WITI Milwaukee

He succeeds Mike Neale who’s retiring after 27 years at the station. Also, Stu Swaziek is promoted to sales manager

The Fox Television Stations veteran is promoted from general sales manager of Fox’s WFLD-WPWR Chicago to succeed Chuck Steinmetz who’s retiring after 27 years at WITI.

Spending on TV has been climbing back toward normal in Milwaukee since the pandemic struck, and the stations are getting a windfall from a Wisconsin state Supreme Court race that will give the balance of power to either the Democrats or Republicans, depending on how the vote goes April 4.

Amanda St. Hilare, an investigative reporter and news content manager at Fox-owned WITI Milwaukee, found a healthy balance between her demanding career and personal life. In her management role, she’s now trying to do the same for others. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

The former assistant news director at WIS Columbia, S.C., is tapped by Fox Television Stations to oversee journalism at its Milwaukee O&O.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for an IT engineer, a digital content manager, an anchor, an anchor/reporter, a news anchor/producer, an education reporter, a broadcast engineer, a meteorologist and photojournalist.

TV stations are using StreamClick, a cloud-based software service from Megaphone TV, as a production studio. With the tool, someone using a laptop can replicate a broadcast-quality stream without any other equipment.

WITI’s Contact 6 has been an advocate for Milwaukee consumers for 50 years, providing millions in refunds. But what WITI and its viewers get back is priceless. “It makes you feel better,” one viewer says.

Station groups say they will send fewer correspondents to August’s largely virtualized political conventions and centralize their reporting resources. At the same time, they see local coverage opportunities of the conventions expanding, largely down to use of the remote production technology they’ve already been mastering for months during the pandemic.

With the deals involving stations in Seattle, Milwaukee, and Charlotte, N.C., Fox Television Stations expands its footprint to 29 stations across the country. Nexstar says it will use the approximately $240 million of net after-tax proceeds from the deals to reduce borrowings under its credit facilities.

Nexstar will purchase Charlotte, N.C.’s Fox and MNT affiliates for approximately $45 million while Fox will buy Nexstar’s Seattle Fox and MNT affiliates and Milwaukee’s Fox affil for approximately $350 million.