms. Conn included this:

“Transforming the commercial district south of DeRenne - where the landmark giant globe is - into one rimmed with businesses that are closer to the street. Two-story structures could have storefronts on the bottom, residences above. The buildings would create a buffer for parking, a linear plaza and a green space that would have the globe as a main attraction. It could become a new gathering spot for residents who wanted to attend jazz concerts, movies in the park or other events.”

I kinda think that wasn’t a “recommendation” because it is not something that can be done by the City Government. I think maybe Ms. Conn is confused between the developers “vision” for what Derenne can become and their “Recommendations” for what the city can do with Derenne. The latter is limited to intersection improvements or creating that loopy thing they want that would loop from 516 to Hunter to White Bluff. The city can build roads and not much else.

Ms. Hutchings from WTOC was the worst of the “find the loudest people and put them on TV” crowd.

"The businesses we're concerned about, the people we're concerned about, it's our neighborhood," said Kathryn Cook… "It's not going to happen. We don't have the money for that to happen. Saying we're going to plant trees and do this and that, where's the money coming from?" asked Cook.

Her question was never answered.”

Actually Ms. Hutchings and Ms. Cook – that question was answered like a decade ago – there are millions in sales tax dollars allocated specifically to work on Derenne. Both of you ladies should have known that, Ms. Hutchings because it is your job to understand the issues you are reporting about and Ms. Cook because you claim to be so interested in the future of your business.

WSAV coverage is a sin of omission. They too allowed Ms. Cook to prove her ignorance of the process and failed to provide answers that would educate and inform their audience but they also didn’t actual tell the audience anything about the plan.

“The latest concepts for expanding, developing, or changing traffic patterns and neighborhoods along derenne were unveiled Thursday night.

While the city sold the concepts for a less congested, more beautiful neighborhood, the reaction to the plans were mixed.”

I can only guess from the lack of coverage, spelling and grammar errors, that WSAV didn’t actually send a reporter to the meeting and some intern had to write it up.

Bottom line on Project Derenne for me is that the City has given the people who actually care about the issue ample time to comment and cajole and gripe – now they need to take care of business or get off the pot.

Bottom Line on Derenne Avenue for me is that you freaky southside people can have it. I’m staying downtown.

Is it only in the TV business that you can lose money and market share and get a promotion?

This blurb about Savannah’s alwaysabridesmaid WSAV-TV caught my eye because the guy who has overseen the decline of the station’s fortunes over the past three years, Brad Moses, is being rewarded with a trip to a much larger market.

"During the past three years, Brad has provided exceptional leadership in all areas of broadcast management as general manager for WSAV," said Media General North Carolina President/Market Leader James R. Conschafter.”

Really Connie?

Cause the way I hear it, in addition to the layoffs imposed on the station from those corporate geniuses up in Richmond, Moses couldn’t keep a sales staff, fired a veteran anchor who was then hired at WJCL on the same day and somehow managed to run off the entire marketing department, the crime reporter, neighborhood news reporter, weekend anchor and sports director as well as the executive producer.

I can’t give you a link to the ratings, they cost money and aren’t shared freely, but my understanding is they have been flat or down significantly during his entire tenure.

I guess the good news in all this is that WSAV may improve under Moses successor; it certainly can’t get any worse. We need to say a prayer for the folks in Raleigh.

From the Vox - Dumb, Dumber and downright Stupid:

"The reason we have so much foreign trade today is greed. American merchants just want to make more money."

Yes. And?

For this little piece of ignorance I blame the schools. They apparently are no longer teaching the basics of economics.

Supply and demand… capitalism… is this ringing any bells?

"Grocery stores don't seem to be competing for our business. I'm clipping coupons and trying to save like a desperate fool. They have us figured out, charging $3.55 or more for a bag of chips."

Let me get this straight… you are clipping coupons and beeatching about it because you can’t afford a bag of chips? A bag of chips that, when consumed, will provide to your body absolutely no nutritional value. A bag of chips that, when consumed, will probably make you less healthy due to trans-fats and sodium levels and general greasiness?

How can you look at that level of intelligence and still believe in “survival of the fittest”?

"The caller who said he wouldn't buy a Chevrolet because of the stimulus funds doesn't understand that, without stimulus funds, there wouldn't be a Chevrolet to buy."

