Welcome to the tranquil KTVU.
Many newsrooms have their excess stress and emotional turbulence. It's a part of the business, but at KTVU, the stress level is OFF THE CHART. Employees WORRY about their jobs. They LOATHE showing up to work.
The situation is so DIRE, a few weeks back, NO ONE showed up for work and a 7 PM NEWSCAST had to be CANCELLED! No DIRECTORS, no air talent, no producers, not a one. KTVU had to run a pre-recorded newscast from 6 PM at 7 PM. Nobody showed up. And Eikel was left to fend alternate personnel but could NOT deliver. It was not only EMBARRASSING but made the rounds in Channel 2's break room and across Bay Area TV News circles. Eikel heard a ton from Fox Corporate who read her the RIOT ACT, but she was not even reprimanded. At other places, she may have been shown the door.
KTVU used to be a news operation admired by not only local news stations, but nationwide admiration. now, it's a LAUGHING STOCK and Eikel's "rule-by-force and fear" is the topic not only at Channel 2 but around the Bay Area. Even top-notch ratings are beginning to go south. Eikel is DETESTED. And her reign of TERROR is beginning to make its presence known to Fox corporate. They are null and void at this point but the powerful suits are now paying attention. They should.
A COMMON theme at KTVU: "she's (Eikel) OUT of CONTROL!" The HR czar, Nohr, has less power but her want to SPY on staff and her constant observance of over 24 caameras at and around the premises has almost everyone at KTVU emotionally TATTERED. "Nohr is also DETESTED," said a KTVU source.
It's reacched CRISIS PROPORTIONS at KTVU.
what a crock pot of despair,simmering (laughing) stock terror and fear.....be gone with the lot of them
ReplyDeletedo we not have enough other pitiful bowls of newsroom tears to pick from?
This is giving ME TSD
PLAY NICE or GO THE FUCK HOME
How did Eikel get the job if she is so incompetent? She presents like a typical soccer mom where she lives.
ReplyDeleteshe likes to flirt and always wears skin tight dresses and skirt,s and at the time she was promoted to ND her boss was a male. it's sad that's really all it takes.
DeleteWomen make shitty mangers.FACT!These two idiots should be tossed off of the roof.
ReplyDeleteFire these two turds.
ReplyDeleteUnless it's a "hostile work environment" based on immutable factors like race, gender, etc., they have no legal recourse.Every newsroom I ever worked in , over decades, in many places, both small and large, the worker bees typically hold resentments against management. There are exceptions, of course. However , in a highly competitive occupation, such angst is de rigeur. It's never a cozy little "family" where everyone loves each over. That's never. You are lucky if you work for a news director who has your back, but it is exceedingly rare. As the Dalai Lama told an audience of assembled devotees in Mexico City years ago, "Life is difficult". He then walked off the stage. At KTVU, there is also a damned good reason to have security cameras, reasons that have nothing to do with gossip. See neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteIf she's so concerned and anxious and preoccupied about crime (despite high fencing that's not scalable, a pre-gate security booth with an armed guard, another armed guard post-gate, and spikes that can puncture tires) then Chris Nohr should give up her HR role and apply for a Director of Security position :)
DeleteWords of truth, Christine. For as Esther Rolle once said, “About four dollars”.
Deleteso the still have top knotch ratings...hmmmm somebody must be doing something right, right?
ReplyDeleteHi Amber.
DeleteAnd no you're not doing anything right. You're coasting on the history of the station in this community and running it into the ground. One Karen-y Karen-ing at a time.
Thanks for this update Rich. Any word on whether this was a coordinated walkout by the 7pm staff? it seems odd that everyone involved in that particular newscast were all no-shows that night.
ReplyDeleteThis brings up another related problem. They are running too many newscasts. There is no need to run news from 4-11:30pm with only a two hour break from 8-10. All the stories are repeated from show to show and half of them are from Fox Sacramento, Fox News, or Fox Business. Instead of spreading resources thinner than peanut butter, they should fire Amber, bring in a top notch ND and go back to what made them successful in the first place: excellent, well-written, and well-produced newscasts at 5, 6, and 10.
I used to work for KTVU and can attest to meetings at the apartment parking lot next door. staff would regularly go there to vent but it also became known that a couple of on air talent would meet their secret lovers or romantic interests in that parking lot. a behind the scenes co-worker once went there with a show producer and saw a very known on air talent in their car canoodling with someone who wasn't their spouse. And no, that person wasn't Frank Somerville.
ReplyDeleteMale or female? Reporter, anchor, weather, or sports? Give us some hints.
DeleteWasn’t sports and wasn’t a reporter. That’s all I’ll say.
DeleteFear and Intimidation is a cowardly act. Only through Care and Empathy will a business be strong. Never mind that Care and Empathy is part of human nature, and is never a weakness. Sadly, The Firm can't handle that reality as far as dealing with people goes.
ReplyDeleteThe adversarial and hostile approach to employee relations fell out of favor decades ago when employers began to realize that ruling by fear, intimidation, command, control, and surveillance leads to resentment which leads to resignations and attrition. It’s both embarrassing and sad that ktvu (aka Amber and Chris) hasn’t caught on. Virtually all of their public issues can be traced back directly to their outdated approach to ‘management.’
ReplyDeleteSounds like the parking lot of the apartment complex next door to KTVU is in need of increased security patrol and perhaps some flood lights.
ReplyDeleteAnd the disgruntled employees who gather there to complain might be well served to find alternative employment if they're so abused and unhappy. Everybody's hiring.
Yes, let's simply shift the blame and the focus to the employees who are working under these conditions rather than addressing the actual problems.
DeletePeople are leaving in droves. Producers are dropping like flies, crossing the street. Who can blame them. If it weren't for contracts so would the on air staff.
ReplyDelete> Producers are dropping like flies, crossing
Delete> the street.
They're going to work at Urban Fitness?
Is Frank behind this telling all his staffs, boycott KTVU for how he got treated???
ReplyDeleteInteresting to note that while Frank's bio is still on the KTVU website, it's been reduced to just one line, "Frank Somerville is an anchor at KTVU." His long biography has been scrubbed.
ReplyDeleteSame for Heather Holmes, Julie Haener and Alex Savidge's bios. Something is up with that. Weird.
Deletemaybe it's a technical glitch then. perhaps it pulls text from a different source that has been moved or an embedded link to the bio text is broken. I highly doubt Alex, Julie, and Heather are all leaving at the same time and the ktvu web programmer was given the heads-up before anyone else, including Rich.
DeleteIf I were Fox, I would have just put on a re-run from some other day that had really interesting news. That would show them!
ReplyDelete