This was posted Friday, June 23, 2017 by Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Just four days after news director Frank Volpicella was abruptly let go with no tangible explanation, CBS46 today dropped five more employees today in the latest house-cleaning move.
The list: chief meteorologist Jim Kosek , managing editor Paul Caron, operations manager and chief engineer James Estes , noon producer Jason Becknell and Volpicella's news administrator Amanda Smith. All preceded Volpicella, who arrived less than a year ago. (Sorry. For an hour Friday, I had earlier incorrectly posted senior executive producer Darcy Bonfils. She's still there.)
Kosek joined the station in December, 2014 under previous news director Perret. The two had worked together in Kansas City. Kosek had replaced Markina Brown, who had stepped down earlier that year.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Caron worked at CNN for more than 28 years before coming to CBS46 two years ago, also under Perret. In an interview, he said he was let go today at 11 a.m. after the morning news meeting. He didn't offer any more details but said he did want to give a shout out to the many reporters there who do great work including Emmy winner Adam Murphy (who has been there 14 years, outlasting more than eight news directors), Will Frampton, Adam Harding, Julian Johnson, Brittany Miller and Meghan Packer.
"They are all great reporters," he said. "Stories have gotten better from those reporters in particular. They get lost with all this stuff going on." As managing editor, he worked with the reporters closely daily.
Estes, according to his Linkedin page, was at CBS46 for 10 years.
The station two years ago revamped much of its staff, from the top down, in hopes of improving ratings. But the CBS affiliate remains mired in fourth place most of the time, which can't possibly help morale.
No word yet from Mark Pimentel, the general manager, who arrived at CBS46 in December, 2014.
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