ABC7/Disney Critical Negotiations With Dan Ashley Face a Critical Mass --Chess Match at 900 Front

HE ISN'T COMPLAINING (Yet) and THEY (Disney/ABC) aren't outwardly sweating--that said, the negotiations involving Circle7's MVP, Dan Ashley, are at a critical stage.

I say that because Ashley hasn't signed (officially) a new deal --he's apparently content to work on an "at-will" basis --that means he's not under a new deal but he's working under the existing contract he signed about four years ago, roughly $600K yearly. It's, as I pointed out Wednesday, nothing to sneeze about, but if you know Ashley, a guy who works his craft religiously and in addition to reading the news for KGO, also does numerous off-camera appearences and charity events for the Mouse company. The love and loyalty Ashley has shown has not necessarilly been returned from ABC.

Yet.

Dano is a thirty-year performer at Circle7 and, as I've also said, the defacto face of ABC7 in San Francisco. It would be foolish for the Mouse house to screw around with its ace Bay Area anchor, for a variety of reasons. KGO lost Carolyn Johnson almost a decade ago--Ashley's partner, and felt immediate consequences, nothing radical and the ship didn't sink but it resonated with a few ad buyers spliting and ratings taking a dip. The Circle7 local brand took a hit but as time moved on, they reset and everything was back to normal.

Ashley has East-coast roots and has turned down many feelers, downright offers from the NY/Boston/Carolina media mafia; he loves his gig. ABC knows that all too well. But he also has his limitations and respect is at the top of the list. He isn't going to rock the boat and play sullen but he ain't gonna perform pennies on the dollar. So we either have both sides playing chess and seeing who blinks first or we have a pause in negotiations, or we don't and there's a stalemate.

Ashley detests talking about his contract. He prefers to stay mum, almost an irritating nix on his contract status being relevant to Bay Area news watchers and those who cover it --including the 415 Media blogger.

But a good stalemate is news in and of itself. Or a simple temporary halt in the proceedings is grounds for observation. For all anyone knows, ABC might be engaged in a rope-a-dope with its leading SF anchor.

Come next week, it's November Sweeps and a Midterm Election. Both are huge news events on the TV News domain. Disney might be dumb but they aren't stupid.

Advantage, Ashley with a continuation of his present deal and Mickey not doing any slicing.