KMID | KPEJ

Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Megan serves as the Executive Producer and “Assistant News Director.” She has been at the station for more than ten years and has worked in nearly every production role. In my view, she is one of the primary sources of dysfunction in the newsroom. There have been numerous complaints filed with HR regarding bullying, racially insensitive behavior, and creating unnecessary conflict. When confronted, she often becomes emotional in a way that shifts the focus away from the original issue. I strongly recommend documenting all interactions and incidents thoroughly. The Human Resources department consists of a single individual who does not have formal training or a degree in HR and previously served as a secretary. As a result, there is little accountability, and complaints rarely lead to meaningful consequences. Erica is the Director of Content and News. She previously oversaw digital operations and was promoted after the general manager departed. Although personable, she is frequently absent from the station. When present, she often arrives late, leaves early, and takes frequent smoke breaks throughout the day. She also uses one of the station’s vehicles as her primary mode of transportation. Additionally, she engages in gossip about employees and at times demonstrates a lack of emotional control. While she may speak critically of Megan, they maintain a close professional relationship. There are no regular pitch meetings, no formal daily coverage planning discussions, and no consistent script reviews. Feedback and criticism appear to be applied inconsistently. Employees of color often receive disproportionately higher levels of scrutiny compared to their counterparts. The newsroom lacks strong, consistent leadership, which is reflected in the overall quality of the product. As a result, the station ranks last among the three stations in the market. Overall, this is a challenging and, in my opinion, toxic work environment. The absence of effective leadership and organization can hinder professional growth and negatively impact one’s perspective on the industry. If you have other opportunities available, you may want to consider them carefully. If you choose to accept a position here, I recommend seeking mentorship outside of the station, staying focused on your professional goals, maintaining thorough documentation of your work, building your reel, and planning your next step strategically.

It is worth noting that current director Erica doesn’t require you sign a contract. Which is a huge advantage if you are just looking for experience.

Terry just left but this newsroom is now missing a great leader. I saw the other comments on here from other employees and agree with the positive ones about him and our GM, Mark, and not the mean ones. I have an idea who that person who bashed Terry and Mark is and if it’s who I think it is, that person was very disgruntled while here because they were lazy and not good at what they did. Terry was intense but caring and could be tough at times but only because he wanted all of us to succeed. I felt like I learned a ton under his leadership and I plan to move on to a bigger market after I’m done here. He pushed me and other to be better. Mark is good too and from what I saw, He and Terry worked well together. Some people here are great while others love the drama but that’s like that everywhere. If you’re looking for a great place to start, this is it. I have no regrets from starting at Big 2 and Fox24 and I’m glad I got to work with Terry and the other great ones in this newsroom.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

All Terry knows it how to produce. He is not a good leader. He created an environment so negative that multiple people have been on the verge of quitting, or actually did quit. That newsroom was always understaffed and Terry expected everyone there to pick up his slack for making bad hires or not hiring at all, and for no extra compensation because it's "part of your contracted duties". Terry is the farthest thing from a mentor. He was a stand around and tell people what to do boss. No guidance other than taking his orders. He didn't give constructive feedback, just made you feel like an idiot if you do something he doesn't like. But he incessantly texted the anchors and producers during the show nitpicking the show apart while they were on the air instead of sending an email or addressing it after the show. And when he did have feedback, he made someone else relay the message so that they were the bad guy and not him. No leadership whatsoever. He doesn't understand the market and acts like he does and that the anchors and reporters have no idea what they're talking about, even though it's the anchors and reporters who are actually out in the community on a daily basis and talking to people. He made up all these fake "corporate" rules that were really his own, and he would pass it off as a ridiculous corporate rule. So obviously he knew his rules were ridiculous. We were told we couldn't have anything on our desks. His office was completely blank, nothing on the walls, and he had a wrap around desk that literally only had his computer on it. He would talk about wanting to leave here to move on to another job and I think most people would be relieved if he did. Him and the GM play favorites. Complaints were not taken seriously and action was not taken unless it was raised by one of the favorites. One anchor in particular was a complete diva and got a pass to do anything she wanted, including wearing inappropriate clothes on air and taking inappropriate pictures of herself IN THE STUDIO. She would get all these mysterious days off and was by far the least helpful and rudest person in the newsroom. Yet for some reason, she's the golden child. Also the GM highly protected the production department who would come in to work under the influence on more than one occasion or even do drugs at work. Literally anyone else would be fired for doing something like that, but production would get all kinds of slack. I feel bad for the people there because they're doing their best to advance in their career and they have to do it in horrible conditions. Even though we were always short staffed, no one wants to refer a friend or colleague to come work there because they don't want to put someone else in that situation. It's a vicious and unfortunate cycle.

