WDIV Detroit boss Steve Wasserman is moving on, reports the Detroit Free Press, and Post-Newsweek Stations CEO Alan Frank will take over the NBC station. Wasserman says he’s eager to return to warmer climes. "Given my many years in the sunbelt, my wife and I are anxious to return to that lifestyle," he said in a statement.
WDIV has been the longtime leader in Motown, but has seen its advantage shrink of late. According to BIA Financial, the station was tops in Detroit in 2006 with $102.5 million, ahead of WXYZ’s $100.7 million. But WXYZ essentially ran the table in the November book, winning primetime, total day and evening news, and taking late news over WDIV by a hair.
I interviewed Steve just the other day for a profile of the Detroit TV market. Funny, he didn’t mention his pending departure.
Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.
