Thursday, April 21, 2011

4.21.11 Bee-otch of the Day: WOOD-TV






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Name: WOOD-TV 8
Age: 62
Occupation: NBC-TV station
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: firing their leader
 

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In the great words of the 1980's hair metal band Cinderella, "Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone".

For the past few weeks, people had been wondering where WOOD-TV 8's lead news anchor, Suzanne Geha went. Some speculated a long vacation since they were still using her in promos.

But, the worst has happened. Suzanne Geha has been let go from WOOD-TV.

On her Facebook page, Geha - who is probably in her late 50's/early 60's - avoided pulling a Howard Beale and released this statement:

"With much regret, I confirm I no longer work for WOOD-TV-8. This is a very sad day for me. West Michigan is a great place to broadcast news. I want my colleagues to know what a privilege it is working with you. I want my viewers to know what an honor it is bringing you the stories that affect your lives and your communities. Thank you for your loyal support through the years. I hope I can count on it in the future."
-Suzanne Geha
Meanwhile, WOOD-TV did release this statement publicly:

"Suzanne Geha is no longer with WOOD-TV 8. We thank her for her many years of commitment and we wish her all the best."

The statement concludes stating that Brian Sterling and Susan Shaw will now be the station's nighttime anchor team while Emily Linnert and Brett Thomas will continue to co-host Daybreak.

Talk about a weak statement regarding somebody who's worked for you for a combined 30+ years.

Suzanne had two tours of duty at WOOD-TV. She got her start in college at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and eventually worked at WKNR-1400 in Battle Creek. She came to WOOD-TV - then WOTV - in 1974 as a reporter but left in 1978 to go to WXYZ-TV in Detroit as a weekend anchor and reporter. She returned to WOTV in 1983 and stayed there for the next 28 years.

Her firing has left many in west Michigan beyond shocked, including her former co-anchor Tom Van Howe, now the co-anchor at CBS affiliate WWMT channel 3. He told the Grand Rapids Press that he's shocked over their decision to can her. "So, that's the send off she gets? My word... My god, I don't even know how to respond to that. I am simply shocked." He also told the Press that Geha was the face of WOOD-TV News and will be for a very long time.

Suzanne was a woman that you loved or hated or even both. The niece of legendary White House reporter Helen Thomas, Geha, who is of Lebanese decent, was often the butt of jokes for her age, especially on such morning shows as WGRD's Free Beer and Hot Wings. I could have sworn that on one morning that I've heard the program, one of the guys commented that she had a "varicose vagina".

Varicose vagina or not, I felt that Geha was a decent newswoman who lived and breathed the news. Some years back, I was watching WOOD-TV at 4:20 in the morning during an Amber Alert and Suzanne popped on the screen looking tired and haggard. She announced that the Alert had stopped because the little girl that was kidnapped was found murdered. Sad news indeed, but it showed Suzanne's commitment towards doing the news, even if she had to spend all night at WOOD-TV studios.

But of course, like most other TV stations, WOOD-TV has had its setbacks and cost-cutting because of owner LIN Media's penny-pinching. For one thing, the master control for WOOD-TV is no longer in Grand Rapids, but rather at sister WISH-TV in Indianapolis. Also, Suzanne's not the only anchor WOOD-TV's let go; Larry Neinhaus and Jennifer Moss were both shown the door due to budget cuts although at least Moss was given a proper send-off with tributes throughout her Daybreak show.

Sadly, WOOD-TV's product has downgraded over the years thanks to bad decisions from management such as firing solid anchors like Geha and Neinhaus, but also dumping a shitload of money into their lame-ass midday show eightWest and keeping morons like Terri DeBoer - who made headlines in 2006 when she held a fundraiser for then-gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos - and Brian Sterling, who was busted for drunk driving several years back. What's even more unfortunate is the fact that they still have the best news product in town since WZZM-13 is too cutsey, Fox 17 is somewhat ho-hum (their news music's too laid back for a news theme) and WWMT's too focused on Kalamazoo (not to mention that they JUST NOW are airing their newscasts in 16 X 9 a year or two after everybody else started doing it).

In the end, it really shows that the media business is a sad little whore, and I'm only blogging about and am not in it myself. When you have somebody work for you for 30 years, you should give them a lot more respect than just giving them one sentence. Suzanne deserved way better than this. I feel extremely sorry for her and her family, and hope that one day, she'll be back on her feet. Because of their decision to fire Geha, I will consider watching WOOD-TV much less.

Thanks, WOOD-TV. I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore.

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