By Matt Pulle
Not long after the Meredith Corp. bought WSMV-Channel 4 in 1995, the Iowa-based company decided to renovate the station’s Knob Hill offices. At the time, Channel 4 enjoyed a nationwide reputation for blending winning ratings with serious and award-winning journalism. Proud of its stature, the station had decorated its hallways with the many trophies and plaques it had won over the years. But when Meredith officials began redecorating, they decided they didn’t like all the clutter. And so they chucked all the awards into the parking lot Dumpster.
“Staffers were distraught as they pulled out all the station’s hard-earned awards from the trash,” says Lorraine Grula, who began working at the station in 1982 in the special projects unit and just recently resigned. “Things just began to change when Meredith took over.”
Nashville’s oldest television station, Channel 4 is in the midst of one of the gloomiest periods in its long and distinguished history. In May, during the all-important sweeps period, the station lost to its longtime rival WTVF-Channel 5 in every single time slot. And while the July sweeps aren’t as important, they do seem to signify a trend. At press time, it looked like WTVF-Channel 5 would again sweep every newscast. So it’s no fluke. Channel 4 is an also-ran station.
“I think we had a plan to dominate in this market, but I’m surprised that it happened so quickly,” says Channel 5 news director Mike Cutler.
Making matters worse, the onetime standard bearer in broadcast journalism has revamped its reporting over the last year, focusing on shorter and more sensational stories. Channel 4 even filmed a live burglary as a part of a weeklong series that featured a former thief-turned-consultant telling viewers the tricks of his past trade. That piece won’t win Channel 4 any trophies for the trash.
In the wake of a ratings plunge, morale has sunk while Channel 4 has watched nearly 15 employees depart over the last year. Here are just a few: Two weeks ago, Channel 4’s general manager, Frank DeTillio, resigned under pressure after seven years on the job. Longtime anchor Sharon Puckett, who had worked for the station for 28 years, abruptly left earlier this month. Jackie Pillars, Channel 4’s special events producer whom one former reporter characterizes as the “lifeblood of the station,” resigned last week after telling The Tennessean that she didn’t feel appreciated. She had logged almost 20 years at the station. And reporter Dorinda Carter quit Channel 4 last week to work for rival WKRN-Channel 2, a jump that would have been viewed as a questionable career move just one year ago.
“There are some people at Channel 4 who are still very happy, but there are a lot of people who don’t like everything that’s happening and I think those people are praying for a miracle,” says Carter, who began her career at Channel 4 six years ago. “I think I’m going to be able to go over to Channel 2 and do the best work of my career there.”
In the 1980s and early ’90s, Channel 4 was a remarkable station, airing long, complex stories on the 6 p.m. news while delving into other issues ranging from philosophy to education with the kind of depth and precision rarely seen on television.
“Ten years ago, we’d do at least one piece during the 6 o’clock news that ran five minutes or more,” says attorney Tom Lee, who worked at Channel 4 from 1989 to 1992. “It might be a consumer investigation, political piece or environmental story. Every night there was a chance to learn about something in extraordinary depth.”
While Meredith has run Channel 4 for nearly seven years, only recently has the station management come under fire. With 10 other stations under its wing and a vast print business—Meredith publishes 16 magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens—the 100-year-old company gave Channel 4 a measure of autonomy. But all that began to change last November, when Meredith brought in the brash, swash-buckling Kevin O’Brien to run Meredith’s broadcasting division.
In just eight months, under O’Brien, five of the company’s 11 general managers have resigned, including Channel 4’s DeTillio. Six news directors have also left under O’Brien’s watch, and the chatter among Channel 4 reporters is that their boss, Mark Schafer, may be next if ratings continue to head south.
Although O’Brien works from Las Vegas, he watches many Channel 4 newscasts from his computer. O’Brien, who’s in his mid-50s, has visited the station at least three times and has not exactly endeared himself to Channel 4’s rank and file. In fact, at one meeting about how to improve ratings, Lorraine Grula says he told staffers that “journalism doesn’t work.” In a subsequent meeting, O’Brien denied uttering such newsroom blasphemy, but few staffers believe that he’s committed to quality journalism. O’Brien even said as much at a recent meeting, when he reportedly told staff that anybody interested in doing quality, long-form journalism should go work for PBS.
“He can be very much of a bully,” Grula says. “At one point, he told the staff that he wanted everybody to be happy. Then he turns around and says that everybody here is lazy and needs to work harder and that it’s our fault that the station’s in trouble. Then he says he can’t understand why morale is down.”
“He’s fiery—he’s like a drill sergeant,” says Carter, who witnessed O’Brien in action during two staff meetings. “And his bottom line is that he wants to make money, and that’s the most important thing for him.”
O’Brien could not be reached for comment, but Jody Judge, a spokesman for Meredith, says that O’Brien was recruited to resuscitate the company’s flagging broadcast division.
“Kevin O’Brien’s goal is to come in and increase the profitability of Meredith,” Judge says. “Some of the changes that have been made are directly attributable to that goal,” he says. “Anytime you implement change, you’ll have people who accept it and people who resist it.”
Long before O’Brien arrived, Channel 4 had begun to stray from its impressive traditions. In fact, under news director J.T. Thompson, now departed, Channel 4 began airing the kinds of sleazy sweeps stories that were formerly anathema to the once proud station. Under O’Brien’s watch, the station is not as lowbrow, but it’s still a shell of its former self.