Yeah…I think that’s what they meant. There shouldn’t be a Chevy unless Chevy can survive without being propped up with tax money.

I like to think of myself as patient. I mean… I waited three whole days and a half before I pointed out this latest example of how piss poor the coverage of our local city government has become.

While I applauded the Savannah Morning News for their “just the facts” approach to last week’s City Council meeting I was unaware at the time that they actually missed the biggest and most important story of the day. Every media outlet in town apparently missed it. I would have missed it too if I hadn’t bothered to watch the budget briefing on the City Channel.

85 City of Savannah Jobs may be Going BUH BYE!

I should have known it couldn’t last. The city did so well balancing the budget for 2009. Like the little engine that could they climbed that mounting deficit till they reached the peak at $5 million and coasted down the other side without any layoffs, furloughs, firings or other shortcuts to Balanced Budget Land.

Unfortunately the picture for 2010 is even less rose tinted than I previously reported.

Here is what the big brains in the Chief Penny Pincher’s office are predicting:

They see $3 million less in revenue coming in next year.

That is a fresh $3 million revenue deficit added to the $5 million revenue deficit we saw this year…. That still too mathy?… um… How bout this?

Revenue is back down to 2004 levels but spending is still up at 2007-2008 levels.  

Think about what you were spending in 2008 – your expenses were probably just above what you could afford on your salary – now imagine your paycheck came in but the Accounting Department made a mistake and paid you your 2004 salary. You still have all the same bills but much less to pay them - that is what is happening to the city.

There was a smidge of good news – City Budgeteers see a small recovery on the horizon with more spending (a 1% increase in Sales Tax and Hotel/Motel Tax revenues), more building (a 5% increase in revenue from inspections fees). Of course those increases are above our already rock bottom levels so not really a cash banquet but still good to see even a slight reversal of fortunes.

Back to the not so happy news – The city has been trying to find a way to squeeze and stretch what they have in order to continue providing the same level of services and keep all their employees and keep from going into ridiculous amounts of debt.

The fact is they can’t do it.

No one could.

Something’s gotta give.

In this case they plan to eliminate some services, we don’t know which ones yet, and some 85 jobs could be erased along with those eliminated services.

Officially: 85 positions will be held vacant, reallocated or eliminated the city's goal is still to avoid layoffs.

Chris Morrill says they think they can do it without firing anyone “What we will try to do is to reassign those employees to areas where, through this economic crisis, we could use some more work there on a temporary basis.”

So those workers who find themselves surplus to requirements will be given the opportunity to do a different job.

City Manager Michael Brown puts it this way “We will give every employee the chance to make a reasonable transition.”  But he stated clearly that there may still be layoffs because some jobs are definitely going away and if the employee isn’t willing to make the transition and do the new job to the best of their ability they will not be kept on.

No matter what you think of the city’s plan I want you to ask yourself if perhaps this story should have been reported by the people actually paid to report on Savannah instead of your faithful unpaid blogger pal ESTÚPIDO.

We all pay for city services, most of us expect them to be there when we need them even if we never need them. How can an important story about an organization that WE ALL OWN not make the paper or television news?

Where is Savannah’s fourth estate?

Ah! Hello old friend! I would like to say I missed you but….

The recycling fantasists are back in the news. This time they are attempting to shame Russ Abolt and Chatham County into curbside pickup.

Their new plan would cut yard waste pick-up back to once every two weeks and slip a bi-weekly recycling pick-up in between.

Fine. Whatever. I don’t care.

No really I don’t give a rip about what you people in the county do with your stuff but what stirred me from my recent writer’s funk was the way in which the Utopian Recycling Squad tries to gloss over the reality of the situation.

The County would need to buy carts for folks to store the recyclables for pick up – Mr. Curl says that is more than a million bucks to which Recycle Chick responds “Creative financing could be worked out. I don't think taxpayers should have to foot any of the bill."

Yeah, you see even if the county finds “creative financing” the taxpayers are still footing the bill. Governments only make money by taking it from other people. Taxes, fees, interest on loans, investments all take money from taxpayers in exchange for services.  Taxpayers always foot the bill.

Then there is the outright lie that there is some grand petition drive going on.

