Hilary Hutcheson is goneSubmitted by Myhousemf on Sun, 06/10/2007 - 11:17pm.
Tonight was Hilary's last night at KPTV as announced at the end of the 10 O'Clock news. It's sad to see her go. I didn't catch all of it but i think they said she will still be in the Portland area doing something, but I'm not sure. Thanks for being here Hilary! ( topics: KPTV-TV )
It is with mixed emotions that I must tell you that Hilary Hutcheson is leaving Fox 12. Congratulations Hilary, you will be missed. Patrick And not just post his staff memo on this site. Hilary says KPTV gave her a lousy offer to re-sign a new contract so she chose to go into PR instead. I'll bet she shows up on another station someday. Some news director will want to hire her. Don't trash your people on their way out the door.. no matter how you're parting company. Maybe there's hope for Patrick. Is he getting some class? He realized, like Rod Gramar did almost as soon as OMI hit the web, that his memos were going to end up here verbatim in short order. ----- Hilary will be sorely missed. I can't think of anyone who can take her place with the same fun attitude. She was a real pleasure to work with. Any suggestions/speculation on a replacement? I can't say I'm surprised that she left KPTV. They worked that poor woman to death, having her be on the air in the early morning and again on the 10 PM show. She has young children and I've felt for a while now that she would have to decide that she wanted to actually SEE them once in a while and would take another gig for that reason. If you treat people like crap, the ones with options will take them. Only women are affected by having to go to work and leaving kids home? The men who have family and do the same thing don't see their kids. Why is it ok for them? And at KPTV, if you watched it, she was not the only one who did 10pm live shots and was on the next morning on GDO. They have done that to Jamie Wilson recently, Kevin Coari a little while ago, and Chad Carter in December up at Mount Hood. Debra Gil as well if I remember in December as well. And it's not just the on air people who are doing those hours. There are photogs and live truck operators who are doing that as well. And I'm sure a few of them have family, wives or husbands, and they also don't get to see them when they do this type of stuff. It doesn't happen often, but when it does I'm sure it's hard. But it's not just hard on the women pal. Hilary is such a talented reporter and anchor. If it were up to me I'd pay big bucks to keep her around. It pains me to see her getting out of the business but I wish her all the best in the future. She's tired of all the crime and slime. Maybe she's so fearful of all the crime lucking on the streets of the Northwest that she can't sleep at night. If you watch KPTV's news for a few days you'd have to be convinced that everyone is a crime victim every day. Maybe Hilary just got tired of it, like anyone with a brain would! Most talented newspeople don't jump to PR in their prime years unless there's a problem. My guess is Hilary is tired of working weekends and early mornings and late nights. That's tough on a mother. The other issue is most likely money. She's telling people that KPTV's offer was low... almost insulting... for the job she's expected to do. Think about it: Hilary's going into PR and will probably not make much money to start. Could she afford to make that decision if she was paid well at KPTV? I know some people on this blog don't like when salary and FOX12 are mentioned in the same sentence but the truth is they don't pay a lot of their people well enough to keep them. This is the 2nd talented on-air person to leave because of their paycheck. Patrick needs to open up his wallet a little bit if he wants to keep his best employees. He may be a great guy to work for (I don't know) but that doesn't pay the rent. Come on, KPTV - start spending some of that cash on the good people who brought you those high ratings! Maybe, like many of us who have left the biz, she decided TV news is a hollow, unfulfilling existence. Note to Hilary: Good for you. Once you're out of the biz awhile, you will wonder what took you so long to quit. Word is KPTV doesn't pay their anchors as well as other stations. Hillary could not get the going rate for weekend anchors in the Portland market. I am curious what the current range is for a weekend anchors here in PDX. Any ideas? I am guessing 80-90k but I'm not sure. If you're making 80-90k in TV news. Hilary wouldn't be able to afford the pay cut. I'll bet she was making 60k and getting worked like a dog. Memo to FOX12 employees: demand better wages. You're getting screwed by a company that's making a lot of money! Hilary will be missed by all her co-workers, and will be missed by all the viewers. Too bad for KPTV. I hope to see her soon back on the tube. You will see, some station will be knocking on her door. or are in the know, please post a general range of the going pay. I am willing to bet it is a big range and KPTV is probably paying 20-30k lower than the other stations. per weekend anchor. That's about what KPTV is paying. Maybe not the sports guy though. Let's talk about this. How much is the going rate in Portland for a weekend anchor? What about reporters. I hear KPTV starts in the 30's for reporters. I'm guessing 60's for weekend anchors over at FOX. That's much lower than the going rate for weekend anchors at Fox. As an earlier poster said, 80-90 is more like it. Which isn't bad considering how inexperienced most of them are. I doubt the other stations are paying that much more. If they are, do tell. KPTV is paying their weekend anchors 80-90 thousand a year.. Not a chance! 60's is much closer to reality. Remember.. they pay LESS than the other guys. Go ask Hilary if she was pulling down 90k a year. When she stops laughing.. you'll have your answer. I really hope they replace her with a good looking woman because hilary was smokin'. I dont think i'll watch anymore,...but at least theres still stephanie Kralevich... I just wonder if they are going to let Kevin fly solo for a while or if they have someone in mind to co-anchor with him. They have several great reporters that can fill in with Kevin. And previous posters are not correct. 