One of O’Brien’s mandates, staffers say, is that, stories as a rule should rarely exceed one minute and 15 seconds. Complaining incessantly about newscasts being boring, O’Brien demands that there be high story counts, but that encourages cursory reporting on simple issues.
Watching a typical Channel 4 newscast offers the evidence. The anchors nearly have to speed-read to get through all the stories. And an abundance of gloom-and-doom pieces gives viewers the impression that Nashville is on the verge of the apocalypse. In fact, in a recent newscast, Channel 4 aired four grim stories in a row, the first two on local car crashes, the last two on fires. Not long ago, Channel 4 would have scoffed at such story selection.
“You don’t want to turn on the news every day and see that your city is a crummy place to live, but that’s the way it’s coming across,” one frustrated staffer says. “O’Brien’s theory is that death, destruction and mayhem will lead the newscast.”
Other contributions from O’Brien include a heavy emphasis on live shots and props. During the recent state budget debates, reporters would be live at Legislative Plaza during the 10 p.m. newscast, even though all the characters who helped make the site a colorful place during the day had long since gone home. In addition, reporters always seem like they have to be holding a door, picking up a sign or moving something with their hands. (If you mute a typical Channel 4 newscast, it looks like the reporters are playing a game of charades.)
“It’s a stretch to have a meaningful demonstration that really adds to the story every night,” says longtime anchor Demetria Kalodimos. And having a crew report live from an empty building just to add another live shot is not always a wise use of resources, she adds. “The emphasis on live shots unfortunately squanders the ability of our photo staff, which is probably the strongest it has been since I’ve been here,” Kalodimos says. “We have some of the finest photojournalists in the country, but it’s tough if they have to put together a live shot instead of putting a whole story together with pictures.”
Judge says that O’Brien’s approach to journalism is, if anything, scientific. “We’ve done a lot of research at our different markets on what our viewers want,” he says.
Most media critics, however, view market research as the bane of journalism, turning media outlets into followers of public opinion rather than independent purveyors of information. Channel 4’s more experienced hands especially dismiss that kind of convenience-store approach.
“For better or worse, research and focus groups carry a lot of clout with our owners in how we do news,” says veteran anchor Dan Miller. “Personally, I put very little stock in having people tell us what kind of news they’d like to see before it even happens. I seriously doubt that anyone said, on Sept. 10, that we should present more coverage of terrorists who fly planes into big American buildings.”
Kalodimos also scoffs at the station’s heavy emphasis on shorter stories. “How do you explain the proliferation of 20/20s, Datelines and other magazine-style journalism shows where very often the stories approach five minutes?” she says. “The attention spans are there, the ratings are there and, while I’m not saying that it’s all grand journalism, it’s certainly longer form than one-minute stories.”
While O’Brien remains a resoundingly unpopular figure in the Channel 4 newsroom, station news director Mark Schafer cuts a more complicated reputation. Some staffers say that while Schafer has sound journalistic instincts, his management skills are suspect. That’s an especially crippling flaw when you preside over a crew of reporters and anchors—a group not known for humility. “Schafer may be a respected journalist and a wonderful investigative reporter, but his leadership ability and people skills are terrible,” reads one post on the industry Web site tvspy.com.
“Schafer’s reputation is that he is a really nice guy and a big thinker, but that he can’t lead on a day-to-day basis,” says a staffer at a competing station. “He’s a very good journalist. I just don’t think he’s right for the job.”
Schafer declined to comment for this story. But one staffer says that while the station has struggled since Schafer took the reigns just a year ago, don’t blame the bad news on him. “Mark is powerless,” one reporter says. “Nobody should be blaming him right now; he’s just a pawn.”
Kalodimos, for one, says that Schafer can lead Channel 4 out of its current doldrums. “I’ve known Mark for 18 years, and I respect him a great deal because he has done everything in this business,” she says. “If he is allowed to follow his own vision, we’re in great hands.”
For now, however, Channel 4’s immediate future looks bleak. The station still boasts popular anchors and hardworking reporters, but it has nevertheless hemorrhaged top talent over the last few weeks that will be difficult to replace. And another thing is undisputed: O’Brien’s formula isn’t working. His fondness for live shots, props and short, sensational stories has continued Channel 4’s ratings slump.
Dan Miller says that, while he personally hasn’t noticed any change in newsroom morale, the station isn’t accustomed to being second-best. And the spate of defections hasn’t helped matters. “When people are fired or resign, especially a high-profile veteran like Sharon Puckett or the general manager, it causes apprehension or even sadness,” he says. “But on the other hand, there’s a sense of rallying among many of the people still here.”
Kalodimos says that Channel 4 can return to its high-flying days, but only if it stops trying to be something it’s not. “If we get in comfortable clothing again, we’ll do our best,” she says. “It’ about being sincere, letting some of the humanness show and bringing personality back to the newscast. Currently the story count is so high that you can barely have an aside if a story is funny. And believe it or not, those are the things that endear you to viewers.”
Kalodimos says that Channel 4 can return to its high-flying days, but only if it stops trying to be something it’s not. “If we get in comfortable clothing again, we’ll do our best,” she says. “It’ about being sincere, letting some of the humanness show and bringing personality back to the newscast. Currently the story count is so high that you can barely have an aside if a story is funny. And believe it or not, those are the things that endear you to viewers.”
