Media Frenzy

By Rob Holbert Managing Editor

Ch-ch-changes in TV

Abney and Riales leaving

WKRG-TV’s morning team will be gone by mid-October, as Jennifer Abney and Bill Riales have been told their contracts will not be renewed.

Both morning anchors confirmed that they’ll be leaving WKRG soon, with Riales’ last day scheduled for Sept. 30 and Abney’s for Oct. 10.

“It was time for me to ‘grow and go,’ as they say in this biz,” Abney said.

She says she is actively looking for work at another station, probably in another market. Riales says he won’t move again for a television job and plans to stay in the Mobile area, even if it means leaving the news business.

“I have opportunities I’m looking at,” Riales said. “It’s kind of nice to see what else is going on in the world. I’m definitely staying locally.”

Riales expressed surprise at the sudden change, saying he believed he and Abney “made a good team.”

Riales has been at the CBS affiliate for the past eight years. He and Abney have co-anchored for the past few years, and Abney also co-hosts the noon news broadcast. In 2007, she was the recipient of the Alabama Associated Press’ “Best Anchor” award.

There’s no word yet on who will take Riales’ and Abney’s spots on the morning anchor desk.

Franklin out

The man who oversaw the firing of three anchors in one day at WPMI-TV has himself been fired.

Bob Franklin, who has served as the NBC affiliate’s general manager since October 2006, was abruptly terminated last Tuesday, August 19. Charlie Henrich, vice president for operations with Newport TV, which owns WPMI, confirmed Franklin’s dismissal.

“Yes, Mr. Franklin has moved on to other opportunities,” Henrich said. “We appreciate what he has done for us and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

Henrich would not speak to the reason for Franklin’s firing, but both present and former employees have told Lagniappe personal issues may have been the cause. A female employee was also reportedly terminated in conjunction with Franklin’s firing.

Franklin’s most memorable moments during his tenure at WPMI were arguably his firing of longtime anchors Peter Albrecht, Drexel Gilbert and Kim McCrea, who were all let go at one time. The move was abrupt and the release of all of a station’s main nighttime anchors at once was almost unheard of in television circles. The move threw the station into turmoil for some time and led to a stream of high-profile departures of other on-air talent.

Franklin also was at the helm when the station became the target of a series of threatening e-mails decrying “Dictator Bob Franklin” and threatening a Virginia Tech type of scenario. Eventually the e-mails were traced back to Daniel Leonard, an employee at the Alabama School of Math and Science who was also the roommate of then-WPMI reporter Richard Allyn. Leonard is currently in jail and Allyn left the station.

Frankling came to WPMI after a 30-year career that took him to stations in Tallahassee, Tampa, Charleston and San Francisco. Efforts to reach him for this story were unsuccessful.

Henrich said a replacement for Franklin will soon be named.

APT Changes

A change in funding at Alabama Public Television means the bureau in downtown Mobile will soon be gone, according to a letter sent out recently by one of its reporters.

According to a letter sent out by Chris Newbold, APT is discontinuing funding to the University of Alabama for the Mobile bureau. This means Newbold and photographer/video editor Eric Lowe will probably lose their jobs when the funding expires Oct. 1.

Newbold’s letter, sent out to public television supporters, explained that the decision is a result of a statewide budget crunch.

Clary named Mississippi Press editor

Longtime Mobile Press-Register sports reporter Gareth Clary has been named editor of The Mississippi Press in Pascagoula, according to sources inside both the P-R and Mississippi Press.

The Mississippi Press – this writer’s first call of duty after college – is a daily newspaper in Pascagoula, serving parts of Jackson County. At its height the paper had a circulation of about 25,000 daily, but has fallen over the past decade and reportedly does less than half that number these days.

Clary, who is probably best known for his golf coverage for the P-R, takes over after a period in which several Press-Register editors took turns traveling to Pascagoula to put out The Mississippi Press after the departure of its latest editor.

Advance Publications owns both the P-R and The Mississippi Press, and the smaller paper has been printed at the P-R’s facility on Water Street for the past couple of years. The papers shared a publisher until the mid ‘90s when Wanda Jacobs was plucked from The Times-Picayune and brought in to run The Mississippi Press. She was hailed as the first female African-American publisher in the South at the time and has presided over the paper’s decline ever since.

While Hurricane Katrina didn’t help The Mississippi Press’ circulation, the numbers were in decline prior to the storm, and haven’t recovered in the ensuing years. Jacobs has gone through a string of editors in her tenure.

There has been speculation in local journalistic circles that The Mississippi Press would simply be joined with the P-R at some point, but the appointment of Clary seems to dispute that theory. I wish him luck in what is certain to be a challenging position given the paper’s poor leadership, and hope he can bring a once-lively newspaper back to prominence.

Chicks change

If you dig chicks talking football, you might need to readjust your radio dial. (Do radios still have dials?)

Laura Megginson and Leslie Johnson, who formerly co-hosted a show called “Two Chicks and Lee” on WNSP, have taken their act to another couple of stations. They can now be heard every Thursday on WNSI 1000 AM and 105.9 FM from 4-6 p.m.

The new show is called “The Tide and Tiger Chicks” and features the ladies talking about – you guessed it! – Tide and Tiger football.

The format allows for the ladies to expound on their own theories and to take calls and comments from listeners as well.

Rob Holbert is Lagniappe managing editor. Contact him at rholbert@lagniappemobile.com.

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