415 Media Exclusive: Chaos at KTVU Over Nia Wilson Facebook 'Gun' Photo; News Director Amber Eikel Breaks Down in Front of Shocked Newsroom; Source to 415 Media: 'Job On The Line'; Claudine Wong Also Crying; How The Controversial Wilson Picture Made KTVU's 'Noon News'; Staffers Worry in JL Square

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE AT

KTVU; CHAOTIC NEWSROOM

Anchors/Reporters/EP's' staffers

still shaken over Nia Wilson

KTVU News Director Amber Eikel

picture

*The fallout from the inappropriate

picture of murdered Oakland teen

Nia Wilson continues at KTVU;

the latest?

In a stunning display of the angst

that haunts the building, VP/News Dir,

Amber Eikel broke down in the

newsroom; crying and crying all in

front of a shocked staff; according

to my source who witnessed the

scene, anchor Claudine Wong

also began to sob uncontrollably.

Said the source:

"It was the most awkward scene in the newsroom I've ever witnessed and I've seen some beauties."

Claudine Wong smiling here but crying in KTVU newsroom

The source indicated and I've confirmed through multiple contacts that Eikel may have been crying not just for the Wilson picture incident, but for her own future at KTVU: Word is she's more than likely to get fired over the incident. Someone has to take the fall and it appears Eikel is at the top of the list.

Why?

Eikel, says Fox2 contacts, was the only person willing to work for GM, Gregg Kelley.

"He could control her," said the source.

But it was Eikel's own hired reporter and Executive Producer working the morning (and later Noon News) that were responsible for allowing the Wilson photo (in which a picture of her holding a cell-phone case that resembled a gun) made Channel 2's air on its Noon News--so, says the source:

"It falls on her."

The name of the reporter and EP working Monday is not known but the reporter sent a piece back to the station for air and the producer, also not known, quickly pulled the Wilson image off her Facebook account and nobody bothered to check the image and just ran with it.

A newsroom source: "This is another 'fuckin' Asiana!" --referring to KTVU's most recent news blunder in which fake pilot's names off the downed Korean jetliner made it Noon News back in July, 2013, an embarrassing incident that still haunts KTVU today.

And now this. You thought it would never happen again. But it has.

And like the Asiana embarrassment, heads will roll. The first to go is said to be ND, Eikel.

Making matters all the more complicated, a series of protests are set to take place in front of KTVU's Jack London Square studios in the coming days.



#415MEDIA EXCLUSIVE

KTVU Cancels Coverage Of Gay Pride Parade Sunday On Its Web Channel; UPDATE: GM Kelly Responds; Source: Wants No 'Nudity and Language'

KTVU had scheduled to carry the Gay Pride Parade in SF Sunday--streaming it live on its web channel --when, out of the blue, GM, Greg Kelly, cancelled it for no apparent reason.


Considering Friday's monumentally historic Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage, one would think the Castro would be a significant focal point and news site for coverage.


Maybe I'm missing something.


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UPDATE: 2: 02 PM PST

A KTVU SOURCE tells me that GM, Greg Kelly wanted no part of the parade because of "nudity and language."


I've reached out to Kelly to respond.


*Developing...

KTVU's Bold Move: Adds 4 PM Newscast

Are you ready for another 4 PM Bay Area TV Newscast? KTVU thinks you are. The Fox-owned station will add an early afternoon show starting this summer called the KTVU FOX 2 News at 4 p.m

KTVU will compete with KGO-TV as the other station in the market with a 4 PM show. KGO's newscast at 4 is centered on more consumer news, light-fare stories and more like a prelude to the traditional newsy 5 and 6 PM newscasts. KTVU's 4 PM newscast figures to go that route with a similar strategy but the specifics aren't known yet.

The 4 PM hour has been known as the Death Valley of time slots so this is a bold move for KTVU. The anchors aren't known yet but we'll inquire from our eyes and ears in Jack London Square and see who are the possible players.

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{h/t TV Spy}

KTVU's 'Mother Of All Mysteries'; Why Did Elaine Corral Quit?; Channel 2 'Urban Legend' Stories Grow By The Day

 At the Jack London Square studios it's still regarded as the "mother of all mysteries." So much unknown intrigue that it's an ongoing urban legend.

