Cuts at KPIX and other CBS O and Os

I recieved a phone call tonight from a friend in the know. He's lucky to still have a job but he's still worried.

About 30 KPIX employees including 5 reporters (plus or minus depending on who you believe) and 5 Freelance Photographers were laid off late last week in a round of reported $1 million budget cuts at each CBS Owned and Operated TV Station.

KPIX's Sacramento Bureau has also been closed down amid the penny pinching.

At the CBS Station in Dallas word on the inside is that 60 employees were given the perverbial pink slip.

The Chicago Sun Times is reporting 17 staffers cut WBBM - CBS 2, including a news anchor and sports anchor.

The article says,

"The latest wave of cutbacks hit the CBS-owned station as part of massive companywide reductions at the network's owned-and-operated outlets"

In this B-Roll.net thread there is chatter dedicated to the recent rash of job losses in large markets from Minneapolis to Denver, including someone I've learned a lot from, the new NPPA Editor of the year Shawn Monatano at KCNC.(CLICK HERE TO SEE HIS AWESOME REEL)

Big money pits like Miami aren't even immune to the wave of job cuts. This from an unsourced paragraph copied to the thread by a B-Roll Contributor...

"In Miami, WFOR-4-CBS laid off fired about 15 staffers, some in sales, most in news, including chief photog Curt Calhoun, veteran editor (30 years) Dan Roujansky, freelancer Christina Puig, and reporter Evan Bacon, a 21-year veteran of television news."

That's a lot of good, experienced TV people on the streets. Hopefully they'll land in the right spot.

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Side Note - I was googling around and I found this article and I thought I was reading something current until I noticed the 1987 published date on it. It's worth a read.