RE: NERW 8/4/03 - WUTR loses local news

[Matthew Osborne <mattosborne1976@yahoo.com>]

As reported in this week's NERW, Clear Channel
Communications has shut down the local news operation
at WUTR-TV 20 in Utica, NY.  However, interestingly
enough, I went to their website, and as of Tuesday
morning 12:51 AM, nothing of the like has been
mentioned there, and all of the former news staff's
bios are still up.  Kinda looks like nobody there
maintains their website on a regular basis ... 

    With that being said though, I do feel the need to
clarify what I know about the situation to those of
you reading in Boston or wherever and are not familiar
with the "big picture."  Their website not being
maintained does not surprise me at all.  As Scott
mentioned, since the station signed on the air in the
1970s, their local news operation was second rate, at
best, and could never compete with the much better
signaled and bankrolled WKTV.  The station, from its
inception until about 1995 was owned by Roy Park, and
from the stories I've heard, he was extremely cheap
and refused to spend any money whatsoever on the
station if he didn't have to.  And believe me, it
showed in their on-air product.  I remember when I
first moved to Herkimer to attend Herkimer County
Community College, in my first week there I watched
their 6:00 newscast, and was amazed at how cheesy and
cheap looking everything was.  Scott mentioned that
their newscasts "almost caught up to WKTV" in the mid
90s, but I beg to differ there.  Even right after the
death of Roy Park, and before the sale of the station
to Ackerley, their news operation was STILL miles
behind WKTV's with no hope of catching up.  The scary
thing is, after Ackerley took them over, gave them a
badly needed new graphics package, and tried all of
these "centralized" operations, WUTR had its best news
operation and overall look in the station's history. 
But, because of Mr Park's way of operating the
station, everything, and I do mean everything about
WUTR was, and may still be second rate.  So I guess
not much, except for highly rated newscasts, would
surprise me about WUTR.

                           Matt Osborne
                           Poughkeepsie, NY

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