Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. -- which owns Nashville, Tenn., Fox affiliate WZTV(TV)
and WUXP(TV) Nashville -- has entered into an outsourcing agreement in which it
will run sales, administrative and technical operations at WNAB(TV) in that
city.
The WB Television Network affiliate is owned by Los Angeles-based Lambert Broadcasting.
Programming responsibility will be retained by WNAB.
The stations have already combined some staffing, leaving five of its 24
employees without jobs.
The jobs eliminated at WNAB were management positions, including finance
director Brian Hannan, brother of J.P. Hannan, who runs the Lambert station
group.
Also eliminated were the general manager, two sales managers and the
production manager.
"Our station has had a very tough time over the past few years," J.P. Hannan
said. "It has not performed well. This deal enables the station to reduce costs
and preserve most of the jobs there."
Critics of a similar Sinclair deal in Tallahassee, Fla., said the company is evading
local-ownership rules and outsource arrangements should count toward both partners' ownership tallies.
In Tallahassee, Sinclair owns WTWC-TV and runs nonprogramming operations at
WTXL-TV.
Federal Communications Commission rules limit TV ownership to two stations in
larger markets and one station in smaller ones.
In Tallahassee, Sinclair is permitted to own only one station.
Sinclair executives could not be reached for comment on the Nashville deal,
but they have argued that the Tallahassee arrangement falls within FCC rules because
the company does not make programming decisions.
