News Overhaul at WBBM
Cohen says same old-same old won't fly
By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/24/2009 11:04:14 AM
So lacking is WBBM Chicago's performance these days that President/General Manager Bruno Cohen says the CBS O&O has gone back to a "remedial" approach to executing its programming-rebuilding its newscasts from the ground up. "We're underperforming in all programming," he says, mentioning syndication, network shows and news.Cohen came on board in October, and grabbed Jeff Kiernan from WBZ Boston to head up news in January. Cohen, formerly of KOVR Sacramento, describes Kiernan, a native of the greater Chicago area, as a turnaround specialist, based on his work in Boston and Minneapolis. In the last few months, the station has dismissed general assignment reporter Joanie Lum, entertainment reporter Bill Zwecker and sportscaster Howard Sudberry, among others, along with assistant news director Todd Woolman. WBBM also announced it was discontinuing weekend morning newscasts.
Cohen says a dramatic overhaul of news is in the works. He won't offer specifics, but when it's completed, he says the look and feel of the station's local programming will be considerably different from the rest of the Chicago TV players. "We have four other good local stations in town that are outperforming WBBM," he says. "Producing another good newscast is not good enough. We're looking to do something more differentiated-there's no path out in doing the same thing."
One positive for the station these days is the content partnership WBBM entered into with the local Fox, NBC and Tribune stations six weeks ago. A recent meeting with the other participants to discuss issues with Local News Service, Cohen says, revealed no grievances. "It's gone beyond my wildest expectations," he says. "We have not had a hiccup since Day One."
After considerable downsizing, Cohen says he's got the team to get WBBM moving forward. "There's a lot of talent in the building," he says. "We just have to put them together the right way."
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Mike,
I couldn't agree with you more and I'm from Chicago.
From the continuing problems of receiving their signal to the dumbness of their anchors and crappy newscasts, I don't expect this station to finish but 5th or even 6th in this market. Anne State doesn't fit here and they have a horrible anchor in Mai Martinez on the weekends, who adds nothing to the broadcast and is dead last in their time periods and yet they keep this drone in there. This is why I am against big cities hiring outsiders who know absolutely nothing about the markets they're being hired at. No local flavor at all!
Richard - 6/25/2009 11:21:25 PM EDT -
We'll all wait to see if Bruno's "new approach" is any better than his approach in Sacto. Bruno took a mediocre product, dumbed it down and left it a bigger dump than when he arrived. He hired two young, inexperienced and mainly forgettable female anchors and teamed them with the most boring male in town.
The desk was gutted, good reporters forced out, and those left were searching for a way out.
The end result..YAWN. Bruno loves to talk about himself, read about himself, and scare people. You should ask what happened at WNBC, at CNBC--fired from both places. My prediction--WBBM will be in a deeper hole once Bruno has emptied his bag of tricks.
mike - 6/25/2009 2:00:17 PM EDT
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