“If the group's proposal is a non-starter, the county may be left to come up with its own plan for curbside recycling. Grainey and Kronquest say that at the rate they are going, they may have enough signatures by April next year to force a referendum on the issue.

"This is the people's will," Kronquest said. "Not just five or six people."

They claim to have 12000 signatures.

Yeah right show us.

The paper would be happy to host the files on its website.  Just scan them and show us your petitions in a PDF format. That way we can all take a look and see just how far you’ve come.

It will never happen. It didn’t happen on the Savannah petition because they didn’t get what they claimed to have and they don’t have them this time either.

Their online petition has right at 1800 signers right now. That is up by about 250 since I last reported on it in June.

Mr. Curl reports they will have enough signers to force a referendum by April of next year I would say we’ll see a man walk on Mars before they actually meet that burden.

ADDENDUM: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 11:57:54 PM

Leave it to WSAV, Savannah's perennial number two, to attempt to bolster the fantasists cause with a minute worth of one sided drivel on the TV. There was no balance presented in the story as posted online. The only person interviewed was the primary agitator in favor of the program.

A couple of interesting things in the story. NOWHERE does the reporter actually show us how many signatures they have on their petitions.

We do, however, get to see eight stacks of petition pages arranged on a table. On the secondary audio track (the right speaker in my headphones) you can hear someone say "make it look like a nice big stack." (also listen after the picture goes black there is some hidden audio and a little video that I don't think was intended to go on)

The petition page that is shown with any detail includes 15 signatures. If each of the pages had 15 names then each stack would need to be 100 pages deep to reach the number they claim to have. You would need to watch for yourself to decide if it looks like that many to you.

You would think that with their great success they would be eager to scan those in somewhere so we can all see it for ourselves close up and personal like. I'll bet WSAV would host the PDF files on their servers if given the opportunity.

WSAV father figure Media General is apparently not above ripping off bloggers by printing their articles without paying them.

Dr. Strangeblog or How I, a simple-minded volunteer journalist, found $60 million in taxpayer money while Savannah’s media apparently got blinded by red-light cameras.

Let’s see…I waited for a while, 4 or 5 editions of the Savannah Morning News have come out and several hours of local television news have broadcast since I found all this hidden treasure at the Savannah City Council meeting.

I seem to remember a couple of reporters and at least one television camera were in the room when I found it but instead of reporting on the $60 million, all of your local media watchdawgs brought you useful information about some new ticket writing traffic cameras.

While I’m sure that story was important to people who often run red-lights, I’m thinking the other 90% of the population might just care more about the tens of millions of dollars the city has squirreled away in what the paper once mischaracterized as “magic cookie jars”.

According to Chris Morrill, Savannah’s head penny pincher, we are still facing a budget deficit but the deficit is down to about $800 thousand, not bad considering it was up over 2 million at one point this year. Morrill and his crew are currently applying a viselike pressurized clamp to our remaining pennies in an attempt to balance the budget by the end of the year.

Meanwhile Morrill admitted he has been holding out on us. He has put aside about $60 million in various funds and he refuses to use those funds to pay for stuff that irate council members or misinformed newspaper editors say we simply must have, like new multi-million dollar drainage projects to stop puddles from forming on very rainy days.

Before we warm up the tar and start bagging feathers Mr. Morrill has some pretty good reasons for hanging on tightly to the purse strings.

The city keeps a rainy day fund or, as the counters of the beans call it in their warm and fuzzy speak, Unreserved General Fund Fund. Currently our Unreserved General Fund Fund Balance is around $20 million which is right at 12% of what it takes to run the city for a year.  

This money is to help handle unforeseen expenses like hurricanes or earthquakes (it could happen) or alien invasion (less likely but certainly unforeseen) or plague or zombie apocalypse or…well you get the general gist.

We also have a Sales Tax Stabilization Fund set aside because the state is lousy at collecting and distributing sales tax money and as a result our income is downright unpredictable.

Seriously, it’s like the state accountant is playing tetris or PONG with the bar graphs on the balance sheet. It never follows any sort of actual trend and bears no resemblance whatsoever to actual sales taxes collected.

STSF is at $5.5 million it should be closer to $10 million but we’ve been using it to balance the books for the last couple of years and we will use it again this year to offset the lower sales tax collections and balance the budget.

