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TV station cuts back
By: CHRIS BAGLEY - Staff Writer | ∞
TEMECULA -- Southwest County's only local television station laid off most of its employees last week, a move that former employees say could curtail its appeal to viewers even as it tries to expand its audience locally and in the far corners of Los Angeles' sprawling media market.
Chief executive Kevin Page said the 20 or so layoffs, two-thirds of the station's work force, followed a recognition that KZSW hadn't attracted as many viewers or advertisers as he had hoped. A market study the station commissioned last summer suggested that about 4 percent of residents had watched the station in areas that have access to a fiber-optic television network that covers most of Southwest County. The station may have somewhat stronger viewership in the Menifee area, which is covered by a separate cable provider.
Four of the 10 remaining employees are in news gathering and production, Page said Monday.
"We were in a situation where we needed to see strong growth, and we didn't," Page said. "We had to bring back our staff to something that's sustainable in the long term."
KZSW is broadcast in Southwest County as Channel 27, and is also available through several cable providers. Though its news programs have lacked some of the polish of the major network affiliates in the nation's second-largest media market, local officials and some viewers locally have praised it for providing news outside the immediate Los Angeles area.
Those stations hold a monopoly of sorts throughout the counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, Orange, and Inyo and in western Riverside County, though residents in some areas feel little or no connection to the city.
"He let us build the station for him," said former General Manager John Roberts, whose employment at the station was terminated in October. "He's just going to run whatever he can run to keep it on the air."
The station relaunched itself in late 2005 after moving from Hemet, where it had offered a mix of news and church programming for several years. Since then, it has broadcast Southwest County programs as Channel 27 via a low-power signal from a Murrieta hilltop, but has become available to MediaCom cable customers in Menifee and Sun City and, more recently, to Murrieta and Temecula residents who subscribe to Verizon Communication's fiber-optic television system.
The area's largest cable provider, Time-Warner Cable, began this fall to offer KZSW's recent news programs on an on-demand basis. Owners and managers at the station say they and Time-Warner representatives have been discussing the possibility of Time-Warner carrying KZSW on a fixed channel, both in Southwest County and in other parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Citing interviews with current and recently laid-off employees, Roberts put the number of layoffs at 22. The downsized station will probably have a difficult time luring viewers from local newspapers and news Web sites, he said. KZSW's flagship news program aired live at 6 p.m. on weekdays, with several broadcasts over the next 24 hours, including both previously aired clips and live updates. Page said the station is cutting the live broadcasts in favor of segments produced a few hours in advance.
He also said he doesn't believe the cutback would cripple the station's efforts to attract those viewers or to establish itself permanently with Time-Warner.
"We still have the only local news product in the Inland Empire," Page said, "and we can still do a good job."
Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.
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matt wrote on Dec 25, 2007 12:12 AM:look at it this way: we should be thankful that we are not on the LA news very often...like they say : no news is good news be thankful we dont have the killings over here, the gang problems, and everything like that and if you want local news, read the newspaper!
murrieta resident wrote on Dec 25, 2007 12:16 PM:perhaps they should have advertised....i've never heard of them and i'm with time warner cable.
to Matt wrote on Dec 25, 2007 12:21 PM:but you do!?! There has been alot of crime up in your neck of the woods lately....It is not the "perfect" place. I lived there and hated it and moved back to San Diego!
Sheriff John wrote on Dec 25, 2007 11:28 PM:When compared to cities like San Diego and L.A., Temecula has NO crime.
Greg wrote on Dec 26, 2007 10:05 AM:A rich kid invited us into his sandbox and kicked us out when he was finished. Changed 22 peoples life days before Christmas. Those were not real tears!
Greg wrote on Dec 26, 2007 1:30 PM:To the poster before me:
If that is the way you feel, don't be a coward and man up. Use your real name, don't slander mine, ...
As bad as this seems right now, I have confidance we will bounce back!
David wrote on Dec 26, 2007 5:37 PM:It should have been off the air 18 months ago.....Crapy news with crapy reporters.....I hear that they paid the interns $50 bucks for 10 hours of work....They are suppose to replace the crapy staff...I seen better high school TV that what they tried to do.
