The mayors of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and Livermore will vote next month on a budget for the local cable access channel that would eliminate its daily newscast. Meera Pal of the MediaNews Group’s Tri-Valley Herald wrote:
- “… Eliminating the more expensive news program will make way for a monthly city magazine show that would focus on each city, in addition to a community round table show, similar to the previously long-running “Media Round Table” that featured local journalists reviewing the week’s top news stories.”
The story also says:
- The proposed restructuring and reprogramming will directly affect some of the station’s 14 employees, which includes reporters, anchors and interim executive director Kevin Wing.
“The station needs to be put back into the black,” Wing said. “I understand what they are doing, but, nevertheless, the whole thing is sad.”
TV30 has been producing a news show for at least 20 years, said Wing, who has been in Bay Area television news for 22 years, with the last year and a half at TV30.
For the final news show, scheduled to air June 26, he said they plan to put together a retrospective of the station’s newscasts over the past 20 years.
“It’s hard to know that all of us who work on the news, in five weeks, we won’t be doing this anymore,” he said.
In the meantime, the staff is on pins and needles as it awaits the board’s decision on how it plans to reduce staffing levels and hours.