This much is certain.

Suddenly and emphatically, inexplicably too one night, KTVU anchor, Elaine Corral quit on the air.

Without any rhyme or reason. Without any formal or non-formal notice to management, nor even her closest friends as to why. We heard to pursue an acting career but almost everyone agrees that didn't seem right --now or even today, Corral, or Corral-Kendall hasn't had a really steady movie career. Moreover, Corral was a 20-year-plus news anchor veteran --the timing couldn't have been fraught with more questions than this move and only added to the mystery.

 Even today, Corral has never spoken publically about the specifics of her resignation--after all, she was making a high, six-figure salary and was one of the Bay Area's most popular TV news anchor. Was it her business relationship working with co-anchor, Dennis Richmond. Were there issues that came up that might have led to her quitting so suddenly. Nobody knows. Not a single person--even those close to Corral who swear they have no idea other than what was offered.

A former KTVU staffer told me it caught everyone off-guard. "We have gatherings every once and awhile to shoot the shit and talk about the 'good old days' and this, (Corral's resignation), always comes up--Nobody really knows--It's KTVU's urban legend."

Several Bay Area media has attempted to get more information from Corral to no avail, even off the record which gave much more impetus to various stories circulating that Corral's decision involved something far more murkier. Corral signed a confidentiality agreement and was said to get a hefty amount of money from KTVU as a parting gift. That figure too is a mystery: some said over a half-million, some said significantly more. "A lot more", offered a KTVU veteran.

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It's Official: KTVU News Has Been 'Foxified'; Over-Talking, Yappy Anchors Make For Bad TV

 I didn't think it would turn out this way. Boy, was I wrong.

KTVU News has become Foxified. Certifiably.

The look, the feel, the style, you name it, the entire operation. It's a dramatic rebrand of a product that didn't need rebranding; maybe a tweak or two, but whatever is the case the new look and broadcast model is a complete mess.

First, the most glaring: anchors talking with one another. Nobody said it's against the law to speak on TV news. But KTVU's now-frequent uber-banter sounds out of place and forced. It doesn't sound right nor does it look authentic--it's just a cheap reincarnation of Happy Talk and it doesn't work as I noted not too long ago.

Moreover, KTVU's entry into chatter-fest has an artificial, non-genuine feel. You can't simply reinvent the wheel when your trademark, your style; the style that has garnered you national and local acclaim and the envy of the industry has become so noticeably altered. Just because Channel 2 anchors are talking now doesn't enhance the product. Far from it. Viewers are hip too--they see something that looks contrived-- they're going to get the remote.

This new model is probably coming from the new Fox management that took over in October. It didn't take long for the Foxies to begin augmenting their version of what TV news should look like only they, so far, have miscalculated the taste of Bay Area viewers. It's not just the new mucho-yapping, it's, for example, having  anchors have to do shill promos with the TMZ TV Show, which, not coincidently is on KTVU. It's not exactly tacky but it's also not indicative of KTVU's news acumen--again, it's a bad look. And it only figures to get worse which, if you're a Channel 2 viewer used to quality news programming, is a total bummer.

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Tipping Point At KTVU

 KTVU Anxiety Central

*Behind the scenes of tranquility is an unhappy, nervous, and angst-ridden, legacy Bay Area TV station and everyone--not just anchors and reporters, are worried as Fox invades 2 Jack London Square.

*The complete Inside Story coming soon.

*Developing...

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KGO-TV Contacts KTVU's Mark Ibanez About Possible Sports Anchor Gig; Breaking: Inglis Set To Retire in August

 KGO-TV has contacted veteran KTVU weeknight sports anchor, Mark Ibanez, about possibly joining the SF ABC O and O, (owned/operated), according to a reliable station source who asked for anonymity.


Ibanez has been a KTVU stalwart since 1979 and recently signed a three-year extension, but it's up in March, 2015 and given the uncertainty at Channel 2 since Fox acquired them, Ibanez might be tempted.


Ibanez was unable to comment.


At KGO, Channel 7, the sports anchor situation is very much up in the air.


