This billboard “snafu” got WPMI General Manager Shea Grandquest and News Director Wes Finley suspended.
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WPMI-TV insiders have confirmed what has been a swirling rumor for the past day — that the station’s general manager and news director were suspended for a week because of an embarrassing billboard.
General Manager Shea Grandquest and News Director Wes Finley have been suspended, allegedly because of a “snafu” with one of the electronic billboards in town that showed a picture of anchors Greg Peterson and Kym Thurman and Chief Meteorologist Derek Beasley alongside the headline “3 Accused of Gang Rape in Monroeville.” The headline was under the header “Right Now on Twitter,” and clearly was aimed at promoting the station’s breaking news, but a photo of it has made its way to e-mails all over town and brought plenty of laughs.
According to several media-watching sites, Grandquest and Finley were suspended without pay, but Lagniappe has been unable to verify that. The station’s corporate headquarters for Newport Television did not have any comment, as Vice President Charlie Henrick, who handles WPMI, was out of the office until Monday and the person answering the phone could not find his cell phone number to reach him for a possible interview.
Locally, calls to WPMI also met with similar results, as the person who answered the phone said both Grandquest and Finley were off for a week and there was no one in authority at the station. She said Grandquest is the only person authorized to speak with the media.
According to an inside source, an e-mail was sent out informing the staff of the suspension. It’s not clear if it explained why such harsh punishment was taken for what appears to be a simple mistake.
WPMI-TV is the area’s NBC affiliate and they have recently rebranded their news product as “Local 15.”
billybob says:
December 01, 2009
09:35 AM
Rich Sullivan should know that this was obviously intentional & unprofessional. They should be canned immediately!!
artvandalay says:
November 30, 2009
05:40 PM
I love the cowardly statements like "Neither the GM nor the ND are liked or respected. So maybe this is the first step in an eventual firing. We can only hope."
What does someone's popularity have to do with a chance occurence that could happen to the top people in media?
Sounds like someone who has issues airing their personal feelings anonymously.
Like the Red Square guy says, " Cut the GM and ND some slack."
judicial_watch says:
November 30, 2009
04:09 PM
Wait...Hire both of them at the Mobile Press Register!
mobilefriend says:
November 28, 2009
03:36 AM
Neither the GM nor the ND are liked or respected. So maybe this is the first step in an eventual firing. We can only hope.
jm says:
November 26, 2009
12:41 PM
tex... Agree. Learn a lesson, blush, chuckle, and move on.
texabamasota says:
November 26, 2009
07:21 AM
As a former WPMIer - and someone who thought the picture was funny/crazy originally - I hate to see the suspensions.
I think the cyber-embarassment that came from the picture being forwarded all over the blogosphere was punishment enough.
It's a lesson to be learned from: consider the context of your promotional presentation.... but not a lesson to lose pay over.
oldnewsguy says:
November 25, 2009
09:39 PM
I say its like a lot of corporations that own television stations today. For all they know about television, let alone news, they might as well be running shoe stores. Almost any promotional oppportunity can backfire on you. And does the corporation really think a busy G-M and a harried news director could possibly remember what was on the sign, or every twitter message that came from staff members?.
redsquareagency says:
November 25, 2009
07:50 PM
I'd call this equal parts new media naivete and bad luck. Cut the GM and ND some slack.
Rich Sullivan
http://redsquareagency.com
http://twitter.com/redsquareagency
jm says:
November 25, 2009
02:39 PM
ooops.
It's actually all over the nation, care of Facebook. I got it from an out-of-state friend and thought, "Wow, those look just like our guys. Local news anchors really do all look alike."
"Oh, wait. That IS our guys."
curiousgeorge says:
November 25, 2009
02:18 PM
Oh... the irony of it all.