WSVN’s Savior Becomes FOX News VP

Joel Cheatwood, the guy who became known after saving WSVN in the 1980s from going extinct after the station lost its NBC affiliation is now the Vice President of development for Fox News and Fox Business Channel.

I guess they’re hoping he’s got some of that magic still in him but most in the industry will probably disagree given his track record after the two 7s

TV Week – CNN’s Cheatwood Jumps To Fox News

More on this Cheatwood guy after the jump

The story goes that in the late 1980s NBC was bent on owning a station in South Florida and it wanted WSVN. Owner Ed Ansin despite all the money thrown at him refused to sell, NBC in turn bought WTVJ and left WSVN to fend for itself.

Ansin brought Joel Cheatwood to save WSVN and while there he created the winning formula. Cheatwood made the newscast the star, created The Newsplex and made the high speed in-your-face newscast a success. The station survived and climbed to the top of the ratings while gaining notoriety for it’s style while becoming one of the most copied stations in the US and beyond.

Then Ansin bought WHDH in 1993, naturally, Cheatwood was the logical choice to come in and work his magic. When word got out the two were coming the conservative newspapers lamented both men as the destroyers of journalism purity. The papers and the stations were convinced people would never give WHDH a chance but by the time Cheatwood was done, the remade WHDH turned Boston TV on it’s head. Like Miami, the Boston stations refused to play ball at first but when WHDH climbed to the top something had to be done.

After Miami and Boston were a success Cheatwood moved on to other things. Other stations sought his help to turn their ailing stations around and make them like the two 7s. Unfortunately, or fortunately, his magic didn’t quite pan out as the saving grace stations were hoping for. In 2000 CBS’ flagship station in New York City WCBS was a distant third in the ratings and Cheatwood was brought in to help but changing sets, graphics, pace, even multiple anchor changes didn’t work.  The station’s ratings remained low and industry insiders were abuzz that Cheatwood’s magic may have fizzled out.

In 2002 CNN brought him in as President of Development creating major furor among news purists that he’ll turn CNN into a tabloid channel. They were close, Cheatwood was put in charge of reviving the lowly rated Headline News where he scrapped the rolling newscasts in the evening for tabloid shows such as Nancy Grace, Glenn Beck and Showbiz Tonight.