Posted by chicagomedia.org on November 17, 2008 at 14:29:33:
In Reply to: News Director at CBS 2- fired posted by Sam Winery on November 17, 2008 at 14:26:39:
WBBM-TV's Fowler out as news boss
Carol Fowler is out after six years as news director at CBS-owned WBBM-Ch. 2.
Employees were told Monday that Todd Woolman, the station's assistant news director, will be in charge until a succesor is installed.
The move comes one month after Joe Ahern, the Channel 2 boss who brought Fowler in from Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s WGN-Ch. 9, was ousted himself and replaced by Mark "Bruno" Cohen.
WBBM has lagged in the ratings for many years, a trend that continued on Ahern's watch, despite the considerable resources he invested, including $2 million per year on veteran Chicago anchor Diann Burns, who was released in a wave of cuts earlier this year with several months remaining on her contract.
Cohen most recently had been in charge of the CBS TV stations in Sacramento, Calif., but rose to the newsroom ranks, previously serving as news director at WNBC-TV in New York and in upper management at CNBC.
WBBM established a template for what a local TV newsroom could be in the 1970s and early ’80s, with anchors Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson, and a network farm team of reporters and producers.
Budget cuts and dubious judgment squandered that heritage and drove off viewers and staff.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)