Oregon Media Insiders

KEZI and the Oregon Sports Network have split:

The decision is the first local fallout from the UO’s recently signed deal with IMG Communications. IMG agreed to pay the UO $67.1 million over 10 years for advertising, promotion and local broadcast rights for UO sports. KEZI’s decision leaves the university without a local broadcaster just a month before its first football game of the season.

Eugene-based Chambers Communications, KEZI’s parent company, issued a statement Thursday saying the deal offered by IMG left it little choice but to walk away from the contract. ...

Tim Roberts, IMG’s Eugene-based representative, said Chambers’ decision to drop out of negotiations was a surprise. He said talks were centered on how to handle competing programming, when Chambers pulled out Thursday. ...

In an interview Thursday, Scott Chambers said his company paid about $1 million a year for rights to UO sports programming before the UO brought in IMG. Chambers said his company earned a modest profit selling advertising on the shows. Without naming a figure, he said the new deal with IMG would have been a loss for his company.

Wow. I thought OSN was the primary local draw for the station. I continue to hear all kinds of rumblings from down there. What's going on?

Hey Eugeneans! I hear a rumor that KEZI ran eight minutes of Olympic Trials highlights on Sunday night without permission from NBC. I also heard the bill came from NBC today, demanding a cool $240,000. Is true?

Update: From the comments, I have no idea whether this actually happened or not. I would mark it down as "unproved."

[Changed title because this is more than about Dancer and we have a thread for that convo.--L]

so...Ben McKee who left yesterday for a wider market. Was he chopped?

And what was the reason the great newser, Al Peterson, was released a few months ago, only to pop up alongside Shelley Kurtz of KVAL? What's going on at KEZI? Curious fans of celebrities at the stations deserve to know, don't we?

And, yes, Christie Little...what a darling!

Rick Dancer is done at KEZI--to run for office:

When I say goodbye for the last time on this station I’m leaving some very important things behind. A career wasn’t intended to last forever. But I had almost a quarter of a century at it…..not bad at all. The one thing I will not be leaving behind is you.

Friday was his last day. He'll be making announcements this week in Eugene and Portland that he'll be running for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State.

Update: The Eugene Register-Guard tackles the fairness question:

Although Dancer didn’t say so during his announcement, he is running for the statewide office as a candidate for the Republican Party, with the support of the party. Top-level Republicans were at the studio the night Dancer announced.

KEZI is owned by Chambers Communications, and the chief executive officer of Chambers Communications, Carolyn Chambers, is a long-standing contributor to Republican causes at the local, state and federal levels. She has given more than $90,000 to federal-level Republican candidates and causes since 1994, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. She has also donated 2,000 square feet of office space to the Lane County Republican Central Committee each month since April 2007, according to state campaign finance records.

Carolyn Chambers could not be reached for comment.

Chambers Communications President Scott Chambers said he is unaware of his mother’s political contributions and the station would have given Dancer a similar send-off if he were a Democratic candidate for office.

“We felt it was very important to make it high profile so that our viewers who’d been watching him for almost 20 years (as anchor) knew that it was an important move in Rick’s career and that station management did not decide to not renew a contract or something,” he said. ...

Dancer also said he is unaware of Carolyn Chambers’ support for the party.

“Obviously I’m a news guy; I don’t know what she does with her finances and her money,” he said.

And CNNPolitics.com took note of it too:

It's not uncommon for media figures to enter politics, but the way KEZI handled the transition is unusual, said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the nonprofit Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.

"The standard practice is that the person resigns or takes a leave of absence at least a couple of days before they make their announcement independently from the station," she said.

"The problem is that the news staff, the people who are supposed to be providing fair, distanced, clear-eyed coverage of political campaigns, apparently have been co-opted into one of their own staff members' campaigns," McBride said.

ouchie.

Down in Skinnerville, things are getting wacky.

First up, I hear that KEZI decided yesterday not to renew morning anchor Kerri Stewart. Stewart will stay until a new anchor can be hired (but who knows when that will be).

Why is this a little wacky? KEZI is rumored to be considering expanding its morning show, though GM Mark Hatfield told employees Tuesday that wasn't so. Nevertheless, folks are prepping for sweeps, and the timing seems off.

And speaking of morning anchors, a lot of you have wondered about the whereabouts of former KEZI morning guy Al Peterson. He's now morning anchor at KVAL, replacing Seth Wayne. Wayne's off to Tucson.

UPDATE: Closed thread. Jeez, you guys.

I meant to post this yesterday but the day just got away from me, sorry guys.

Former KGW sports director Ron Pivo has finally surfaced again: At KEZI/Oregon Sports Network, where he spent yesterday as the "color man" for Oregon games opposite Sam Adams.

Update from the man himself:

Just to be accurate... I was asked to be the analyst for the Ducks pre and post game shows for the Oregon Sports Network which KEZI has the rights to.

I have not moved to Eugene.

I will just be making the drive down there to do these shows.

Thank goodness for satellite radio.

RP

And the rumor about possible other employment that was posted here he says is untrue. That's why I deleted a couple of earlier posts.

In today's TV Spy we see this:

KEZI-TV, Eugene, OR...GARY DARIGOL returns to the Pacific Northwest as ND of this Chambers Communications ABC affiliate. Gary is currently the Managing Editor at WICS-TV in Springfield, IL. He's a former ND at KNDO-TV in Yakima, WA. He's also worked in Spokane, and worked in radio in Idaho and Eastern Washington. He replaces SEAN McCLELLAND who left the station earlier this year.

Good luck, Gary, and welcome to Oregon.

Did you get the Memo at KEZI? Memos have a dark history at KEZI. Let's start with the Black Friday Memo. The time many, many years ago when several employees worked over the winter holidays Christmas and New Years. Only a month later did they see a subtle piece of paper informing them that the overtime and holiday hours they worked while in the absence of family would not compensate them properly...retroactive. A very illegal move according to BOLI. But anyone willing to challenge the authorities in the company had better have contact with a better laywer than the corporation. Oh yeah, and money. A starving man is weaker than a well fed one.

KEZI continues to hemorrhage personnel. This time it's sports director Joe Giansante, who's part of the Oregon Sports Network too. My source says Joe was well-liked in the community, and helped build a good reputation with the University of Oregon.

So far KEZI has lost a director, a weekend meteorologist, a reporter, and the 6 pm producer since May. And there are rumors that employee raises are being limited as well.

Good times.

From the comments on an older thread:

Rick Howard has been hired as KDRV's next news director in Medford. He replaces Mark Hatfield, who accepted the General Manager position at KDRV's sister station in Eugene, KEZI.

Still no word yet on who will take over as KEZI's News Director. The station hoped to have a new ND hired by July 4th.

Thanks, Anonymous Source!