80-90k is not what they pay weekend anchors at KPTV. Rumor is Chad Carter signed for around 50. Hilary and Kevin in the 60's. I would love to hear what KGW, KATU and KOIN pay. Top paid weekend anchors in Portland are making in the 80's. KPTV is younger and cheaper, in the mid-60's. If a young mother was making 90 grand, Hilary would still be planted in that chair. 65-thousand is a lot easier to walk away from and head over to public relations. I work in KPTV's newsroom... and I'm close friends with those mentioned in the above post. Despite my friendships, I don't know how much my anchor-friends are paid. I would never ask them, nor would I ever post the info here even if I knew. I don't know if the above numbers are correct or not. Regardless, shame on the person who posted them. Not cool. Why is that so unbelieveable? Stephanie Fisher was making much more than that after moving from weekdays to weekends at KPTV.. and so probably was Kelley Day. I'm always amused by folks who think they absolutely KNOW the inner workings of other stations. is what the main weekday anchors are making. Or the weather/sports weekday people. For those of us who know hilary,we know she will do as well in PR as she has in news. She works hard and will succeed. She has alot to offer anyone she works for and can fit in anywhere. I have it from a very reliable source that Hilary, if she had stayed, would have been in the 80s. ----- Portland is a unique market with ferocious competition, but not quiet so big that the revenue can support big staffs and stars like Chicago, LA, New York and a few smaller-tier cities. I'm not sure what the market rank is now, but it used to hover around the 24-25 mark in terms of size a few years ago. Thus, most of the air staff make OK money but they still must work as hard (or harder) than their large-city counterparts. If you love the Pacific Northwest, and you are fairly secure in your job, then it’s not a bad life, but if you want to be a super star or starlet making the big money, then eventually (in most cases) you must move on. Note to the young people interested in TV Journalism: You better love news because your job will rule your life, and quiet possibly, burn you out after a certain number of years unless you plan your life accordingly. About which more here. Warning: Annoying 100% Flash site. So PR. ----- Or a Media Cabin employee. ;) Seriously, it's lovely for what it is, but I find those kinds of websites annoying. I suppose I'm in this more for the substance than the, uh, Flash. ----- I have excellent taste. That site is annoying and kicks no ass. It's a typical, self-indulgent Flash site with buried content, poor structure and hack design. Oh, and sound. God, there's nothing I love more than a web site that fucking sings me a song. Sure, OMI could stand to clean up its interface, as well. But at least content comes first here. Well, I'm not a web designer, but I spend a lot of time screwing around on the internet. That apparently makes me an expert. Here's what I've got: - add padding. Elements are too close together and too close to the edge of the page. They need a little breathing room. Whitespace is good. - the main content area becomes too wide when the window is maximized, making it hard to read comfortably. Solution: fix the width of the content and center the page. - The right-side ads and info blend together too much. There should be a cleaner break between ads and info. Posting guidelines would be better near posting/commenting buttons. - Mysterious Google ad links at the top of the page seem like an extension of the nav links (if that's what they are). - Account tools are buried in rightside area. I assume this is a Wordpress blog, and WP is notoriously hard to work with. There are a lot of nice templates out there, though. That said, this is all nitpicking. My original point was that substance trumps flash (and Flash), and this site delivers. No offense intended. ...and this is Drupal. A real CMS for real geeks. ;) thanks, I'll take your comments under consideration. ----- So you and your other freaks sitting here all day and talking about how much money other people make is good content? Get a life you loser and wake up and get some taste while you're at it you pathetic piece of crap who lives in their mother's basement. I love Lynn and her work, even when she doesn't like me very much. The site is informative and allows for a wide range of opinions, even retarded ones. Thanks, Blogmom, for being so tolerant. One of the more famous Jeff Gianola stories in this town is the time he went to a local elementary school to give a little speech on Meet The Anchor day. Towards the end of the presentation, Jeff asked for questions. One kid asked him how much he made. Jeff smiled, took some chalk, and started writing zeros up on the chalkboard. When he got done, the number on the board read "$100,000". That was around 1988-90 when he the King of K2. Today, a Ch. 2/6/8 weekend anchor who can do sports and weather too can pull in that 100 large. If they good. hutch was the best. she will be missed very much. . . . almost as much as that mike ramey character. no one said weekend anchors in Portland are making six figures. They said as MUCH AS 90,000. More likely 60,000-80,000. My bad, as the kids say. There is ONE weekend anchor, a blondie, who also does a lot of quality sports and quality weather, at $100,000, but she is probably the single best utility player in the city. Every time her contract is up, they give her another 20 large, going 60 to 80 to 100 in the last eight years. Sorry. One weekend anchor. The best one. The rest are $60-80,000. Correct. You have no idea what a specific anchor makes.. unless "blondie" is the one posting here. That said, no one in Portland in pulling down 100k to anchor weekends.. no matter how many hats they wear. It was Debra Gil solo. I thought (and have always thought) she did a great job, and frankly it was kind of refreshing to see a solo anchor again. Was that that a tryout? (I didn't see the opening so if they said something I didn't hear it.) That's why she won't get the job.