Then there is the Risk Management Fund which does just what it says on the tin. It is money set aside for medical insurance, workman’s compensation and other liabilities, like lawsuits, the city might face. Currently Risk Management funds are right at $20 million.

In addition to that money we have about $9 million set aside to replace cars and computers as they wear out.

Then there is the money left over from various Special Purpose Local Option Sales Taxes which comes with lots of little strings attached and restrictions on when and who and how you can spend it. There is right at $5 million left over penny tax money that can’t be used to fund public safety or to fix anything or on salaries or to balance the budget or to do anything really useful right now. The city pretty much just has to hang on until a project that the money can legally fund comes along.

So there, that’s it, the roughly $60 million the city has set aside for emergencies and ongoing liabilities.

It is not hidden; there is no magic or cookie jars involved it is simply sound fiscal management.

I understand that sound fiscal management is somewhat of a dead language in these modern, creditfueled, times but why hasn't this new information, this good news, been reported by anyone in Savannah?

I for one will sleep a little better knowing our town has substantial reserves set aside for the worst of times.

Is it still considered diversity if the Minority is the Majority?

This article on diversity in news organizations caught my attention this week.

“According to a study released Thursday (Aug. 6) by the National Association of Black Journalists, only 11.7 percent of news managers in the nation's newsrooms are people of color.”

"At the end of the day, we find the number of African Americans who actually have the ability to hire or influence content falls woefully short of the desired goals."

I take a bit of umbrage with the “only 11.7 percent” because that is just slightly lower than “African Americans” in the general population which is between 12.5 and 14 percent depending on your source material.

However, here in Savannah, the percentage should be much higher because the percentage of “African Americans” is so much higher… right?

Apparently not.

In Savannah proper; black folk make up about half the population. The demographics become a might paler as you move out from the city but, still, almost 28% of television households in the Defined Savannah Market are “people of color” so you would expect, if our local media reflected the population, the number of black news managers would be much higher.

Apparently not.

WJCL/FOX

100% WHITE

WTOC

100% WHITE

+ General Manager Bill Cathcart

which actually makes them 113% WHITE

WSAV

100% WHITE

It is a might harder to find pictures of the folks over to the Savannah Morning News but we know a few.

Michael C. Traynor, Publisher – WHITE

Susan Catron, Executive Editor – WHITE

Tom Barton, Editorial Page Editor – WHITE

I am a firm believer that a company or firm has the right to hire whomever they wish but, seriously, when your hiring practices are so far out of sync with the general population maybe, just maybe, you have a problem with “people of color”.

More Layoffs at WSAV’s Sire, Media General…wait…that must be a misprint.

I thought everything is rosy now?  

“Media General Inc., the Virginia-based publisher of the Winston-Salem Journal, reported a profitable second quarter on Wednesday resulting from deep cost cuts.”

Marshall “Morty” Morton went from wallflower to prom queen in the Second Quarter and Media General stock is trading consistently above $4 a share for the first time in nine months

Just this week we saw headlines touting that the Bull had turned and Happy Days are Here Again! Apparently not Potsie;

“Three staff members have lost their jobs at WCMH-TV (Channel 4), including Amy Basista, co-anchor of NBC 4 Today and The NBC 4 Midday Update.

Channel 4 management would not comment on the layoffs.”

Perhaps this was isolated.

Perhaps the health of this station, in one of the company’s largest markets, doesn’t reflect on the company as a whole.

Perhaps this round of layoffs is just the beginning so they can look good for the 3^rd Quarter report.

Wow all this seems eerily familiar.

This article showed up this morning on paidcontent.org and reinforces a lot of what I was thinking about the health of the media business of late.

“…even though revenues were down by double digits for all, optimistic execs made it sound as if the declines were slowing, holding out the possibility for a turnaround.”

“But it’s pretty likely that this “return to profitability” is only temporary…”

It goes on to point out, as I did Thursday, that the earnings reported by WSAV’s paternal unit Media General are based almost entirely on dumping staff which is cutting into the company’s ability to compete.

“Having cut editorial and sales staffs significantly, it’s worth wondering whether newspapers will be able to maintain their brands, since competition from the web shows no sign of abating. To be sure, the double-digit revenue declines that all four publishers experienced—with poor classified performance now afflicting online ads as well—will not be able to be masked by cost-cutting much longer.”

