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Shortfall forces WEDU cuts
© St. Petersburg Times, Facing competition across the cable dial for viewers, PBS officials often defend their turf by touting the importance of locally produced TV shows. But Tampa PBS outlet WEDU-Ch. 3 soon will stop making its only two series featuring local issues and local people, the political talk show Tampa Bay Week and the public affairs interview show Dialogue. Syl Farrell, who has hosted Tampa Bay Week for more than eight years and Dialogue for more than seven, was told Monday by WEDU executives he would be laid off after taping programs for the week of July 13. Officials say they're putting the programs on hiatus for the summer as part of cost-cutting measures to avoid a $500,000 budget shortfall by year's end. "We're doing what any responsible company would do (in similar circumstances)," said Stephen L. Rogers, WEDU president and CEO, who blamed the funding problems partially on a decline in membership renewals. "We've got to stay financially sound. And if we don't balance our budget, there won't be anything on air." Already, the station has laid off five other staffers and left two positions unfilled, Rogers said. Last year, WEDU was the most-watched PBS station in Florida, but its CEO had to plead with viewers directly for donations to avoid a $350,000 shortfall. Tampa Bay Week has been the area's only prime-time TV venue for discussion of local political issues, featuring panelists such as Tampa City Council member Bob Buckhorn, Tampa Tribune columnist Joe Brown and St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler. "It was always said to me (at WEDU) that public affairs programs do nothing," said Farrell, 56, a Jacksonville native who began working at WEDU in 1990 as host of a show called From a Black Perspective, which became Tampa Bay Week three years later. "I had people on the show who were willing to help raise money. But (WEDU) didn't seem interested." Unlike more combative political shows, Tampa Bay Week's atmosphere often was more collegial. It airs just after the national PBS shows Washington Week in Review and Wall Street Week at 9 p.m. Fridays (Dialogue airs at 10:30 a.m. Sundays). Rogers said the hiatus has nothing to do with a fall lineup advanced by PBS that schedules a new show, Life 360, in Tampa Bay Week's time slot (PBS stations can air national programming when they like, though national executives are pressing stations to carry most of the new prime-time schedule at the same times). Rogers said he hopes to bring back both Tampa Bay Week and Dialogue later in the year. But the plainspoken Farrell was pessimistic. "I think there are people in the community clamoring to know about local issues," said Farrell. "These shows were the only things they had left reaching out to the community." Bay News 9, Chronicle strike a dealArea TV broadcasters may tout partnerships with one newspaper, but Time Warner's 24-hour cable newschannel Bay News 9 will be sharing news resources with four local newspapers. Monday, the newschannel announced a partnership with the Citrus County Chronicle that includes basing newly hired Bay News 9 reporter Emily Maza at the newspaper. Once fiber-optic transmission lines are installed, Maza will file TV reports directly from the Chronicle's newsroom, involving the newspaper's reporters when appropriate. Bay News 9 meteorologists will be featured on the Chronicle's weather page; the two outlets also plan to share information on developing stories and team up on projects such as opinion polls. The newschannel has similar agreements with The Ledger in Polk County, The Bradenton Herald in Manatee County and The Tampa Bay Business Journal, though the Chronicle is the first to house a TV news bureau. "It's our way of getting out and being religious about covering issues in these areas," said Rod Fowler, news director at Bay News 9. "I don't see us writing stories for them . . . but (otherwise), the sky's the limit. . . . We'll team up for whatever our creative minds can come up with."
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