WUPW-TV Cuts 60 Workers

Bad news is coming for the workers of a Toledo TV station. The station is looking to get rid of about 60 workers in order to make end meet. The station in question, WUPW-TV, is losing its staff as part of its sale to American Spirit Media. While the company will have the option to re-hire the 60 workers there is no guarantee that this will happen. For the time being the company is mum on details like the types of positions to be cut from the rosters, the day that the layoffs will go into effect and any severance benefits that the workers may be entitled to as part of the job cuts.

Right now it is expected, according to sources close to the company, that the workers will not have to wait long at all to figure out who will be getting the axe. The layoff may begin as soon as between April 24 and May 8.

These are, of course, not the only job cuts to come to the field of television. For those of you who did not catch our earlier coverage of job cuts to the relatively newly minted Oprah Winfrey Network here is an excerpt that will catch you up to speed on the job losses:

“If you don’t know who Oprah is then you’re probably living under a rock at this point. What you may not know, at least not if you work during the daylight hours, is that last year Oprah gave up her popular TV show on a major network in order to open her own cable channel. That station, know official ass OWN (or the Oprah Winfrey Network) is sold as part of subscription cable packages and is also backed by Discovery Communications.

The station just underwent a restructuring event in order to stay lean and profitable. This restructure, which came fairly quickly after creation, put about 30 people out of a job. The reason, pure and simple is low ratings. As it turns out only the most hard-core Oprah fans will pay extra to see her on the screen now that her talk show is off the air. The network recently lost its second talk diva, Rosie O’Donnell from their 7pm time slot, though she is still listed on the schedule for the time being. Other shows on the network include such titles as: Addicted to Food, Are You Normal, America?, Super Soul Sunday and Beverly’s Full House.

There are no details at the current moment about what kind of severance the now displaced 30 full timers are going to get, if anything. At the current moment details about which positions specifically were cuts are not know either, as the company remains relatively tight lipped about the job cuts being made in their fledgling stages of operation.”

So, for the time being it looks like TV is no more of a stable place to be in terms of employment then anywhere else. Hopefully these workers will get their jobs back after the buyout, but with no guarantees they had best begin applying.