Station's Ratings
News Dirctors
Reporter Job details
Yearly salary$80,000 - $95,000
Contract2-3 years
Paired with a photogEveryday
Station market rank#1
Keaton Fuchs
Keaton has no business managing people. He was promoted from being an investigative producer/data journalist by former GM, Wendy Granato with no prior managerial experience because she needed someone to be her puppet in the newsroom. He absolutely lacks compassion for his staff and concern for low morale.
He’ll pick favorites, but if they ever question or challenge him, he’ll do everything he can to make their lives miserable. He’s as fake and delusional as they come, putting on a front to corporate to make it seem like everything is flowers and rainbows when employees feel unheard and mistreated. Staff are taking FMLA and breaking contracts to get out of there. KTRK has become a revolving door because of him.
He doesn’t care about people leaving because he’s riding on the coattails of KTRK being a legacy and maintaining a steady #1 lead in a Top 10 market. The ratings still deliver and everyone wants to work there cause it’s an O&O. He claims that he “cares” about telling important stories. But the truth is, he and his management team just care about covering death and destruction. If it doesn’t bleed and lead, they don’t want it. They love beating tragedy to death, chasing down families who’ve already asked for privacy, and over-sensationalizing stories.
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
Keaton loves shutting down stories about communities of color. He loves to diminish the value of these stories. Several employees have tried to address this issue with management to no avail. They love to flaunt that they have a very diverse newsroom (which is true), but ALL of management is white!! Keaton is white. His assistant managers (Julie, Holly, and Gina) are all white. Almost all the EPs are white, except the two in the AM (but the morning crew is in their own world). Anyone who was a person of color, worked dayside/nightside, and had manager duties left KTRK. It is not an environment that supports their Black and brown folks in the newsroom.
If you thrive off of covering crime all the time, this would be a good shop for you. KTRK’s brand is breaking news, so that’s all they care about. If you want to cover anything else, your voice is going to be shut down.
I will say, KTRK does breaking news VERY WELL. That assignment desk is one of the best in the nation and very resourceful. It is not uncommon to be the first on scene and easily track down family members of victims because of them. Some of our photographers are extremely talented. Others are lazy, but they all will help you through the bullshit if you treat them well.
On the other hand — I’ve had amazing co-workers at KTRK, some of whom are still dear friends that I keep in touch with. To be fair, a lot of it came from trauma bonding in a toxic newsroom. But they helped me get through a grueling contract there.
Anchor Job details
Yearly salary
Contract4 Years
Paired with a photogN/A
Station market rankbetween #1-2
Rehan Aslam
Quite difficult and he has since moved on. Disorganized, singles out favorites and non-favorites. Doesn't have experience really leading a newsroom.
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
Toxic work environment from management. Most of the talent is fairly friendly but assignments and EP's are routinely under high pressure and stress. Creativity is only allowed for a few at the top. Do not make suggestions if you don't want to get shown the door.