Larry Beil has been doing much more news anchoring but through a variety of sources, has told people he'd prefer to go back to his native Hawaii and "be a big fish in a little pond."


Mike Schumann is KGO's weekend anchor and prime backup but isn't considered a "long-term" option should an opening occur if Beil splits.


Ibanez has indicated in the past that he'd prefer to end his career at KTVU, but with Fox taking over and perhaps wanting to chop highly-paid on-air talent, Ibanez may have to at least listen to offers.


**Meanwhile, I have heard from KTVU sources that longtime weekend sports anchor, Fred Inglis will retire from Channel 2 in August.


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On The KTVU Front Burner: Fox Network Makes Its O and O Anchors Run Their Own Teleprompters

Here's something KTVU staffers are not looking forward to: according to a heady local TV news hound, Fox makes its anchors run their own teleprompters, a small-market practice not seen in San Francisco.


Supposedly, Fox does it in New York, LA, and Chicago.


Why so? It saves money by dumping studio crew.


I have a feeling I just destroyed a lot of dinner plans in Jack London Square tonight.




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KTVU and Post-Dennis Richmond Six Years Later; A Station in Crisis; Revolving Door of New Reporters; Management More Concerned About Tweeting American Idol Than News Product; Thursday Opener

 It'll be six years in May when Dennis Richmond retired from KTVU --May 2008--seems like ancient times. Six years in today's environment is like 20 lifetimes. Six years ago KTVU was still the legacy station with a roster of award-winning reporters, anchors, news writers and directors and some of the finest people working in TV News.

Today, after a series of debacles --the biggest of which involved the Asiana fake pilot's names read on the air, KTVU is a station in crisis. New reporters almost every day; the big ones still left being pushed my management to leave.

How bad is it when your News Director and Managing Editor of a once-storied operation are tweeting about American Idol?

Richmond wasn't perfect by any means but was respected and revered by KTVU staffers. He didn't get along with a lot of people and he often clashed, quietly, with fellow anchors. But he remained the face of the station and was credited with making and establishing KTVU as a news powerhouse. Especially at 10 O'clock.

Here's a story I told not so long ago: Richmond was ready to call it quits back in '08 and enjoy retirement and a steady game of golf. He had lingering health issues but was mostly fit and active.

I asked a prominent Channel 2 air personality if the station had asked Richmond to stay another year or so because he looked and sounded at the top of his game would he do so. The answer was yes. Emphatically yes. Only Richmond wasn't asked and in fact, encouraged to split. Let that marinate in your mindset.

I have both praised, admired and scolded KTVU since Richmond's retirement. Clearly it is not the same company. Sure, change is a constant in life and business but that should not have dramatically rearranged the furniture at 2 Jack London Square. It did.

I have been consistent. I was the FIRST to praise Channel 2 for its smooth transition post-Richmond into Frank Somerville anchoring the ship. I lauded Somerville as a quality lead anchor with solid credentials and news savvy. I was the FIRST to recognize Frank and Channel 2 for its immediate and tremendous coverage of the Asiana crash direct from the scene of the tragedy and eight hours of non-stop reporting.

I wasn't the one who wrote a press release about the coverage the Monday after.

I was not the one who read the fake names of the pilots on board that plane.

And today, I'm not the one who blasts out mind-numbing "BREAKING NEWS" silos every five minutes of NON-BREAKING NEWS. (Yeah, everybody does it here and around the nation, but 2's over-over-over is beyond embarrassing).

It would help that KTVU have a team of management that staff would respect and heed advice only the big boys who run KTVU are a bunch of low-rank amateurs. The GM has the people skills of a diseased cat. The News Director, Wonder Boy, is lampooned and satirized. At least Special Ed knew how to read the room. He knew what he was and what he wasn't. Wonder Boy thinks he Willie Mays but he's really Wally Pipp.

I didn't write the Monday Press Release. He did.

2008 was a long time ago but at least the anchors were not thanking viewers for trusting us. Reporters weren't coming and going. People weren't reading fake pilot's names on a teleprompter and tweeting out American Idol sweet nothings.