Ron wrote on Dec 26, 2007 5:41 PM:It should have been off the air 18 months ago....Bad news with bad reporters. They never did what they say they would do....How offent did you see city council meetings? How many local stories did they do? Kevin should just let it die...TW will never carry them...KZSW will have to pay if they want to be on TW
Terrible Picture wrote on Dec 27, 2007 8:15 PM:I watched it a couple of times and thought the local information was good. I have cable and the KZSW picture and sound quality was terrible!! After that I never tuned into 27 again.
Temecula Viewer wrote on Dec 28, 2007 12:35 PM:I watched the new 30 minute taped format last night, and the lone highlight was Melissa the Weather Girl. I figured a while back that we've seen the last of Jennifer and Maya, but where the heck was Matt the Sports Guy? By the way, Mr. Page, if I want to watch world and national news, I'll tune in to Fox or CNN. Stick to the local stories that I can't find anywhere else and I'll keep watching. Unless you dumped Matt, too.
For Temecula Viewer wrote on Dec 28, 2007 1:48 PM:Matt is gone too. Jennifer moved on to San Diego months ago and Maya is on maternity leave.
Mediacom Customer wrote on Dec 29, 2007 12:02 AM:WHAT!! No more local sports! Thats the worse thing they could have done! Who cares about the weather.
saw it coming wrote on Dec 29, 2007 9:16 AM:sounds like investors will come in and take over. kzsw cant compete with the big markets in la and sd the production value is just not there. hopefully they learn from this and rethink the entire product.
K Padberg wrote on Dec 30, 2007 5:01 PM:Wow!
Not long in the area and wished we had more local TV media during the fires recently. Somewhere in the midst of the posts above there is an audience that wants Temecula Valley local news, sports and info and a station manager that would like to see a viable local station that thrives and gets tied into cable and sattelite networks. Rapping each other in the nose makes no sense. Hope the channel survives and performs the tweaks needed to keep the numbers up. Need help Greg?
TW wrote on Dec 31, 2007 10:09 AM:So are they still on TW. Seen them a couple of times on VOD. But now their gone! Please let me know!!!!!!!!!!!
So_Cal_Retail wrote on Dec 31, 2007 7:50 PM:For a local tv station in a the lergest TV DMA market in the nation based on population without ANY network television stations, I give the staff and owners of KZSW the benefit of at least trying to put on a local format news program. The news program reminds me of the early days of the former OCN (Orange County News Channel) started off slow, but turned into a gret product before Adelphia pulled the plug.
The two problems for KZSW are nor carriage of the complete schedule by Time-Warner Cabl who dominates virtually all cable systems in southwest Riverside County, except for the Mediacom area in Sun City and lack of carriage on DirecTV and Dish TV.
At least KZSW has secured carriage on Verizon Fios, Charter (need digital box) and Mediacom. Again, the big hole here is Time-Warner. Since KZSW is not a "must-carry" station under FCC rules, Time-Warner has not bent.Too bad as they don't understand the local market and will not make an exception to carry a LP-Low Power station. I assume that if they carry KZSW, Time-Warner must feel obligated to carry all Los Angeles market LP stations.
Te anchor Bill Lorin is a retired KNX 1070 Newsradio San Diego and Inland Empire reporter. He's got a good voice, just may not look pretty for t.v.
My hope for the new year is that KZSW can achieve the following:
1) Secure carriage agreements with:
Time-Warner Cable, DirecTV and Dish TV
Verizon Fios has not grown as much as Verizon estimated
2) Upgrade the LP status to a Full Power station
3) Improve the sales effort to bring on board more advertisers
4) Improve upon the programming choices over what is being offered today
buyer beware! wrote on Jan 7, 2008 8:33 AM:Layoff before christmas? Why is everyone so surprised...? ...So he does understand the concept of people have to pay bills...Last layoff wasn't necessary back in 2005 and I know this layoff he didn't have to layoff so many. But oh well thats what people they get. I no you aren't getting your jobs back, dont be stupid people. Everyone there should just QUIT and let the MAN do the work.
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