Employees of Elkhart, Ind., Fox affiliate WSJV may be looking for work next week after learning Sinclair-owned South Bend CBS affiliate WSBT will take over the Fox affiliation on Monday.
WSJV owner Quincy Media will only have the Heroes and Icons network, meaning the station will discontinue its news operation after more than 40 years.
“We will be talking with many of our employees about opportunities at our other stations throughout our company, and we’ll also be talking with them about severance,” Quincy GM and CEO Ralph Oakley told the South Bend Tribune, which says the move affects nearly 40 employees.
In what Oakley told TVSpy was “a business arrangement” Sinclair got the Fox affiliation for its South Bend station, while Quincy picked up the ABC and CW affiliations for its Peoria station WEEK from Sinclair-owned WHOI. Quincy has been operating WHOI under a joint sales and shared services agreement.
“While we have produced programming and sold advertising for WHOI under a pre-existing agreement, these program streams are now our own”, said Mark DeSantis, WEEK vp and GM. “We continue to operate the market’s most watched local news on our NBC stream and we have significant plans to grow the popularity of ABC program and local news on that stream.”
WSBT says it is expanding its 10 p.m. newscast to a full hour and will carry two additional hours of its morning news on the Fox affiliate.