BREAKING NEWS: KTVU is the not the same KTVU.

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Sorry, but KTVU is a Mess; The Real Powow at 55 Hawthorne; The New Guy at KSFO with the Fake Name

 Those were the days...


Remember the time when Dennis Richmond and Elaine Corral graced your screen? Do you miss Rita Williams grilling Gavin Newsom? Recall Lloyd LaCuesta doing a live shot from the Santa Cruz Mountains? The late Bob Shaw's lucid movie reviews. Bob McKenzie's brilliant commentaries on anything. Fred Zehnder commanding the ship. KTVU in its heyday.


Now: A zombie-like workforce. A bunch of misfits that have wreaked havoc on a once-prestigious TV News outlet. Good people still on the payroll with an uneasy acknowledgement that this place is really gone to hell. A new reporter every other day. Over-worked producers and writers. A management that sits in denial unwilling and unable to provide any adequate vital communications not just for bloggers but so-called, "legitimate news-gathering" operations who seek some semblance of inquiry.


Question: Has anyone ever even heard a whiff out of News Director, Lee Rosenthal, the boy wonder? And Tom Raponi, the allegedly good-guy GM from the sales dept. no less, become a virtual ghost in the upstairs back office? It's called basic public relations that has been lost in the shuffle or maybe the teleprompter is providing bad names again.


Channel 2 is a mess. I have no axe to grind because those who know me wish remnants of the old KTVU were in place. Thank God Sal Castaneda is still there, ditto Somerville and Rob Roth and Ken Wayne. There's others too but unfortunately they're in the minority. The place looks old. The newscasts lack spark and energy. The feuding sports guys on the weekend jealous of Mark Ibanez. The once-congenial weeknight weatherman who suddenly has an attitude and is befuddled by the slightest bit of constructive criticism.


The "10' O' Clock News" is still king but has lost considerable luster. There's more teases than a strip joint on Broadway. The jaw-dropping obscene amount of fake "Breaking News" sounders that has become an industry-wide joke in an industry that is overload on fake breaking news.


They're still good. They have some fine people. But they continue to destroy and marginalize the brand. Part of that is not their fault because of the nature of the business but a lot of their current look and feel has been fast-forwarded by a clueless management team that has brought forth a system-wide dysfunctional and frankly, lackluster news operation.


Sorry to say nothing even remotely resembles the old place. And that's too bad.


*That Cumulus-KGO/KSFO meeting that took place regarding programming the other day was NOT the "powwow" some of you thought I was referring to; a couple of people, one, whose name is Bloomquist, had their own meeting and you don't even wanna know what they were talking about, then again, it's Cumulus and nothing is a surprise when it comes to the cloud people.


**Oh, they named a new horrible morning guy with a fake name at KSFO. Brilliant move, does he get to bring his dog into the studio?


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Silence Of The Lambs at KTVU

 The GM never talks even after repeated e-mails that would love to give him a chance to talk, to speak openly and set the record straight. And I'm not the only one he doesn't answer after endless requests.

 

--The News Director has also been silent. Never talks, never bothers to at least try to make his case and by extension, the station's case. That's not very bright.

 

Even before the Asiana name disaster, the station PR effort was mum's the word unless highlighting ratings which is fine, SOP.

 

But ever since that day, it's been abysmal from a once preeminent Bay Area TV News Masterpiece Theatre.

 

KTVU should know better.

 

God knows they could use a bit of transparency and injecting a whole lot of oil into a sputtering engine. That's what professional operations do, even the rank amateurs because the current silence of the lambs policy isn't working and only further revving up those in the newsroom and beyond who talk of dire straits at 2 Jack London Square.

 

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Gary Park Was a Talented, Mysterious, Anchor at KTVU

 Gary Park was one of the most powerful, talented, feared, misunderstood and eccentric TV News personalities in the Bay Area.

He anchored news, sports, culture and he loved good restaurants and fine wine.

When I was a kid in the 70's growing up, I distinctly remember seeing Park, always alone, in Oakland Chinatown a stone's throw from KTVU's old 1 Jack London Square studios.

He didn't like to mix it up, talk much, but he was always courteous and nice and exchanged hello's.

