Richard Engberg has been named vice president and general manager of WMBD, Nexstar Broadcasting’s CBS affiliate in Peoria, Ill. In his new role, Engberg will also oversee WYZZ, Sinclair’s Fox affiliate in the market, which Nexstar operates through a local marketing agreement.

Engberg most recently worked for Univision, where he was vice president and director of sales for KTVW-KFPH in Phoenix and KVUE-KFTU in Tucson. He previously worked in various leadership and sales positions at WSFL in Miami, WPEC in West Palm Beach and WCIU and WFLD in Chicago.

“I will leverage the management experience and relationships built over my career to further strengthen the stations’ position as a leading provider of the most compelling news and entertainment programming in the market,” Engberg said in a statement.

Engberg’s appointment is effective immediately. He replaces Dan Bates.

Lee Ranson, who has been a meteorologist at WEEK in Peoria for 17 years, will do his final weather report today.

Ranson joined the NBC-affiliate in 1994 after working at several radio stations in the area. The Peoria native is seen nightly on the evening newscasts on WEEK.

“I’ve been going over a lot of old videotapes and, really, when I watch those tapes and then watch one from last week — outside of the appearance, I think it I’ve stayed pretty much the same,” Ranson told the Pantagraph. “My manner hasn’t changed. I have the same voice.”

“Lee is the same guy on air as he is in person,” Mark DeSantis, the station’s president and general manager, told the Peoria Journal-Star. “Lee has never been a performer. He is the real deal and that’s what makes him great.”

Following the abrupt dismissal of longtime anchor Mike Dimmick, staffers at WEEK–including on-air talent–dressed in black on Friday as a show of solidarity.

“It is a sad day when a 29-year employee and broadcast veteran is denied an opportunity to have a respectable send off,” WEEK anchor Garry Moore, and president of the local chapter of AFTRA, told TVSpy via email. “Management called a couple of people upstairs and told them that Wednesday was his last day. It was supposed to be September 16th. Essentially, they’re paying him to stay home.” Read more

Mike Dimmick has been shown the door at Granite Broadcasting’s WEEK following his outspoken comments about the ongoing labor dispute at the station in the Peoria Journal-Star yesterday.

“I can confirm that Mike Dimmick no longer works for WEEK-TV,” news director Don Shafer told TVSpy in an email. “Mike has been a great employee of this station for nearly 29 years. We will miss him dearly as we move on. Mike accepted employment elsewhere and we wish him nothing but the best.”

AFTRA — the union that represents WEEK talent — told a different story in a statement on their Facebook page. Read more

After 28 years with Granite-owned WEEK, the NBC affiliate in Peoria, evening anchor Mike Dimmick has announced his departure, citing the station’s handling of recent contract disputes, as well as a general decline in standards, as the reasons behind his decision.

“It’s been a long march toward it, driven by what’s going on at the station,” he told the Peoria Journal-Star. “Not just the recent contract dispute, but the way the station has gone down over the years.”

Contract negotiations between employees at WEEK and Granite Broadcasting disintegrated last spring, after the union voted down a contract offer that would allow for the outsourcing of news and weather broadcasts. “There are terrific people in that newsroom who will continue to put out a great product, but the ownership basically ignores the experience and expertise of the people in the newsroom,” Dimmick said. “It’s been a slow slide from the journalism I knew.” Read more

Staff at Peoria’s WEEK-WHOI have been working without a formal labor deal since February and, after rejecting Granite Broadcasting’s “final offer” in April, they are now enlisting the support of the local community.

At issue in WEEK-WHOI’s dispute with Granite and Silver Point Capital, Granite’s largest investor, is the company’s unwillingness to ensure that local news will in fact stay local. Other Granite stations have been asked to outsource some of their news production, including weather, and WEEK-WHOI want to make sure that all of the local news they air is produced within their market.

At the end of April, following the rejection of Granite’s so-called “final offer,” WEEK-WHOI organized a rally at the station and invited members of the community to participate. And now WEEK-WHOI staffers, with support from AFTRA, are distributing flyers and asking local residents to sign a petition. Read more

AFTRA’s local Peoria chapter has resoundingly rejected Granite Broadcasting‘s “last, best, and final” labor offer to employees of WEEK-WHOI.

Since February, staffers at the Central Illinois NBC-ABC-CW outpost have been working without a formal labor deal and, according to the Peoria Journal Star, AFTRA representatives voted 27 to 1 on Friday to reject the so-called “final” proposal submitted by Granite at the end of March.

While anchors, reporters, photojournalists, producers, and other WEEK-WHOI staffers continued to work without a deal in place, the union authorized anchor Garry Moore, the local union president, to call a strike.

Moore, who has not been immediately available for comment today, told the Star yesterday that some type of job action was possible. AFTRA plans to hold a public rally at the WEEK-WHOI studios on Wednesday to emphasize the impact local news has in the community.

Union officials representing employees of WEEK-WHOI in central Illinois returned to the bargaining table this week and are now reviewing a new proposal from Granite Broadcasting that the stations’ parent company says is its “last, best, and final offer.”

Anchors, reporters, photojournalists, and producers at WEEK-WHOI, a NBC- and an ABC-affiliate licensed to Peoria, have been working without a labor contract since February 18th, when the previous deal expired.

A major sticking point in the negotiations between Granite and the local chapter of AFTRA is language surrounding the jurisdiction of local news production. Previous offers have included language that would allow Granite to farm out local news content, something that WEEK-WHOI staffers vehemently oppose. Read more

Anchors, reporters, photojournalists, and producers at WEEK-WHOI in central Illinois have been working for the past two weeks without a formal labor contract and now members of the stations’ news team are going on record about the ongoing negotiations between their union and Granite Broadcasting, the stations’ parent company.

At the center of the dispute, according to WEEK-WHOI employees, is Granite’s desire to use news content produced outside of the market.

“We believe local news should be local,” anchor Gina Morss told the Peoria Journal Star.

The union contract covering members of the WEEK-WHOI news team expired on February 18th and AFTRA is set to meet with Granite for a bargaining session on March 21st.  In the meantime, the union has authorized anchor Garry Moore, the local union president, to call a strike. Read more