KVEO | KGBT

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

When I entered the newsroom it was completely unorganized, No order. Signing up with KVEO I was told we would get the equipment we need and new vehicles. That never happened, Everything that came from his mouth was a lie. Our equipment was rundown, old and unreliable. They chose the cheapest options, one director behind the scenes for shows, consistent errors, and not to mention no floor director or camera operators in studio. the way the broadcast's are run remind me of a high school production, very unprofessional. and its not the fault of the producers or reporters, its management. They lay all the work on one person to Direct the shows, manage the audio and graphics, AND Control the UNMANNED CAMERAS... I've seen high school and college productions that are run better... It was always short staffed so do not expect to get any days off, and EXPECT to work morning and night shifts when they ask because they have no one to cover anything, EVER. Brad Ginsberg is the worst boss I've ever had, Horrible at planning and managing a newsroom. But don't just take my word for it, look at the track record. During my employment, 7 MMJ, 3 Meteorologists and 4 anchors Left the station. He easily gets offended, when he asks if you can work extra hours (Because they are understaffed) and if you tell him no he treats you horribly, and shifts you schedule around CONSISTENTLY. The walls are thin in the his office, I've heard him argue with his anchors and reporters calling them Bad journalists because of stories HE TOLD THEM TO COVER. All fingers point everywhere except towards himself. Once you don't do what he asks, you suddenly do everything wrong in his eyes until you get the boot. To make matters worse, the Assistant news director is unqualified to be in a management position, as she does everything under the sun except for her job, MANAGE THE NEWSROOM. None of the stories reporters pitch are good enough for them, so they give them a story to cover and when it doesn't turn because the story has no foundation its the reporters fault. One day I couldn't find a story on a holiday that they liked, they told me to keep looking as they were looking as well, guess what... they told me they couldn't find one as well, and I got chewed out because i should've came up with a better one... There's a big lack of communication between all managers so they never know whos doing what, One will say "go cover this story" another will say "no go do this".... not to mention they rewrite the majority of the reporters stories to the point where its a completely new story, Why even bother putting the reporters name on it when the ND and AND are the ones writing them. Lastly, I once submitted my story for approval, It was re-written by one manager, and the story that was rewritten was RE-REWRITTEN by another manager.... There's a reason its a low rated station and its not the hard working reporters, anchors and producers.... STAY AWAY

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

When I entered the newsroom it was completely unorganized, No order. Signing up with KVEO I was told we would get the equipment we need and new vehicles. That never happened, Everything that came from his mouth was a lie. Our equipment was rundown, old and unreliable. They chose the cheapest options, one director behind the scenes for shows, consistent errors, and not to mention no floor director or camera operators in studio. the way the broadcast's are run remind me of a high school production, very unprofessional. and its not the fault of the producers or reporters, its management. They lay all the work on one person to Direct the shows, manage the audio and graphics, AND Control the UNMANNED CAMERAS... I've seen high school and college productions that are run better... It was always short staffed so do not expect to get any days off, and EXPECT to work morning and night shifts when they ask because they have no one to cover anything, EVER. Brad Ginsberg is the worst boss I've ever had, Horrible at planning and managing a newsroom. But don't just take my word for it, look at the track record. During my employment, 7 MMJ, 3 Meteorologists and 4 anchors Left the station. He easily gets offended, when he asks if you can work extra hours (Because they are understaffed) and if you tell him no he treats you horribly, and shifts you schedule around CONSISTENTLY. The walls are thin in the his office, I've heard him argue with his anchors and reporters calling them Bad journalists because of stories HE TOLD THEM TO COVER. All fingers point everywhere except towards himself. Once you don't do what he asks, you suddenly do everything wrong in his eyes until you get the boot. To make matters worse, the Assistant news director is unqualified to be in a management position, as she does everything under the sun except for her job, MANAGE THE NEWSROOM. None of the stories reporters pitch are good enough for them, so they give them a story to cover and when it doesn't turn because the story has no foundation its the reporters fault. One day I couldn't find a story on a holiday that they liked, they told me to keep looking as they were looking as well, guess what... they told me they couldn't find one as well, and I got chewed out because i should've came up with a better one... There's a big lack of communication between all managers so they never know whos doing what, One will say "go cover this story" another will say "no go do this".... not to mention they rewrite the majority of the reporters stories to the point where its a completely new story, Why even bother putting the reporters name on it when the ND and AND are the ones writing them. Lastly, I once submitted my story for approval, It was re-written by one manager, and the story that was rewritten was RE-REWRITTEN by another manager.... There's a reason its a low rated station and its not the hard working reporters, anchors and producers.... STAY AWAY

