Post by gartv on Jan 5, 2009 21:14:06 GMT -3
As of 7pm on 1/5/09, WPGA was not airing its local news cast "ABC Macon News" but was airing "The Insider" instead followed by regularly scheduled "Entertainment Tonight"
The service who provided the newscasts gave short notice that the newscasts would cease as of last Friday (1/2/09) They filed bankruptcy on December 31st.
WPGA started offering "ABC Macon News" at 7pm and 11pm in July 2007 offering news Monday through Friday only. The 11pm newscasts ended in the fall of 2008 leaving only a 7pm newscast 5 nights per week.
I know the same company (Independent Network News) also provided services for WLTZ in Columbus and WNCF in Montgomery but I could not find any information about their newscasts ending.
News article below from the Macon Telegraph
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Future of Macon TV station’s nightly newscast uncertain
By Jennifer Burk - jburk@macon.com Buzz up!
The future of WPGA’s nightly newscast is uncertain after the Iowa-based company that produced the show filed for bankruptcy last week.
“I really don’t believe there will be a newscast on tonight. Our whole infrastructure was based on them,” said Lowell Register, president and CEO of Register Communications Inc., which owns WPGA-TV Channel 58, the Middle Georgia ABC network affiliate.
The news consulting service, Regional News Network Co., doing business as Independent News Network, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Iowa.
An e-mail sent to Register indicated that news would stop at the end of that week, he said.
Register Communications contracted with Independent News Network in July 2007 to begin providing a 7 p.m. nightly newscast WPGA.
While three reporters worked in Macon, they fed the information to anchors based in Iowa. What will happen to those three reporters is uncertain, Register said.
“Obviously if we’re not doing news, we probably won’t be needing a ton of news people,” he said.
Register said the news surprised him, and he has been unable to get in touch with anyone at Independent News Network, despite repeated phone calls.
“I think they’re out of business,” he said.
For more on this story, come back to macon.com and read Tuesday’s Telegraph.
The service who provided the newscasts gave short notice that the newscasts would cease as of last Friday (1/2/09) They filed bankruptcy on December 31st.
WPGA started offering "ABC Macon News" at 7pm and 11pm in July 2007 offering news Monday through Friday only. The 11pm newscasts ended in the fall of 2008 leaving only a 7pm newscast 5 nights per week.
I know the same company (Independent Network News) also provided services for WLTZ in Columbus and WNCF in Montgomery but I could not find any information about their newscasts ending.
News article below from the Macon Telegraph
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Future of Macon TV station’s nightly newscast uncertain
By Jennifer Burk - jburk@macon.com Buzz up!
The future of WPGA’s nightly newscast is uncertain after the Iowa-based company that produced the show filed for bankruptcy last week.
“I really don’t believe there will be a newscast on tonight. Our whole infrastructure was based on them,” said Lowell Register, president and CEO of Register Communications Inc., which owns WPGA-TV Channel 58, the Middle Georgia ABC network affiliate.
The news consulting service, Regional News Network Co., doing business as Independent News Network, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Iowa.
An e-mail sent to Register indicated that news would stop at the end of that week, he said.
Register Communications contracted with Independent News Network in July 2007 to begin providing a 7 p.m. nightly newscast WPGA.
While three reporters worked in Macon, they fed the information to anchors based in Iowa. What will happen to those three reporters is uncertain, Register said.
“Obviously if we’re not doing news, we probably won’t be needing a ton of news people,” he said.
Register said the news surprised him, and he has been unable to get in touch with anyone at Independent News Network, despite repeated phone calls.
“I think they’re out of business,” he said.
For more on this story, come back to macon.com and read Tuesday’s Telegraph.