And you know this how? I hope that you are wrong. I think that she did a great job and if enough of us "regular" folk tell Fox 12 I hope that they would listen. My e-mail is on the way right now. There was a young, attractive anchor candidate gracing the halls of KPTV this week. Bet she's trying for the job, too. I hear she is a freelance reporter from Sacramento. She is definitely trying for the job, but I don't think she has any anchor experience. Nina's from Portland. She anchored in Bend for a couple years before going down to Sacramento. That's probably the reason she wants the job at KPTV, it being close to home and all that. Hilary, great on TV, huh? Could her voice be any more grating? After reading these posts over the past few months, it would seem most of the people in the industry are the one's KPTV are trying to attract as viewers. What are you comparing these people to? Are we back at homecoming in high school? I mean, Jeff Gianola, Kelley Day, Stephanie Kralevich, Bruce Sussman. All absolutely terrible. Can you say "phony"? Are they on drugs? Can you see any of these people on 60 Minutes? Has anyone on here heard of 60 Minutes? Local news has become a joke. One station I can think of still doing "journalism", KTUU-TV in Anchorage. Take a look at their website, watch their newscast. These are some quality people, and the anchors have been around a long time. Pandering to the lowest common denominator not required there for some reason. All I can tell you about Stephanie Kralevich is that if you are ever in a running race (like yesterday's Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon on Sauvie Island) with her, she is the most unfriendly runner on the course. Plus, she speeds up and slows down so much that it annoys the other runners around her! I miss Hillary. I saw her once on Max with a child and she was friendly and seemed like a great mom. With all due respect, she is a friendly and enthusiastic runner, just as she is on the air. I didn't talk with her at all, but I did see her. I also know that she beat my time. If the speeding up and slowing down works for her, or maybe she had a leg cramps or something, then it doesn't bother me. She seemed like a really good person to me, just like she does on TV. in PR. It was at the Niketown Portland, and her new company was doing work for DeMarini. It was nice to meet her. She seemed very down to earth. I've known Steph, off and on for about three years. And while she can put off a seemingly distant vibe at times, deep down she's a funny, religious, sweetheart of a person. Plus, trust me...it's tough to be super outgoing and friendly when in the middle of running 13 miles... A full marathon, sure, but at the 6.55 point of a half? I am sure that she is just as you say, but honestly, 9 out 10 folks doing a half are pretty much joking and jiving at that point. During mile 12, especially on Sauvie Island and going up that awful gravel road in the July sun, no one is saying a word other than the occasional expletive. Anyway, I believe you about Ms. Kralevich. Like I said, she seemed like a really good person to me, not to mention a faster runner than I am. This conversation is about as petty as they get. What kind of person is she to her fellow runners? Really? Apparently a lot, as it got a slacker like you to comment, sucka! Talk about petty? Bwahahahahaha!!! Hilary was a fantastic anchor, and co-worker. i have no idea what she made, but considering where she came from and that this was her second job, i bet she started closer to 40k. don't know how much she upped that in the last 4 years but you can bet for job #1 in podunk montana she was making the standard 20,000/year, and eager to get out of town. 40 would sound like heaven, as it would to any young professional trying to get out of their first job at minimum wage. 80-90 sounds really high. I worked as a reporter there a few years ago and started at 40 grand. Well, I'll tell ya what.(that's my best Hank Hill impression), I was Hillary's mailman and I can tell you that she is one fine human being. She takes care of her whole family, a lot more than just her husband and kids, let me tell you! And who invited me up to their condo (at the time) to have a slice of turkey at Thanksgiving? HILLARY! And who left me a card and a snack in the mailbox at Christmas in the snow? HILLARY! That's who! And she was one of the few that did. This is a woman that genuinely cares. Stephanie [offensive mangling of her name--have a LITTLE class, buddy--L]. Oh fantastic that she can run! BRAVO! She sure as heck doesn't know how to work on the news...between her overbite or her annoying over indulging of air (ie: "we are first 'HUUUUUAAH', live, and 'huuuuuuaAAAH' local." Really?! Jesus. Put this ugly ass out of her misery. Hey pal, I know the war in Iraq still rages on so it's tough to get parts for your head right now...in the meantime if you don't like Steph's reporting, delivery or content...then turn the damn channel. Keep your abrasive views to yourself. Dig? People need to get a life. Steph is wonderful. Post new comment |
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We will miss Hilary. She is a hard worker who gives a human and REAL approach to the people she encounters and the stories she writes. It's VERY sad to see her leave the newsroom. I wish her all the best in her new adventure -- PR!