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Lots of micromanaging. ND does not have the best intention with employees, he has favorites and tried bribing with pizza Fridays at some point. He does not care about growth and only wants to make sure he can keep employees longer to hide the amount of people who have left. AND is also a mess and likes to be nosey. The investigation team is a joke.

Avoid working here

Sexual Discrimination, Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

LOTS of favoritism, managers are HUGE on micromanaging, good luck getting days off and vacation approved on time. Managers love making you work for free! You will HAVE to defend yourself when it comes to OT. Work schedules are always moved around due to lack of staff. Super unorganized. SAVE YOUR SOUL AND AVOID!!!

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

This place is an absolute train wreck. By far the most dysfunctional work environment I have ever been a part of. The recent ND just left, so I won't comment on her impact on the newsroom - outside of the fact favorites were always promoted internally whether they deserved it or not. One MMJ was caught forging soundbites in stories, yet he somehow a few months later was promoted to main anchor. There is not a single person in the newsroom outside of the assistant nd/chief met that is over the age of thirty, and you can tell by the behavior after management is gone for the day. There's more nerf gun wars than quality news content produced. Literally everything breaks all the time. Whether it's a camera, or the server crashing for the 5th time that month - your hard work can easily go in the trash because of how haphazardly Nexstar pieced this duopoly together during the buyout. Countless people have broken contract recently to escape from this hell hole. Avoid at all costs.

Don't work here. It's not worth your sanity

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Where do you even start with this place? The turnover is ridiculous and it's for a reason. They once had 15 people leave in a single year. If you notice, they're always posting new job listings because they can't keep anyone. The ND and the AND are thick as thieves and will have 0 problem throwing you under the bus if it means saving themselves. When the merger with KVEO was first announced, the ND would walk out of the building mid-show and tell everyone to deal with whatever mishap of the day was going on on their own because she initially thought management was getting the boot. When that didn't happen, her attitude changed and she was suddenly the "fearless leader" again. Let's make one thing clear, she's not a leader, she's just someone who sits at the big desk and gets cut the check every two weeks. If management does not like you, you have no shot at moving up - no matter what your work, prescence, personality, is like. They have and continue to give every available opportunity to reporters that also played a role in bullying in the newsroom and no one else. Management (though they hire newly graduated journalism students) refuses to teach reporters/photographers/anchors the tricks of the trade - you'll either sink or swim of your own doing - and if they don't want to deal with you, say hello to the morning show: the home of the KVEO rejects. Management (including the EP and the Assignment's Desk Editor) would have meetings in the ND's office and discuss personal grievances, issues, and NSFW things regarding their employees with the DOOR OPEN. Morale was low when I left and it's only gotten worse with the duoply. Reporters who no longer work at this station were blamed for the toxic work environment because the ND and AND refuse to take responsibility for the newsroom they've created. Their main anchor has probably been there around 4-5 years now and he's a senior compared to the rest. The only one who's seemingly lasted is their meterologist - the rest are newbies that the community will never really get to know because of the revolving door that leads in and out of KVEO (formerly KGBT-TV). Run as fast as you can from this station. It's not worth your mental health. If you needed one more thing to convince you not to sign that contract, know that the Assistant News Director has a history of gossiping with colleagues about other employees, once asked who was sleeping with whom, and has raging tantrums in the newsroom with consistent outbursts about how "stupid" everyone is. DO NOT WORK HERE.