There is no 1-800 number to get a major market news director to parachute into market 104 on a temporary basis. How WQAD pulled it off is a matter of timing and providence.
Turnover is part of the local TV business. People come, people go.
Broadcast companies and their stations are constantly looking to fill opening positions.
Sometimes, especially in key roles like news directors, finding the right person can take months. Meanwhile, that prolonged absence can lead to complacency, inertia and general lack of direction in the newsroom.
To thwart that possibility, a Tegna station in market 104 tried something innovative.
WQAD, Tegna’s ABC and MyNetworkTV affiliate serving the Quad Cities area of Rock Island and Moline in Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa, was without a news director for two months and counting.
“I don’t have a news background, so there’s only so much I can add to the department,” says Jim Kizer, WQAD’s general manager.
What Kizer wanted to do was bring in someone to cover the news director’s duties temporarily so he could focus on finding a permanent replacement.
Kizer says there was a precedent: He had covered the GM’s duties at another station when they had an opening. So, why not do the same at WQAD for a news director?
Normally, that’s not done. There is no 1-800 number you can call to get an experienced news director who happens to be on the beach that you can parachute into the Quad Cities on a temporary basis.
But Kizer was in luck. A Tegna recruiter was talking to an experienced news director about an opening at another Tegna station.
So, she called and asked, would you be interested in a temporary position in the Quad Cities?
“John said, where are the Quad Cities?” Kizer says.
John Wilson was just coming off a 19-year stint at KYW, the CBS O&O in Philadelphia, where for the past five years he’d been the news director.
Wilson thought the idea was innovative, but not typical.
“I give Tegna, and especially Jim, credit for trying it,” Wilson says.
Wilson booked a one-way ticket to the Quad Cities in May to be the on-site acting temporary news director for 10 weeks.
“I really didn’t have any fears. Ten weeks is doable anywhere.” Wilson says.
“It was a matter of timing and providence,” Kizer says.
Wilson says he knew there would be skepticism about the new guy coming in, but he had a clean slate.
“I didn’t know the station, I didn’t know the company, I didn’t know the market, I didn’t know the town, I didn’t know the people,” he says. “It was very refreshing to go in that way.”
“John did a really smart thing the first couple days he was here in editorial meetings,” Kizer says. “He really didn’t say a word. He just listened.”
Engagement went up, allowing the staff to participate and even throw out crazy ideas, Kizer says.
Listening was part of Wilson’s plan to build trust and credibility. “The other thing I did that … I am really glad that I did was I had one-on-one meetings with everyone just to hear what they wanted to say, learn more about them and start to build a relationship,” Wilson says.
The vision was for him to maintain and stabilize the news department, improve communications and provide day to day leadership and direction, Kizer says.
“We did that pretty quickly and have gone a few more levels above that now,” Wilson says.
He ended up staying long enough to lead the efforts of launching a new, hour-long 4 o’clock newscast, no small feat. But more on that later.
In May when Wilson arrived, he had to hit the ground running. He came right after a six-story apartment building collapsed, killing three people. It was the biggest story in the nation for three days, Wilson says.
Other big stories that happened under Wilson’s watch was a new bridge built over the Mississippi River between Moline in Illinois and Bettendorf in Iowa, a five-year project.
“Once they built the new bridge, they had to take the old bridge down,” Kizer says.
“We were the only station which carried those implosions live,” Wilson says.
Another win for the station was its coverage of a murder trial. Wilson asked Kizer if the station could interrupt normal programming, and carry the verdict live on television.
“Everybody felt really good about what we did and why we did it,” Wilson says.
The John Deere Classic, a major PGA golf tournament televised nationwide, was another huge story that the station owned.
“It’s a community tradition,” Wilson says. “Everybody has got ties to it.”
But big stories are the exception in a market the size of the Quad Cities as compared to what it might be like in a major market, Wilson says.
Reporters must be enterprising to find good stories, because crime isn’t driving the news coverage, he says.
“It’s a younger staff, but really good people and I always say good stories are good stories and good journalism is good journalism,” Wilson says.
On Sept. 7, WQAD launched its 4 p.m. newscast, The Current.
“We took the research, we set a vision and then the team here knocked it out of the park,” Wilson says. “No one was quite sure how we were going to do this and here we are doing it. So, it’s been great.”
Kizer says WQAD is still recruiting for a news director, although he’s getting a bit closer.
Wilson’s last day at WQAD is Oct. 31.
His assessment of the staff is they’re smart, engaged and excited about what the station is doing.
“They are enthusiastic, and they crave feedback,” he says. “They want to get better. On a personal level, I have had the time of my life.”
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