Few people really knew Gary Park that well which was just as well because he didn't like to socialize a lot. Just do his show, (and he always wrote his own script and was a helluva writer), get in and out and leave. He was married and had a daughter and lived in the Oakland hills.

Many people remember Gary Park for his work on Channel 2 with the SF Giants. He died in May of 2009 due to complications from cancer.

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KTVU PR Guy Holub Leaving To Join Cox Media Competitor in Atlanta

  Holub Leaving KTVU--

Jeff Holub, head of creative services at KTVU is heading to Atlanta to work for a direct competitor of the Cox (who owns KTVU) station in Atlanta, WSB-TV.

Holub became persona non grata to Cox with his constant complaining of wanting to be transferred out of the Bay Area, hoping to, if not work at corporate in Atlanta, then at least a more "agreeable" location for him in Charlotte, NC or in Ohio, his home state.

A station source opined to me:

Wonder if Tom Raponi, (Channel 2 GM), will comment on why Holub, who makes life miserable for the people who do the work he takes credit for, gets to stay and then give notice and work for a competitor, while others in his department are led out the door like criminals. 

 

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Exclusive: Ex-KTVU ND, Chapuis, Was Told By KTVU MGT To Fire Senior Staffers; Newsroom Angst Over Fired Asiana Personnel

  MORE KTVU EXCLUSIVES!

A source close to KTVU tells me, exclusively.

*Ed Chapuis: The former News Director, according to my Insider, ,has been telling people that he was ordered to fire "higher-paid, senior people without contracts" (Chapuis was not present during the Asiana affair, having long been let go months earlier.)

Chapuis refused, said the source, because supposedly, he, (Chapuis), regarded these staffers as the "best in the business." But GM, Tom Raponi wanted them gone so he could hire "easy-to-manipulate" kids at cheaper prices.

SO they fired Chapuis. (On his way to a new gig in Sacramento.)

And brought in a new ND, the current person, Lee Rosenthal, "TO DO THE EXECUTIONER'S WORK."

--Meanwhile:

 

*The latest on the Asiana NameGate affair:

 

From my sources: There's still considerable angst in the newsroom over the four fired staffers let go by management last month. Moreover, according to my chief source, those let go were made to be scapegoats.

 

A direct quote: "THE ASIANA THING WAS A JUST A RUSE! THOSE PEOPLE DID NOTHING WRONG. THE ONLY ONE WHO DID IS STILL WORKING THERE!"

 

Figure it out.  Michelle Toy, the ex-Managing Editor and/or Tori Campbell, the veteran news anchor who read the fake names.
 

*Developing...

 

*Rich Lieberman 415 Media Exclusive

 

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.

Tori Campbell was Not on KTVU Monday Morning But There's a Reason

Tori Campbell was NOT on the air Monday Morning on her KTVU "Mornings on 2" program, but there's a reason. A convenient reason but nonetheless interesting.

A source close to the station told me that she wasn't suspended nor reprimanded over "Namegate." In fact, Campbell had a long-ago-planned family vacation.

In this case, the timing could not have come at a better time for Campbell; not so much for KTVU.

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KTVU Orders Gaffe Videos Pulled From YouTube; More Dumb Thinking at Jack London Square

We're not ganging up on KTVU but its post-gaffe behavior following one of the most embarrassing and humiliating acts in TV News history continues to boggle the mind. Instead of moving forward with acts of transparency and level-headedness, the station has, instead, reverted to sticking its head in the sand. In addition to this site, others are aghast too.

The latest case of concealment was reported by Matthew Keys of The Desk; is KTVU kidding? Do they really think this type of action is pro-active? In the Internet age, it's impossible to remove the evidence. That may or may not be such great news but it's the reality of the times.

KTVU has been the gold-standard in news presentation in the Bay Area. Its "10 O'clock News", once the envy of local shops and TV newsrooms across the country, is still top-notch, but in recent years has lost a lot of its luster. That's not an indictment on the fine people at the station, just indicative of the changing business. It's a shame, then, that such a treasured brand would taint its meat and potatoes with actions like trying to conceal something that ain't ever going away.

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