WJZ-TV 13 should have released MOTOR-MOUTH Marty Bass instead!
dutch
Station says money needed for new staff
By David Folkenflik (Baltimore Sun)
Originally published December 13, 2002
Officials at WJZ-TV have dismissed Michael Olesker, the station's
commentator for the past 19 years, saying the savings were needed to
pay for added staff for a new afternoon newscast.
"The job of part-time commentator is being eliminated as part of a
bigger strategy," said WJZ spokeswoman Liz Chuday. "The resources
[are] already being reinvested in more crews and reporters gathering
news on the street." She noted recent ratings advances by the station
as proof of the wisdom of the move.
Olesker, 57, is a longtime Sun columnist whose work appears in the
Maryland section of the newspaper. First hired by WJZ in 1983 to
deliver commentary for the station, he has appeared five nights a week
ever since.
Olesker's slightly hoarse voice projected a reporter's insider
knowledge and a liberal's social conscience across the airwaves. While
two competitors, WBAL-TV and WBFF, run editorials, no other local
newscast broadcasts regular commentary by journalists.
"I've had 19 really wonderful years, and I have been embraced every
day by strangers who come up to me and tell me how much my work means
to them, and to this community," Olesker said yesterday. "That is
enormously gratifying. It's like getting to therapy every day."
While he said he did not wish to bemoan his forced departure, Olesker
said WJZ general manager Jay Newman earlier had asked him to quit his
newspaper job to join the station full time. Olesker demurred, saying
he told Newman that his column at The Sun represented his primary job.
"Part of this [dismissal] was probably that he knew that I did not
like what he was doing with this station," Olesker said. In
particular, he said, too few reporters were being spread too thin.
Reached while bicycling in Naples, Fla., Newman declined to comment,
referring the call to Chuday. WJZ news director Gail Bending also
forwarded a reporter's inquiry to the spokeswoman. In an interview
earlier in the week, however, Bending said that her reporting staff
had adapted relatively quickly and effectively to the demands of the
extra hour of news programming.
Olesker's contract lasts through tonight, but he said last night's
commentary would be his final one. Station management rejected his
request to acknowledge his departure briefly in remarks on the air, he
said.
Olesker was born in the Bronx in New York and moved to Baltimore as a
small child. He attended City College and the University of Maryland,
and worked in England as a cultural critic before becoming a reporter
and a columnist for the now defunct News American in Baltimore. He
moved to The Sun in 1979.
"Local TV news, including in this market, is very often comprised of
people who come to town for a few years, just begin to learn who the
key players are, and then move on," Olesker said. "This is a station
that's always billed itself as the hometown station. Its strength was
that it held on to good, local people. They always made me feel like I
was one of those people."
Recent station decisions to release sports anchor John Buren and other
former fixtures have altered that sensibility, Olesker said. He also
questioned why the station would start a newscast without committing
new money for it.
Chuday, however, said the station's plans had worked well, pointing to
the strong showing by WJZ in last month's "sweeps" period. The
station's 4 p.m. newscast attracted higher audience levels last month
than in recent comparable periods. WJZ took top ratings for its
ensuing 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. news programs away from WBAL-TV, which was
regarded in the local industry as something of a coup.
The shift of resources, including anticipated savings from Olesker's
salary, has allowed the station to hire reporters Gigi Barnett and
Derek Valcourt and to promote weather forecaster Brooks Tomlin to
full-time status, Chuday said. And, she said, WJZ has bought new
equipment for weather forecasting and set aside additional money for
camera and technical crews.
"There are more stories being covered, and more people on the streets
today than there were a year ago," said Chuday. "This is part of a
bigger picture."
brojack
>Olesker dismissed as WJZ regular
Olesker is a disgusting, left-wing, excusemaking, apologist, suck up
pansy ass.
Good riddance.
BroJack