The cuts to the 43-person staff at Fisher's CBS affil KIDK Idaho Falls are revealed following announcement of a shared-services agreement with News-Press & Gazette's KIFI.
DMA 162
KIDK-KIFI SSA Deal To Cost 27 Jobs
A total of 27 positions at Fisher Communications’ CBS affiliate KIDK Idaho Falls-Pocatello (DMA 162) will be eliminated as a result of a shared-services agreement struck by Fisher and News-Press & Gazette Broadcasting, which owns KIFI, the market’s ABC affil, according to documents obtained by the local newspaper, the Post Register.
The story by Clark Corbin says the documents indicate the station employs 43 people.
In addition to the layoffs, 14 other KIDK employees will transfer to KIFI and continue working as part of the agreement.
The parent companies of both organizations announced the agreement late Tuesday, but did not detail layoffs.
Three reporters, the station manager, three editors, a director, a sportscaster, the operations manager and news director are among those losing jobs, Fisher’s documents indicate. The documents do not identify the employees by name.
The full story, available to Post-Register subscribers, can be found here.
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Comments (1)
Dara Soumpholphakdy says:
August 19, 2011 at 12:01 am
I grew up with KID, literally. My father was anchor there for 15 years and program director. My sisters worked there in high school as weekend receptionists. I can’t tell you how tragic this is. KID was THE station in Idaho Falls. It had AM and FM radio stations, too, with the studios located in the back of the KID building. Many good people worked there for many years. And when I was growing up in Idaho Falls, KID was a money maker. Every summer it would charter a DC-4 aircraft and fly its best local advertisers to Canada for several days of guided fishing. Then local ownership sold it, and I guess the rest is history. I can’t imagine what my dad would think if he was still here today. Very sad. I can’t believe what is happening to the broadcast industry and little stations like this one. The people of Idaho Falls are the ones who are really cheated by this. One less newsgathering operation. Long live the memories of the grand CBS affiliate, KID-TV, Channel 3.