EXCLUSIVE! Nexstar Anchor Burns All The Bridges in Goodbye Memo

It’s not like they could not see this one coming…..

KTVE which serves southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana hired Gordon Boyd to be their main Anchor a couple of years ago.

Boyd has a track record of being a trouble maker and having a very short fuse. He has blown up in a number of his past jobs and why KTVE thought it would be different…. is anyone’s guess.

Sources say Boyd was asked to leave after having another blow up in the newsroom.

He wrote a goodbye memo and he did not burn any bridges…..he blew up the bridges beyond all recognition.

FTVLive has obtained a copy of his goodbye email and it is a doozy:

From: Gordon Boyd
Date: September 23, 2019 at 1:35:02 PM CDT
To: "news@nbc10news.net"
Subject: Thank You & Goodbye

All,'"

I would be remiss if I left the Ark-La-Miss without Thanking all of you who 'got' what I was trying to accomplish in my two-and-one-half years as a Primary Evening Anchor and Producer; Cody Vallery and Jon Freeman in Production. Chief Meteorologist Jared Floyd & Meteorologists Reid Lybarger, Bryan Briggs and Lexi Birmingham, Sports Anchor-Reporters Chris Demirdjian & Spenser Tilus. Esther Daily in Promotions.

And the Army of folks on the News Side: Heather Wright, Kayla Lusby, Brandon Laurence, Brandon Henderson, Randall Newsome, Renee' Beninate', Chelsea Jones, Bria Jones, Connor Ingalls, Anna McAllister, Mya Hudgins & Erin Albritton.

Friends AND acquaintances had given me fair warning about KTVE; specifically that it never has beaten KNOE since signing on the air in 1956.

We discussed the signal challenges. The city-of-license challenge. The ownership changes. The 'heritage' factor.

But August 21 offered proof-positive that KTVE not only condones failure; THE CULTURE ACTUALLY EMBRACES FAILURE.

Those in power have the power to change it.

But they prefer the comfort of feeble excuses over the accountability that comes when success heightens expectations.

Look no further than a typical news day,

1) News allows Sales to dictate content, disguising commercials as news stories and Public Service Announcements, while suppressing legitimate journalism.

That's unethical on its face. It violates tenets set forth in the National Association of Broadcaster's Code of Good Practice. It makes a mockery of RTDNA and SPJ guidelines. It puts a station's license at risk.

If ANYBODY has a doubt about this, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Credibility is a News Department's only currency. Compromise that, and personalities and presentation become irrelevant.

Nobody respects a whore. Advertisers learn -- quickly -- that a station will stoop to any level in order to make a spot sale, an AE's commission and a manager's bonus, Viewers know it too. KTVE trips over dollars to pick up dimes.

But the fact is: better journalism is better business. (See Hearst. Scripps. And the ABC- and NBC-owned & operated stations).

Some salespeople may not know any better. But newspeople do. Managers who condone --even encourage--such behavior are unfit to call themselves journalists.

2) Flagrant disregard of NEXSTAR CORPORATE DIRECTIVES for news copy & content.

Nexstar requires that at least two sets of eyes vet all copy before it hits air. That burden falls on Anchors and Producer when a News Director is unavailable, unable or unwilling to be one of those sets.

Larger markets won't stand for errors of fact, accuracy, grammar or syntax. The proper response is to question changes and to embrace constructive criticism, not to run to HR when your work is called into question. Errors can get you and the station sued.
And the plaintiff(s) will WIN.

3) Coworkers throw one other under the bus.
Producers have NO excuse for failing to deliver scripts and rundowns to studio and floor crews less than fifteen minutes before the start of a newscast. Production crews are virtual prisoners-in--place 4:30-6:30PM and 9-10:30PM. They've no time to mark scripts or give themselves a heads-up on tricky camera changes. It shows in the on-air product.

As a Producer, I tried to have Production's back with clean scripts and clear directions, delivered in plenty of time. It's about RESPECT.

A coworker's success is your success.

Likewise, it's inexcusable for studio and floor crews to have smart-phones out and in-use during a live broadcast.

Shots and supers get missed. A Producer or Reporter's hard work gets trashed. A Director gets hung out to dry.

Management has been made aware of these issues repeatedly. Its inaction speaks for itself.

4) Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

KTVE and KARD OWN SEVERE WEATHER COVERAGE. Yet both stations manage to chase those new eyeballs away the very next day

with poor execution, planning and conceptualization.

I've worked for larger stations. I've worked for smaller stations. I've never seen another station as ill-prepared for sweeps or election coverage.

Ed Kosowski worked wonders in improving the on-air product and detox-ing the culture in his relatively short tenure as Interim News Director.

He left KTVE with a legitimate shot to UNDO 64 YEARS OF ABJECT FAILURE.

All of it was undone in four months,

I wish all of you well. I wish I could have done more.

Gordon

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