MediaMaven

  UPDATED:  *Two more to add to my unofficial list of the ex-KING/NWCN staffers who have landed at Boeing internal or global PR over the years:   Baker's dozen by my count.  Yikes.  It's been a conveyor belt for years now.  But the PR recently has been devastating, by any measure. *Megan Porter (producer) *Josh Green (reporter) Bernard Choi (reporter) Michael King (Evening Mag and sports) Shaniqua Manning (KING and NWCN anchor) Ed Muir (NWCN reporter, weather) Adam Tischler (photog) Doug Alder (EP) Ted Land (reporter) Kierra Elfalan  (reporter) Wilson Chow (NWCN PDX reporter) Deb Feldman  (reporter, since left company) Mark Erskine (Evening EP since left company Friends of friends who want to leave TV for corporte comms??   Michael King Bernard Choi

  A tipster tells me that Seattle's KIRO-FM 97.3 will be hosting and marking the 50th anniversary of the station's switch to the newsradio format, which occured on July 15, 1974.   The celebration happens the morning of the 15th at the station on Eastlake with timing and more details to come.  

July 5, 2016, a day NOT like any other day, as the KING5 building on Dexter in Seattle gets demolished after the station moved to a rented building across from then-Safeco Field in the SODO district.  I ran Northwest Cable News, KING's sister station on the top floor for 11 years.   It was a great place, great family of people, great legacy.    

  Ah, the scales of justice:   For TV talent/producers or other employees wih contracts containing a non-compete clause, this court ruling in Texas throws a wrench into the works.  The Federal Trade Commission banned such clauses, effective this coming September, but now it's on hold.  TV types who want to simply leave jobs at their current stations and jump to a competitor in the same market, will have to press the pause button for a little while. https://www.npr.org/2024/07/03/nx-s1-5020525/noncompete-ban-block-ftc-competition-ryan-texas

When you work at Nexstar's KOIN in Portland and move to and take a job at Cox/Apollo's KIRO Seattle,  you leave one of the worst broadcast companies to join one that's owned by a hedge fund and laying folks off, recently maybe as many as a dozen cuts, including the entire sports department!! That's the move reporter Brandon Thompson has made, apparently replacing Briseida Holguin. Sadly, there are no longer any great companies to join when you compare broadcast owners. Cox cutting, Scripps stock price under $3, Tegna being led anew by someone who ran Artsy.com, major Graham buyouts, recent Allen Media layoffs. Yikes. But what's a broadcast journalist to do? Hmmm. Good luck, Brandon. Rent, don't buy.

Wondering what the future is for Jamie Tompkins, the former Fox 13 anchor whom Seattle Top Cop Adrian Diaz strangely made of Chief of Staff? Will she survive his demotion? Their rumored but later debunked romantic liaison didn't help with the suits he and the dept. now face, even with his recent coming out. You may remember it all started with her ride-along with the Diaz a while back. Later, he hired her to a big communications job with the PD, and then Chief of Staff, with ZERO law enforcement experience. Next move, Interim Chief Sue Rahr? Collateral damage? https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/behind-the-badge-get-to-know-seattle-police-interim-chief-adrian-diaz

Sharing a post here from KING5 morning anchor Mimi Jumg who caught up with television's Katie Couric about an important upcoming PBS cooking show.  Katie lost a husband to the disease and Mimi added she also lost a loved one to it.  In 2000 Katie posted a live colonoscopy for the Today Show  More info in the links below. https://www.facebook.com/MimiJungJournalist/posts/pfbid02QrrckHT9rnvPPitJairYAu11yMZnBETLiS97t3aLNwMUk6npCe7dA35qLvpmpseNl?rdid=TWNY3yOtBBE5doN

  These moves should make KING5 happy, as the station has the exclusive 4th season partnership with the club to broadcast games over free TV.  (Root Sports has gone to the penalty box for a season-long major!).    The Kraken have signed defenseman Brandon Montour for $7M annually, just days after he helped Florida win the NHL's Stanley Cup.   In addition, Vegas Knights center Chandler Stephenson is also headed here, as the team's free agent spendng spree skates on.  https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/40474240/seattle-kraken-sign-defenseman-brandon-montour-7-years

  Consider this a 'DEERE JOHN' goodbye letter, so to speak, from JOHN DEERE to its employees in Illinois and Iowa, during the week of its big golf tournament in Silvis, IL.  It says so long to hundreds of workers.  I can hear CBS announcers now, interviewing the CEO, as they always do, NOT mentioning this at all.     https://x.com/komonews/status/1807851675983519934