New Shakeup at KCBS as Viacom Seeks Integration
By CLAUDIA PESCHIUTTA
Staff Reporter
The doors keep revolving at KCBS-TV (Channel 2) and the ratings keep lagging.
Vice President and General Manager David Woodcock’s resignation last week after less than nine months on the job brings another change in management at a station that’s had seven general managers over the last 12 years.
Woodcock will be replaced with Don Corsini, president and general manager of KCAL (Channel 9), once CBS parent Viacom Inc. closes its $650 million acquisition of KCAL from Young Broadcasting Inc., which could happen as soon as this week. Corsini will head both stations.
The network was expected to eliminate one of the two general manager positions in L.A. as part of an effort to consolidate operations at KCBS and KCAL.
Woodcock seemed like the natural choice to run both, given his experience at KCBS and KCAL, where he served as president and general manager from 1991-96. But sources said that CBS executives were partial to Corsini.
“(Woodcock) is very passionate and eloquent about what he wants to do, but he’s been here for eight months and hasn’t done anything,” said one station source. “He was overwhelmed to the point of inaction.”
Though an experienced television executive, Woodcock was used to running smaller stations for smaller media companies, where he had more autonomy and encountered less pressure from higher-ups. His management experience included stints at KCOP-TV (Channel 13) and KTVX-TV in Salt Lake City, which were then owned by Chris-Craft Industries Inc. (Chris-Craft was acquired by Fox Television owner News Corp. last year.)
Ratings woes
But KCBS presents greater challenges for a general manager than most stations. For years it has consistently lagged its network rivals, KNBC-TV (Channel 4) and KABC-TV (Channel 7). Numerous general managers and news directors have come and gone but have not been given enough time or money to turn KCBS around, according to sources familiar with the station.
“People want to see results quickly,” said one former KCBS executive. “There’s short-term thinking, which is based on revenues, and not a long-term strategy for growing ratings.”
KCBS is under more pressure to perform than other CBS owned-and-operated stations because Los Angeles is the nation’s second largest television market and a glass bowl in the TV station world.
“It is a burial ground for many, many careers,” said one industry source. “There’s a front yard (at KCBS) with GMs’ names on tomb stones.”
Woodcock, who has two young children, said he decided to leave KCBS to spend more time with his family. He offered to stay at the station until the Young sale closed and Corsini made the transition to heading both stations.
“I want to give them as much support as they need,” Woodcock said. After leaving the station, he plans to spend time traveling in Europe. While he would consider another job in television, Woodcock said he wouldn’t be making any career decisions until his daughter goes back to school in September.
Blame on Karmazin
Some in the industry blame KCBS’s problems on Viacom President and Chief Operating Officer Mel Karmazin, who is known for his drive to cut costs and increase revenues.
“He’s all about costs and sales and he’s not about product and if you don’t provide the product … you can’t move forward,” said one source.
While CBS has put more money into its local station, that may not be enough to make up for years of cost-cutting, said a former KCBS executive.
“The station and the news department have had the budget cut quite a few times and you need to invest in resources to have parity in the market,” the executive said. “When you’re in such a third-place position, it takes a lot to dig out of that.”
But network spokesman Dana McClintock said that decisions about KCBS are made by Fred Reynolds, president of the CBS Television group, and his boss, Leslie Moonves, the network’s president and chief operating officer. CBS executives did not return calls for comment.
Beyond the current corporate mandate, years of management changes have hurt KCBS’s efforts to boost its viewership. Different general managers have brought in new news directors, anchors or marketing strategies, which has created a lack of consistency observers say has turned viewers off.
“What we’ve seen around the country in highly competitive, highly fragmented markets like Los Angeles is stations need to stake out a very unique and clear position,” said Brian Greif, senior vice president of North American television at media researcher Frank N. Magid Associates. “Historically, part of (KCBS’s) problem has been that they’ve switched positions frequently, which causes confusion.”
But this transition may be smoother than past ones. News Director Princell Hair, who came to the station in December and is expected to remain, is said to have the support of Joel Cheatwood, executive vice president of news for Viacom Television Stations.
Corsini and Hair are likely to make some changes at KCBS, given the station’s long ratings slump, but any improvement will take time.
“You need to put a management team in place and let them develop a strategy and let them execute the strategy and you’ve got to give them three to five years to do that,” said one former KCBS executive. “You can’t keep changing.”
