Raycom to Manage Honolulu CBS
Market “cannot support” five separate stations
By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/18/2009 9:19:36 PM
Raycom’s KHNL (NBC) and KFVE (MyNet) and MCG Capital Corporation’s KGMB (CBS) have agreed to pool content in Honolulu, with Raycom managing the CBS affiliate. Raycom President/CEO Paul McTear said the Shared Services Agreement will help keep the stations in business for the long term.
“The purpose is to not only secure the future of KHNL, [KFVE] and KGMB, but to operate them more efficiently and effectively without diminishing the quality of news and other programming provided to our customers in Hawaii,” said McTear. “We realize there may be other financial and business options available, and while we are certainly open to discussing these with any interested party, the economic reality is that this market cannot support five traditionally separated television stations, all with duplicated costs. Rather than experiencing the loss of one, or possibly two stations in Hawaii, we intend to preserve three stations that provide important and valuable local, national and international programming to viewers in Hawaii.”
Under the agreement, Raycom Media would provide certain services to all three stations. Around 68 of the 198 combined staffers at the stations will lose their jobs, according to a report in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
Raycom's other pool arrangements include sharing content with the Gannett station in Cleveland.
KGMB President/General Manager Rick Blangiardi called the arrangement “a smart and creative way” to manage the station. “Under a new agreement, KGMB, and the people who work there, will benefit from the scale and diversity which comes from a company like Raycom Media,” he said, “recognized as a company that will be an integral part of the broadcast industry for years to come.”
MCG describes itself as “a solutions-focused commercial finance company.”
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