FTVLive was the FIRST to tell you that Sinclair Broadcasting was looking to make large cuts to their workforce.

The company is using the coronavirus pandemic as the reason for the cuts. In the end, hundreds are expected to lose their jobs and current jobs that are open will go unfilled.

While many TV groups reported a very strong 4th quarter in earnings, it wasn’t that way for Sinclair.

The company had already announced late last year that they were putting a freeze on raises for all of 2021.

In a memo to the staff, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said that "proactive steps" meant the "staff reduction will be significantly smaller" than if the company had not taken such measures.

Nevertheless, Ripley added, "This is, undoubtedly, one of the most difficult messages of my career."

It is here that we should take a look at Chris Ripley’s compensation package with the company. In 2017, Ripley’s total compensation deal was listed at $1.8 million dollars. In 2019, that increased to $9.9 million dollars.

While writing that email might have been ”one of the most difficult messages” of his career, I don’t he will be feeling the financial hardship as the other Sinclair employees that will be kicked to the curb.

Word is that a 20+ year employee at Sinclair’s KSNV (Las Vegas) is one of the cuts. We also hear that a couple of Anchors are catching the blade.

Word of the cuts came down first from station General Managers that were holding “Microsoft team meetings” with the staff in which as some pointed out they appeared to be reading a “pre-written company script.”

There are more scheduled meetings today.

As FTVLive has talked to General Managers around the country from different TV stations and groups, most say that local sales is recovering and most are encouraged by how 2021 has gotten started.

Nexstar had a record 4th quarter and is one media group that has not instituted any layoffs, or furloughs during the pandemic.

The fact that Sinclair is whacking hundreds of people may point more as to how the company has been run, than the ongoing pandemic.

A lot of people are going to find themselves without a job and that sucks.

By the way, as Sinclair was informing their staff that many of them will lose their jobs, this was the “must-run” story that the company was sent down to their stations: