Updated 7/12:
DCRTV.com recently mentioned a rumor going around that WTVJ general manager Ardyth Diercks was the top runner for the ND job at Washington D.C. NBC affiliate WRC-TV. That station’s GM recently left for WNBC in New York City so the hunt was on for his replacement and Diercks was said to be on the short list but eventually KNSD Sand Diego news director Jackie Bradford ended up with the promotion
For Diercks it would have been an interesting move, as she is no stranger to the television business in the nation’s capital. Before she came to WTVJ in July of 2003 she was the competition’s news director, at Gannett-owned WUSA-TV, and also Gannett’s senior vice president overseeing all the media company’s television stations.
WTVJ news director Lane Michaelsen was Gannett’s VP from 2004 until 2008 according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2008 he became WUSA VP of Information Center before he came on down to Miramar in September 2009 to try to pluck WTVJ out of their ratings slump.
Many people think Diercks departing from WTVJ would be the best thing that could happen to the station as she often gets flogged for having hired people who lead to its current state, but considering that NBC is probably the one really calling the shots and giving orders out of New York, I have my doubts that whoever comes in will change things much. After all Diercks has been on the job for 7 years after everything that’s happened to WTVJ if she were having so many flubs common sense says they would fire her, no?
Two things to add about this… 1) Good riddance and 2) It’s about time! Finally, TVJ can start being run like a news station and stop being run like a past deadline issue of Vanity Fair. I won’t say Ardy ran the station into the ground… but she certainly hired the people who did. Maybe the powers that be should hire Tammy Delgado as the next GM so she can finish off the job of disgracing, no, massacring the legacy of a once relevant news station.
I have my doubts she’s calling much of any shots to be honest. I wouldn’t be surprised if all decisions are handed down and she’s just running the shop day to day
WTVJ news is a poor sad mess… and we see it every day in that perky Cheerleader as anchor. WTVJ have fired/force retired all the good talent to keep her, big mistake. She is on so many break-in adds i now DVR TODAY and Nightly news and watch with a 5 min delay so I skip all the WTVJ (and other) commercials.. i am sure that NBC likes that!
WTVJ’s decline can be blamed on the management of Ardy Diercks, and Tammy Delgado… along with the NBC brass… and NBC being so insisted upon keeping Jackie Nespral as WTVJ’s “eye candy”.
How viewers like us wish NBC would sell WTVJ to Cox Enterprises or Belo Corporation… WTVJ getting new management that can attempt to turn this iconic station around for the better. Just a thought.
I have Ardyth to thank for having made an excellent career move. If she had been a qualified manager, I would have stayed in her group; she was not. I moved to another media outlet and it cost her owners millions of dollars in lost ad revenue. Thank you Ardyth for your below par skills, it made me wealthier.