Oregon Media Insiders

Another ratings sweep is finished. As usual, most of the ratings are down from a year ago. Click "read more" to view a summary of a some selected time slots.

Byron Beck is leading this morning with the following blind item:

Is one of Portland's most popular morning shows trying to go back in time?
It sure looks it.

I've just heard word one of Portland's prettiest princesses might just be the next sacrificial lamb to be thrown onto the lay off heap in order to make way for the return of a longtime local radio personality. The show has already dumped one dj and replaced him with another familiar voice. If this all goes down as planned it will mean that, by the end of 2008, one of this city’s oldest and most recognizable morning teams will be together, once again, on the air.

All they would be missing is a certain traffic guy. Hmmm......

Now, before you all start, the first thing I did is call Rebecca Webb. This is 100% NOT about her. She's happily out of the biz and in her first term at grad school.

SO. Who is it?

Update: It was Nicolle Camarta, who got the boot yesterday from Nelson and Terry's show on 105.1. She's being replaced by Stacey Lynn.

Today is the day staffers at the SJ find out who gets cut in a 10% all-staff reduction. So if you have a spare kind thought to send toward that crew, do so; there has to be a lot of anxiety in the building.

Weekend weather guy Joe Michaels is leaving the Ocho. The memo from ND Rod Gramer:

I regret to announce that Joe Michaels is leaving KGW NewsChannel 8. Joe has decided to get out of the business and go to graduate school. Joe's last day with KGW will be December 26. Please wish Joe the best of luck in his future endeavors when you see him.

Did someone give him Nancy Francis's old mug? Grad school seems to be the thing over there these days.

Former KPTV boy wonder Austin Reed took a left turn at Albuquerque and crashed smack into a general assignment reporting job at KOB-TV. Many folks pooh-poohed him when he left PDX for NYC--he'll never make it there, blah blah blah--but a guy his age, in a general assignment position in market #58 44? That's nothing to sneer at, at all. Congrats to Austin, and congrats to KOB.

*sniff* He's all grown up.

(Thanks to the commenter in the original thread. Austin! You never call, you never write! ;) )

[corrected market ranking. that's what i get for not using teh full powrs of teh googles.--L]

Byron Beck, late of WWeek, has started his own blog. Good luck, Byron!

WWire reports that Arthur Greg Sulzberger is leaving the Oregonian after a little over two years at the paper; he's going to the family biz, the New York Times.

I hear through the grapevine that longtime WWeek columnist and bon vivant Byron Beck has been laid off. I don't know if anyone else at WW was let go or stands in danger of being let go.

Good story in the Friday PBJ: Dead Air: TV stations face tough times as political advertising fades away. We all knew this was coming; the record-breaking campaign season temporarily firmed up the spongy ground the media is standing on. What we don't know is how bad it's going to be. KPTV laid off an entire program's worth of folks; KGW has frozen salaries. What do you think is next?

Back from a working vacation in California, where I watched the election returns with my folks. Today we went down to the OMI Caffeine Bureau and saw that the Obama and Merkeley people were almost entirely moved out of their offices already. Another campaign cycle over, dear friends. Oh, and one of my web clients won her election! Amanda was the first candidate I did a site for (other than Tom Potter, and I just took over from another guy on that one) who's actually won; I was beginning to think I was a jinx.

What's up, my dears?