With WPIX news director Bill Carey’s recent departure, our sister blog, FishbowlNY, took the opportunity to look at the state of the station before the next news director has a chance to put their stamp on it.
FishbowlNY spoke with Queensborough Community College professor Eileen White who said she thinks the next news director should be given a blank slate to work with. “For that new person, that’s going to be the carrot,” White said. “You can do what you want, take a failing thing and turn it around.”
One of her suggestions concerns the news at 10 p.m. “Especially if you don’t have a sports department, come on, cut it down to an half-hour,” White told FishbowlNY. “And then people can get to bed… because I think Fox strings you along, way too long. I think a half-hour is perfect.”
White had less than glowing reviews for Carey’s tenure at WPIX. On bumping longtime 10 p.m. anchors Jim Watkins and Kaity Tong with Jodi Applegate, White said, “That smacks of ageism too. Let’s just put younger people on, because younger people like [watching] younger people.”
But the Queensborough College media professor does cut Carey some slack for the 10 pm. news lead-in, “They do suffer from the Fox lead-in,” White said. “Fox has a much better lead-in at 10 o’clock.” The WPIX lead-in includes CW shows like Gossip Girl. “Those are really young shows. I think young people tend to catch it later on the website,” White told TVNewser.
White also told FishbowlNY she’s aware nothing will change until WPIX names Carey’s permanent replacement, but said she thinks the station needs to stop trying to one-up FOX affiliate WNYW. “Channel 11, in trying to compete with Channel 5, changed everything that was good about it,” White said. “They changed a lot of stuff that Channel 5 does right.”
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