And perhaps my favorite line of all:

“Mere survival is the new profitability”

That is the only recent good news from media companies including Morris Publishing, New Vision Television and Media General; they are surviving.

Really? Was this really necessary? You had to include this piece of information in a story that is barely three inches?

“A man was robbed and assaulted after visiting a friend Wednesday at Candler Hospital, Savannah-Chatham police said Thursday.”

From that line we are led to believe that the attack had something to do with the fact that the man had been at Candler.

Scary stuff, an attack near the hospital! OMG! I’ve been to that hospital! My best friend’s playcousin had his gall bladder out at that hospital! I went to visit him so that could have been me!

Yeah…NO.

“The victim was at the intersection of Augusta Avenue and Portland Street when he was approached by an unidentified man holding a black handgun. The assailant took $100, then hit the victim in the face with the handgun, the victim told police.”

Now, a show of hands, how many of you know where Augusta Ave is located in relation to Candler Hospital?

Okay, a few of you, I’m impressed. For the rest, here is your Savannah Geography Lesson for the day:

As the Crow Flies – Candler is 3.9 miles from the location of the attack.

On the Freeway- Candler is 11 miles from the location of the attack.

Using Surface Streets- Candler is 5.6 miles from the location of the attack.

So what in the world does the fact that this man had been at Candler Hospital a half hour before the attack have to do with anything?

The newspaper has simply created the false impression that something bad happened at the hospital by including information that has nothing at all to do with the story about a crime that took place in West Savannah.

I really shouldn’t stick a pin in Media General’s pretty pink balloon but…

Wall Street was abuzz on Wednesday after WSAV’s Commander n’ Chief reported a profit for the second quarter.

According to their press release:

“Media General, Inc. today reported net income for the second quarter of 2009 of $20.6 million, or 90 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $532.2 million in the 2008 period…”

Such good news doubled the price of MG stock between 10am and 11am. It is unfortunate that the fundamentals behind the headline still point to the same old problems.

Firstly, doubling a $2 dollar stock is fantastic if you bought the stock at $2, not so great for those who invested in MG back in the heady days of $60 and above.

Second, all the things that caused MG to tank from its highs are still in place. The “everything but what we’re good at” strategy hasn’t changed. Marshall “Morty” Morton is still touting their real estate and gaming sites as the way forward despite another million dollar quarterly loss in that division. Also, the company still hasn’t figured out how to turn its successful news brands into online money-makers.

“We're pushing into new digital and mobile platforms and creating new ways to serve consumers and advertisers. We're driving audience growth through new products, as well as our Web-First continuous news initiative. Our mobile delivery includes new advertising and marketing services such as text messaging, mobile coupons and classified vertical applications. We are aggressively executing on our partnerships with Yahoo and [Zilla] and we're accelerating the growth of the new revenue streams tapped by DealTaker.com and Blockdot.”

Plus behind the headlines today’s economic news from the company pretty much sucked.

“Operating profit from Media General’s 18 broadcast stations was $11.3 million, down from $14.9 million the year prior. Total revenues declined 21.4%, or $17.7 million, with ad sales declining $22.4 million”

They still have an a$$load of debt, they owe more than half of what they have in total assets.

(Unaudited, in thousands)

“Long-term debt                         $711,458”

“Total assets                               $1,262,921”

And according to the Seeking Alpha transcript of today’s earnings call they don’t plan to pay down much of that in the last half of the year.

“…we paid down from the end of 2008 to the end of the first half of the year basically with the proceeds, of course, from the sale of our Jacksonville station. There will be a slight reduction from the $711 million where we are right now to the end of the year.”

Basically they wouldn’t have seen much change at all if not for the sale of that station in Jacksonville and cutting all the meat off the bone at their newspapers.

“The company, which operates more than 20 daily newspapers and 18 television stations, trimmed operating costs by 23 percent.

The deepest cuts came in publishing. The division posted $12 million in profit, up from $6.8 million a year earlier despite a 26 drop in advertising revenue.”

So what are they going to do when they can’t cut anymore?

There is nothing in what I’ve read today to suggest anything got any better at any of their stations or papers. They are simply surviving and eating their own to do that.