Despite all of that, everyone in the newsroom was really chill and we all got each other through the days. We would hang out on the weekends and for holidays/birthdays and I do miss the people I worked with there. They made it bearable because we all went through it together. If you get offered there, just be ready and try to just focus on the work. It's all you can do.

Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Terry Wood is the worst human being on earth. He tries to come across as nice but openly talks s*** about employees behind their back, TO OTHER EMPLOYEES. There was a MASSIVE group of people leaving because of how miserable Terry is. Nobody wants to work for him. He's SO FAKE. He drains the life out of you. He doesn't care about you. People are afraid of Terry and will do what he says...which is completely understandable. He holds their livelihood in his hands, and he works off of people's fears. He is a tyrant, a bully, and honestly, a sad loser who takes it out on employees that he has no life. But he thinks he's hot s*** because he came from being an executive producer in LA. He has no trace of a personality. Blank walls in his office, and nobody is allowed to decorate their desks because of "corporate rules." That's an outright lie, he just hates anything that shows you're not a mindless drone. He doesn't care at all about the feelings of his employees, he demeans and demotes, he does whatever he wants to fit his agenda. He has talked s*** and told lies to other Nexstar directors for some people who have tried to transfer to other stations, causing them to not get the job. Why? Because he's a nasty person and can't come up with genuine reasons, so he has to stay they're hard to work with in order to stop them from moving forward in their career. If you give him an inch he will take a mile. He will expect you to work all kinds of hours outside your shift and not pay you or give you time off for it. Yes it's news and these things can happen, but he makes it a habit. He doesn't care about training new people, and relies on people with more experience to take pity and train them. It's a terrible place to get your start. The fresh out of college kids are set up for failure because they don't know what to do and he works them to the bone without making sure they know what they're doing. It's not their fault, it's his. Mark is no better. He would weirdly flirt with some employees, and made it a point to touch the shoulders of some of the staff, particularly the female staff. He does not care about you, your health, your anything. He care about profits and making himself look good. He won't take responsibility for the terrible ND he hired. HR is a joke. All Cindy cares about is getting her nails done and spreading gossip. She would definitely tell Terry & Mark whatever you say. You can't trust her at all. And for the record, the person who put they make $65K was an anchor who was there for a few years and negotiated her contract for that high salary, just to leave a few months later for a job in Denver. That salary was an exception to the norm. And since Terry was obsessed with her, it was fine that she left her job. It was a Nexstar station, but they planned a lot around her being the big star of the evening shows. Outside of that one anchor, if you do ANYTHING that Terry doesn't like, you're on his s*** list and he will live to make your life a living hell. If you're there now, keep your head down low, get your experience, learn who you can trust and who you can't talk to, and GET OUT. There are better stations, better NDs, better environments. It's a tough industry but I promise you, you don't deserve this flat out abuse. Your well being is more important than being on the good side of that mouth breather. I would say Nexstar should do an internal investigation, but the company doesn't care. CEO Perry Sook isn't a great guy either. Look him up. He's awful.

Don't work here. Don't work here. Don't work here.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

I've worked in several newsrooms to this point in my career. My time at KMID was by far the WORST experience I've had in the industry. The newsroom morale was the lowest i've ever seen anywhere. First red flag I can share: that review talking about how awesome the GM/ND are - that's a FAKE review the ND wrote himself! Terry came in thinking he's hot stuff because he's worked in LA which makes him god's gift to the Earth. In reality, his lack of small-market experience meant he's never learned how to allocate resources or develop talent. He constantly micromanages producers (calls control room DURING THE SHOW to nitpick), couldn't care less about developing talent. Just expects you to be HIS version of perfect and bickers when you mess something up. Threatened to write people up for saying "over' instead of "more than". Also, makes up fake "corporate rules" which are really just his rules. Basically, it's a game of put up with my crap or I'll fire you. He also tries to pit people against each other. He will tell a producer WORD FOR WORD what to tell a reporter instead of just doing it himself. So you're never mad at him, just the producer. Trashes you behind your back but won't say anything to your face about it. Instead of trying to mentor/help you, he'd rather write you off as a failure that should be tossed out with the trash.

Station is breaking laws re: overtime pay. Reporters have been told to count hour-long drives back from shoots as dinner breaks. Terry sends emails that say "unapproved OT will not be approved" - if you work OT and clock it, there have been times ND will change your time sheet and take it off.

GM Mark Garcia is a mixed bag. Probably a chill dude if you didn't work with him but brutally 'business-minded' and cheap as a boss. He's a sales guy, so he basically defers all news content decisions to Terry. Carries himself as the "good cop" to Terry's "bad cop". Can't tell if he knows how miserable it is to work for Terry or if he knows and thinks you should put up with it.

TL;DR: The people working there are good, hard-working people trying their best. Morale between co-workers is good but management (ND especially) is MISERABLE to work for. Everyone is just trying to keep their head above water.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

It is incredible that Nexstar would hire a person like this to oversee an actual news product.