Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Doerr Sighting In Rhode Island

Former WOIO/19 "19 Action News" news director Stephen Doerr is back in the business of running a TV newsroom.

Our colleague Scott Fybush at NorthEast Radio Watch published the news Sunday:

Global Broadcasting closes on its purchase of WLNE (Channel 6) from Freedom. The new owners are bringing in their own management team, which means general manager Roland Adeszko and news director Edwin Hart are out, replaced by Stephen Doerr, who's handling both jobs for now.

WLNE is licensed to New Bedford MA, and serves the Providence RI TV market from facilities in Providence.

Doerr left Reserve Square in September 2005, bound for a Cleveland-based job with a Dallas audience research firm.

Sources in the region tell us that WLNE is considered by most to be the "fourth station in a two-station market" in Providence, lagging behind LIN TV's CBS/FOX combo WPRI/WNAC, and Media General/former NBC O&O WJAR.

WLNE's biggest problem is that it's considered by locals to be "the New Bedford station", despite market-wide cable coverage and a new digital tower co-located with WJAR.

Will Doerr bring WOIO-style "tabloid news" to Rhode Island, hoping to make a distinction? We'll see...

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