Peoria Pundit

News Anchor Mom is adding a new member to her family, and she has the pictures to prove it. Jen Christensen is apparently going to be posting pics of her belly as her pregnancy progresses.

Think of the possibilities. Maybe I’ll post some pics of my belly. Maybe C.J. will post pics of his hairline as it recedes.

Anyway, congrats to Jen. I hope it’s a girl.

Barrington Broadcasting (owner of Creve Coeur-based WHOI) has released its 4th quarter and year end financial statements. Radio and Business Report says this:

Pilot Group LP, the sole shareholder of Barrington Broadcasting, injected $16 million of new capital into the TV group owner last month. Meanwhile, Barrington reports that Q4 net revenues increased 7.2%, or 4.3% on a same station basis. Like so many others, Barrington has been cutting costs, although CEO Jim Yager notes that not a minute of local news has been dropped.

Oh sure. The company fired it’s local news staffs (the wonderful severance package was four weeks worth of pay, from what I hear)  and outsourced the “local news” to former competitors (in Peoria’s case, WEEK). This means that the same news reports are now running on two stations in the same market. But they didn’t “drop” news. They just deprived viewers in their market of one source of information.

Wow.

This is an email I found in my inbox today. It’s JUST a rumor until I can get some confirmation:

Just a tip, there is a very real fear that WHOI will no longer do news after Thursday….from what I’ve been told, all there under contract were told their contracts would not be renewed and if they wished to break their contracts for another job, they would be allowed to do so. Within the last week, things have really gotten scary and everyone is expecting to be out of a job Thursday.

Developing …

UPDATE: Therre’s been chatter about this for months. The thinking is that “The economics are just not there” for three stations to be doing news: Is this shorthand for an arrangement similar to the one in which WMBD 31 does the news for Bloomington-based WYZZ? Strong possibility of an announcement this week?

WHOI is owned by Barrington Broadcasting. With studios located in Creve Coeur, the station is considered by some to the the least well funded in the Peoria area, and perhaps with the most turnover. I’ve visited, at one time or another, all three local television studios in the Peoria area. WHOI’s is by far the most modest of the three.

UPDATE 2: The rumors are all over the place. Seems like people who should be in a position to know are still awaiting final word. In the absence of real information coming forth, it may be a case of information being altered by the teller at the stories making the rounds. Some folks are being told that WEEK’s owners are buying WHOI. Others say this is not true, but that a “management contract” is being or has been negotiated in which WEEK would manage the station. Both scenarios end with there being NO news programming coming out of WHOI. One source says that some desks are being set up for a limited number of HOI News staffers.

While the final word on exactly what’s going to happen isn’t in yet, the loss of HOI as a news source is a common thread in almost every contact, so I consider this part of the rumor to be confirmed.

This is, of course, terrible news for those who will lose their jobs. And it’s bad news for Peoria-area news consumers. Even if you have never watched HOI, you benefit from having three sets of broadcast news “eyes” watching and reporting on local government and institutions.

Individual news organizations have their strengths, and their weaknesses. Still, any one of Peoria’s three news stations was perfectly capable to breaking original news and providing a unique perspective. 

I alwasys considered HOI News to be the plucky underdog in the broabcast news mix in Peoria. It was fun to watch them go after the hard news.

Apparently, that’s all over now.

Yes, I know that ad sales are down. I know the economy is in the crapper. But I cannot help but feel that this station is being sacrificed because some executive somewhere didn’t want to have to give up on his plans to buy a second boat.

This is a sad development for Peoria.