Oregon Media Insiders

In answer to your questions, Shirley didn't really "win" her age discrimination lawsuit as much as she recieved a settlement. The difference is that she didn't get as much as she wanted, but she did get some money.

And for the record, it's fairly commonplace for TV anchors and reporters to claim age discrimination when they're fired or their contracts aren't renewed. Most of those lawsuits are not successful.

Right now the biggest problem that KOIN is dealing with is a lack of finanacial resources. Due to the on-going credit crunch, KOIN's new owner cannot get the money the station needs to make necessary improvements (or at least that's what employees are being told).

The morale in KOIN's newsroom has improved significantly with the hiring of their News Director (Lynn), and the General Manager (Chris Sehring) is a very smart and classy man. The news ratings have shown definite improvement...and it's likely that they'll see better ratings for both the early morning news and 5p-7p newsblock on KOIN.

One note of caution, there seems to be some serious issues involving the sales and business departments at KOIN. Lots of turnover and departures of long time employees (have you seen the TV commercial KOIN is airing to hire a salesperson?). Sources tell me that KOIN's sales department is a mess, can anyone confirm?

It would be nice if KOIN could get it's act together.