Media Frenzy

By Rob Holbert Managing Editor

Just two weeks after Joe Raia resigned as news director at WPMI-TV, his replacement has been hired.

Michael McCormick was announced to the WPMI staff Friday, May 18, coming to Mobile from Cleveland, Ohio. He most recently served as news director at WKYC-TV in Cleveland. McCormick’s hiring was announced to WPMI staff in an e-mail from General Manager Bob Franklin.

McCormick’s career began as a reporter/photographer in Harrisburg, Ill., in 1988. He has also worked in Knoxville and Raleigh and served as news director for nearly 10 years in Jacksonville at WTLV, WJXX and firstcoastnews.com.

He has a B.A. in Radio and Television and an M.A. in Telecommunications Management from Southern Illinois University.

His first day will be June 11. McCormick will take over a newsroom that has seen a near total replacement of its news anchors in recent months.

WALA for sale?

LIN TV is reported looking to sell its 29-station group, which includes WALA and WBPG in Mobile. LIN bought the stations in 2005.

According to several published reports, LIN has hired JP Morgan to advise it on the sale of its television holdings. Nothing solid has been annouced at this time, though, so there is no word on who might be interested in the stations.

Tower of ZEW

One of the unintended consequences of the construction of the RSA Tower in downtown Mobile is the folks in Baldwin County and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast can better enjoy WZEW 92.1 FM. But it was far from an easy process.

Tim Camp, one of the owners of dot.com plus, which owns the ZEW and WNSP, said the experience has been difficult, but should bear fruit for the station as it now has the signal being delivered over more populated areas with less interference. Moving a radio tower is more complicated than most people would believe, though.

Camp said prior to the RSA’s construction, the station’s ownership had feared it might obstruct the signal coming from the ZEW’s tower atop the AmSouth Building. They even called in a consultant who assured them it shouldn’t be a problem, but that turned out not to be the case.

“When the girder structure got higher than our antenna, we got people calling saying the signal was going in and out,” Camp said. It became clear the antenna was going to have to be moved.

Camp said the first order of business was finding out where a new antenna could be built. Because of a multitude of reasons, radio antennae can’t just be built anywhere. Something called a Usable Space Study had to be done for the Federal Communications Commission, and Camp said that identified about a one-mile swath down the western side of Mobile Bay that could become home to the new antenna.

Eventually a spot of usable land was identified, but then the station had to negotiate to purchase it with the owners.

“There were 14 of them and half of them were attorneys,” Camp said, adding it was a very complicated negotiation.

Next came an environmental impact study that weighed in at 125 pages, he said. It even included a study on how the proposed tower might affect migratory birds.

The next issue was dealing with the county’s engineering division, which Camp said was reluctant to allow an “ugly” radio tower to go up. He said County Commissioner Steve Nodine’s office had to get involved to help move the project forward.

Camp said while moving the antenna was difficult and expensive – approximately $700,000 – the tradeoff is getting a signal that reaches more potential listeners. As a 25,000-watt station, the ZEW’s signal has never blanketed the coast like 100,000-watt channels such as WABB. Trying to pick up the ZEW in Baldwin County or west of the Mississippi line used to be much more difficult. Now, Camp said, the station easily covers the Gulf Shores area and can be heard all the way to Biloxi.

He said there is still some construction to do on the tower, but for the most part, it is finished.

“For the past two years, that has been my number one project. I’m glad it’s nearing an end,” Camp said.

Transmission troubles

The current state of construction on WZEW’s antenna was the reason the station was off the air for several hours May 16, following a violent storm, Camp said. While there was no damage to any of the ZEW’s equipment, lightning did knock out both Alabama Power and BellSouth service, which took the station’s signal down from about 2:30 p.m. until midnight, when Camp said they were able to get back on the air using a piece of equipment designed for remote broadcasting.

He said once the new antenna is totally complete, such a loss of signal shouldn’t happen. Right now, they are without a backup generator.

Transmission troubles II

Perhaps more distressing to the public in general was the disruption of the first part of May 15’s broadcast of “American Idol” on WALA FOX-10. The singing competition is in the semi-finals and about half of the one-hour show was not broadcast locally due to a power problem with the station’s transmitter in Spanish Fort.

Sources inside the station said there were plenty of phone calls from angry viewers. At least they were back on the air for the second half of the program.

Richey leaving

Speaking of WALA, nighttime sports anchor Eric Richey will be leaving the station soon to return to New Orleans to anchor sports on WVUE, the Big Easy’s FOX affiliate.

Richey came to WALA after a stint at WGNO in New Orleans. In his new position, Richey will be the main sports anchor and will also host the station’s Friday night Saints show and the Sunday night sports show.

In addition to the professional opportunities the move affords, Richey said it will also put him closer to his children, Lani and Chelsea, who live in Houma.

No word yet on a possible replacement at WALA.

WKRG welcomes Petri

Beginning May 28, viewers will see Chad Petri’s work as a new reporter for WKRG TV-5. Petri comes to the Port City from Sioux City, Iowa where he has been a reporter at KMEG.

He earned two degrees from Townson University and spendtfour years in radio news in Missouri, Connecticut and Jacksonville, Fla.

Fraiser back on the air

Former WABB AM morning talk show host Ron Fraiser will soon be back on the airwaves, both on the radio and on televison.

Fraiser tells Lagniappe he will begin hosting a political talk show similar to the one he hosted on WABB May 28 on WMOB 1360 AM. The show will run from 1-3 p.m. Monday through Friday, he said.

He also plans a television program to be called “And to the Republic for which it stands,” which will begin airing on Comcast Cable’s Port City Six channel in mid June. Fraiser said the show will also focus on local politics and current events from a conservative viewpoint. Pete Riehm and John Gavin, who often appeared on Fraiser’s radio show, will co-host the television show, he said.

Mea Culpa

Though Media Frenzy strives for 100 percent accuracy, mistakes do occasionally happen. In the last issue I ran an item about FOX 10 winning an award for its documentary called “Hell and High Water.” Unfortunately, I got my hurricanes wrong. The documentary was about Hurricane Katrina, not Ivan.

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

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