WDIV's Wasserman Heading South

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 is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.