KMEG | KPTH

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Due to Sinclair cuts and overall greed the entire newsroom is expected to work long hours without putting them on your timecard. If you tell the truth on your timecard about the hours you needed to work they will be extremely angry and expect you to leave them off in the next pay period. While there is a lot of comradery the best assignments, shifts and expectations are reserved for the friends of the news director. Less due to malice more due to poor management from the corporate leaders forcing the station into a hard place.

If you want to learn how to do absolutely everything in a newsroom this is a great place to be, Diana Castillo will listen to you on what skills you want and will do her absolute best to get you the skills you want. She is also very willing to help with onward movement, even when it puts the station in a hard place. That being said, you will be expected to overwork. The name of of the game is blame passing and trauma bonding. I am thankful for the skills I acquired here and the friends I made but I plan to never work for a Sinclair station again. They consistently undervalue staff, put them in danger and force great managers to make impossible decisions with significant staff cuts multiple times within my two year contract.

Highly recommend moving here for a first market. There is so much room for growth. Anchoring, social media, creative live shots, and don't let me forget the COMMUNITY! They truly embrace the media, and we have a great working relationship with most every organization you would need to speak with.

This was by far the best starter market ever. Within 1 month of living here, Sioux City felt like home. The whole staff gets along. Everyone can help you out in some capacity if you ever have a question. Diana sits down with you and reviews anything you ever want to go over. She loves when you come up with creative ideas that are impactful on our viewers. If you second guessed your live shot? Just do better the next day. Make a mistake? It's not the end of the world. Did you impact someone's life today? Yes. This is a feature driven market and people love a good, positive story. Breaking news doesn't happen often, so when it does give it all you've got. This is a station you can shine, grow, learn, and move up. A family-feel newsroom.

KMEG is the CBS affiliate in Sioux City, Iowa and is part of a duopoly with KPTH FOX 44, collectively known as Siouxland News. As one of the smallest-staffed newsrooms in Sioux City, KMEG is consistently rising in the ratings and is closely behind the No.2 station in the market. The News Director is Diana Castillo and she also acts as the 5 p.m. anchor. She is highly involved in the day-to-day activities in the newsroom and works to give everyone on the staff creative control and the chance to branch out beyond their written job description if that person so chooses. Morale at the station is for the most part positive and the staff are all friends outside the newsroom as well! One complaint about this station is that they are consistently understaffed. This isn't necessarily the fault of the management, but of the company, Sinclair Broadcast Group, as Sioux City is one of their smaller markets. They tend to put hiring freezes on management, leading to everyone working long hours. Overall though, this is a great station for any recent graduates to get their feet wet. Plenty of opportunities for liveshots and creativity! Plus, when you are ready to move up, Diana will do anything she can to help you get to your next market. Highly recommend this station!