WICU/WSEE to merge

Lilly Broadcasting announced to its staff that in the first quarter of 2009 WSEE will move its broadcast operations (including the news department) to the WICU studios at 35th & state.

Lilly will expand the WICU studios north towards 34th street in a multi-million dollar expansion of the physical building. Brian Lilly was also quoted as saying "to pay for this expansion 15 to 20 employees will be permanently laid off." The combined staffs of WICU and WSEE will also be merged to form the "largest news staff in northwestern pennsylvania."

Is this any way to run a television station??? Looks like the long running rumors were accurate!

i heard they're keeping that baboob Joey Stevens and his $125,000/yr salary!

Maybe WICU will get rid of Jill McCormick. She is paid to read the news, not give her own opinion which she constantly does.

Funny that the ETN has totally missed this one. Where is the local media??? Asleep in some back alley??? Could this mean the demise fo WSEE 35 news? Just another move by SJL to emasculate Erie's TV stations.

they 12 -35 cover erie mostly. suggestion, get a map for coverage of the rest of erie county.
hope picture is better than 35 (uhf -unseeable,,horriable, fuzzzy signal!)

Redneck from GA wrote:

Funny that the ETN has totally missed this one. Where is the local media??? Asleep in some back alley??? Could this mean the demise fo WSEE 35 news? Just another move by SJL to emasculate Erie's TV stations.

Brian Lilly doesn't like the fact he is spending thousands of dollars each month on utilities for 2 separate buildings. Look for WSEE news to be eliminated and a SELECT few WSEE employees to be part of a merged WICU/WSEE news team. Joey Stevens and his $125,000/yr salary? GONE! Ray Petelin will stay instead. Gary Drapcho? GONE! Replaced by KC Kantz. Bremner? Assignment Editor for both stations. Julie Eisenman will run everything as News Director.

Expect a whole different WICU/WSEE by summer 2009!

I heard Lilly was going to move WSEE to WICU and eliminate all TV-35 newscasts. Best of luck to all the WSEE employees about to lose their jobs next January. God Speed!

Does this have anything to do with the large order SJL placed with Thomson/Grass Valley for automation equipment for 35th & State?
Time to update the resume?

Be glad he's looking to cut costs and find ways to keep some local news on the air. Local tv is going extinct. Revenue streams are drying up. The things that kept local TV stations (and not just here, but in smaller markets all over the country) going this year were the Olympics (they can sell ads like crazy for during the games) and the election.(All those LOVELY political ads do at least help keep the TV stations afloat.)

Advertising on TV isn't as effective at it once was, and it's downright expensive. The internet has become another avenue for advertising money. Fewer and fewer businesses run ads on local TV.

Devlin, automation has put loads of workers from all sorts of jobs out of work over the years.(i.e We no longer need an operator to place a phone call for us. And robots do a lot of assembly work now.) Why should TV jobs be sacred cows?

And tell me, do any of you honestly think that a TV weatherman in ERIE PA should be making $125,000? They can probably pay two full time weatherpeople for that kind of money.

Let's not even discuss the fact that weather forecasters can be wrong most of the time and still keep their jobs. Look out the window to see the weather -- that's a lot more accurate. lol.

FedUp Taxpayer wrote:

And tell me, do any of you honestly think that a TV weatherman in ERIE PA should be making $125,000? They can probably pay two full time weatherpeople for that kind of money.

Try 3 full time weather people. The Joey contract was the stupid idea of the former WSEE GM Bobby Hoffman. Give Joey some credit though, he structured his contract in such a way that if whoever wants to get rid of him will have to pay Joey a King's ransom to get rid of him!

I love Jill McCormick. She and Mark are great together.

FedUp Taxpayer wrote:

And tell me, do any of you honestly think that a TV weatherman in ERIE PA should be making $125,000? They can probably pay two full time weatherpeople for that kind of money.

The same argument can be made about the UAW workers in Detroit.

Absolutely, JMT. And that's going to have to happen if we expect the US automakers to remain competative in the world. The unions have effectively put the Big 3 out of business. Adapt or die. That's survival of the fittest, right?

So either they can take a lower paycheck, or they can lose their jobs completely. Sorry, pal, but that's the way it works. There are plenty of people who would line up to do the same work for less than what they're getting right now.(Plenty of them right here in our own country, let alone in other countries.)

Joey's leaving would be no loss. His ego is bigger than the studio. Hope that Bremner can hang on. He's a good journalist. Always liked Jill and Mark both. Erie TV news has really gone in the tank.

JMT wrote:

<quoted text>

FedUp Taxpayer wrote:
And tell me, do any of you honestly think that a TV weatherman in ERIE PA should be making $125,000? They can probably pay two full time weatherpeople for that kind of money.

The same argument can be made about the UAW workers in Detroit.

I agree 100% but if you expect the employees to take less money then the car manufactures need t pass the cost cutting down to the consumer. you cant buy a comfortable 4-5 passenger car for under 22k. if the guys making the car on the plant floor make 1/2 of what they do now then GM or whoever should know at least 1/4 off the price of the car.

That wont happen though. Companies started charging more money for good when gas prices started going up. They blamed fuel cost for the price raise. Well now that full is dropping they don't lower the price. Why? Because we are paying it and they know that. GREED

How much cost cutting could they possibly do? About 80% of the employees of wicu and wsee qualify for food stamps based on their salary.

Hope to see a story about this in the times soon. Get busy down there guys.

ErieTVSux wrote:

How much cost cutting could they possibly do? About 80% of the employees of wicu and wsee qualify for food stamps based on their salary.

Maybe Joey Stevens could take some of his $125,000/yr salary and buy them food baskets?

WSUX

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