43
Mahoning Valley TV stations beef up newscasts
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning Valley’s television newscasts have beefed up with the fall season.
At 21 WFMJ-TV, the noon news went from 30 minutes to one hour, while WKBN-TV expanded its evening newscast to 90 minutes, beginning at 5 p.m. Both changes took effect Sept. 14.
WFMJ’s noon broadcast is anchored by Jennifer Brindisi, with Jess Briganti handling the weather.
The expansion follows the 2013 launch of “WFMJ Weekend Today,” a newsmagazine that airs before and after NBC’s “The Today Show” on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
“In launching the weekend show, we looked for an area that was underserved by local news and we filled the gap,” said Mona Alexander, station news director. “We think we’re doing the same thing with the noon show. The midday show is a great mix of the latest information on developing local stories, interviews with newsmakers as well as interesting people in the Valley you don’t always get a chance to hear from.”
Recent stories on WFMJ’s noon news included an interview with social activist Sister Jerome Corcoran, who will celebrate her 100th birthday next year; tips for selling a home; and how to avoid getting scammed by unscrupulous charities.
“We think there’s an audience at noon that wants more than rip-and-read headlines, and we are psyched to provide a venue for everything that makes our Valley a special place to live,” said Alexander, who noted that additional changes will be unveiled this month.
Jack Grdic, the station’s general manager, pointed out the expanded news offerings extend to its social media platforms. News headlines and story-support content can be found on the 21 News app, website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr and Snapchat.
“While we have offered free text alerts for years, our current text-alert system additionally provides breaking traffic alerts,” Grdic said. “These include road closures, accident alerts and traffic delays, and users can limit those updates to local routes they frequently travel.”
The free service can be acquired under the “text alert” tab at wfmj.com.
Grdic said a stand-alone weather app will be launched this month. It will be a free download from iTunes and the Google Store.
At WKBN, longtime local newsman Stan Boney has been moved to the anchor chair. He has had a variety of roles from reporter to weatherman to anchor at WYTV-33 for almost four decades.
Boney is now the evening co-anchor alongside Erika Thomas during WKBN’s First News at 10 p.m. on Fox Youngstown and WKBN 27 First News at 11 p.m. Dave Sess continues to anchor alongside Thomas during the new 90-minute WKBN First News from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
Boney had built his 36-year career with WYTV. He and Sess now head out in the community to report stories before joining Thomas on the anchor desk.
It’s a change of pace that suits Boney.
“I’m a journalist at heart,” he said. “I enjoy going out, covering the story, bringing it back, putting it together. It’s the fun part of the job.”
David Coy, general manager of WKBN, said the purpose of moving Boney was to allocate resources to where they are needed. The station produces news for WYTV under a shared-services agreement.
“The Fox 10 p.m. news is really WKBN,” Coy said. “So we are doing 51/2 hours of news per day [at WKBN], versus only three hours per day on WYTV.”
Boney actually began his long news career at WKBN-TV, said Coy, so he’s come full circle.
The shared news-services agreement, as well as a joint advertising sales staff agreement, have been in effect between WKBN and WYTV for about eight years.
The agreement covering news production is a permanent deal and, therefore, does not have an FCC-mandated end date.
The joint sales staff agreement’s future is in the hands of the FCC, but might also become permanent.
“When the issue of the JSA first came up in 2014, the FCC proposed a two-year [time limit] on the agreement, which would have meant it ended in spring of 2016,” Coy said. “But within the last several months, two bills have come before Congress that grandfather in existing JSAs. The shared-services agreement [governing news production] was never in question. But the joint sales agreements were under the microscope.”
Media General Inc. owns WKBN and WYFX, while Vaughan Media owns WYTV and MyYTV.
Coy said the FCC has delayed a review of the rules regarding newer JSAs. He is skeptical that a review will be done during the current FCC administration.
The decisions to expand WKBN news programming and move Boney had nothing to do with speculation over the future of the joint sales agreement, Coy said.
Ownership of the stations has changed hands a few times in the past decade, but Coy said no further sales are in the foreseeable future. He noted the current news and advertising sales structure between the two stations makes a purchase less than optimal for a buyer.
“Because these agreements are in place now and we are operating in this form, [a new owner] would have to separate the stations and build [news and sales teams] from the ground up,” Coy added.
“We are not trying to eliminate a local voice. We are trying to save one. We want to have the diversity of an ABC affiliate in Youngstown,” he said, referring to WYTV.
In the always-evolving world of corporate broadcasting, however, ownership changes are common. Late this week, Nexstar Broadcasting Group made an acquisition offer for Media General Inc.
Also, all the stations under the WKBN-WYTV umbrella were under pressure this week to obtain a new contract with satellite TV provider DirecTV. The contract expired at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.
WYTV-MyYTV and DirecTV agreed Wednesday afternoon to extend the current contract until mid-October so that negotiations could continue.
WKBN and WYFX reached a new contract with DirecTV on Thursday morning.