ABC—It’s More Musical Chairs as ABC Shuffles L.A. Workers

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A year marked by the difficult relocation of some 200 staffers from New York to Burbank is not over yet for ABC, which is preparing to enter yet another phase of personnel shuffling.

In early December, about 300 employees, including the entire local news team at KABC-TV Channel 7, are scheduled to pack up their desks in Los Feliz for a move to new quarters a few miles to the east in Glendale.

ABC will also leave Century City in the coming weeks, transferring about 200 employees from the ABC Entertainment Center to the Walt Disney Co.’s new creative campus in Burbank.

Meanwhile, KABC employees are preparing to move into their new building at 500 Circle Seven Drive in Glendale. A circular white helicopter pad protruding from the structure has been drawing curious glances from freeway commuters for months.

“The building is done. It’s just a matter of getting the technical equipment in to make it a TV station,” said Bill Burton, director of creative services for KABC.

Burton said the station has outgrown its aging home on Prospect Avenue in Los Feliz, where employees are scattered among seven different buildings. Along with airing news broadcasts, ABC has also been producing television shows for decades at the Los Feliz site, which was originally a silent film studio.

KABC employees may be looking forward to working in the new Glendale building, which will be larger and more comfortable in addition to featuring upgraded broadcasting equipment, but Burton acknowledged that the move presents daunting logistical challenges.

“Our fingers are crossed, it’s a huge undertaking,” Burton said. “We have to do this as seamlessly as possible. We still have to produce five and a half hours of news a day.”

Production facilities at the Prospect facility home to such shows as “General Hospital” and “Port Charles” and some offices will remain in use, KABC officials said.

Meanwhile, just a few miles away in neighboring Burbank, workers are putting the finishing touches on ABC’s new West Coast headquarters, which will house the former New York executives and their staffs, as well as about 200 employees being transferred from ABC operations in Century City.

A large white-and-black ABC logo was recently mounted on an Art Deco tower atop the network’s new building next to the Ventura (134) Freeway. The first employees have already begun to move into the 300,000-square-foot structure, a process that will continue on a department-by-department basis in the coming weeks and perhaps through the new year, officials said.

Moving so many workers is part of a larger effort by ABC’s parent, Disney, to increase efficiency, upgrade infrastructure and keep executives within the far-flung Disney empire closer to home and CEO Michael Eisner.

Industry watchers have predicted months if not years of lower productivity because of the changes, a view bolstered by the defections of several key executives who chose to leave the company rather than move to Los Angeles. In addition, costs associated with the various moves are expected to run into the tens of millions of dollars.

ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover emphasized that the personnel moves, while difficult in the short term, will better position ABC for success in the long haul, particularly in its entertainment operations.

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