WRDE

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

"Toxic" is the best word to sum up the newsroom culture at WRDE. The station is going through a lot of adjustments which has contributed to a very disorganized and tense environment. The management frequently abuses their power and changes their expectations. They make a lot of promises to lure you in but quickly let you down. I have worked multiple 12+ hour days with no compensation, and as a dayside reporter, I am expected to provide additional content for the 11pm broadcast in addition to my normal responsibilities for the 5 & 6pm shows. The office is disorganized and equipment issues plague every one of us. Our control room is based in another state, making it extremely hard to coordinate with producers and control room staff. Myself and my co-workers have frequently been attacked by management about our appearance in a cruel way. I signed my 2-year contract expecting mentorship and a positive learning environment and what I've received is far from that.

This station has singlehandedly burnt me out of journalism in the first 6 months of my career. I came into this field expecting long hours and hard work, but the toxicity I have experienced at WRDE is beyond that. As a student, I worked in newsrooms across the country, and I know what a functioning newsroom looks like. The only redeeming feature about WRDE is that it has a lot of gems of people working there. Many of the reporters and producers are kind, flexible and intelligent people. I expect each and every one of them to outgrow WRDE and excel wherever they end up.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

It's toxic because of the people. Bill pretends to offer you so much but Draper has overly high standards and even he admitted they are high to obtain. Doesn't help WBOC is the favorite and it shows in most ways. Bill is afraid of them and never wants to mess with a toxic leader. Most staff on air and off is very fake, too many pretend to be your friend but will stab you in the back at the first sign of trouble.

There's so much to tell you. I produced mornings and dayside at WRDE. There are only two producers total for the 5am to 7am morning newscast and the 5:30pm to 6:30pm newscasts. Anchors produce weekend evenings, 11 am and 11 pm. Producers work out of WBOC in Salisbury, MD. Why you may ask? Because Draper never built a control room or edit bays in Milton DE. It was also to save money and share directors with WBOC. Anchors, reporters, photographers, managers, and meteorologists for WRDE are in Milton, but producers, editors, along with sports talent and directors (which are shared) are in Salisbury.

As a producer get ready to have anchors an hour away with a two second delay and reporters with up to a four second delay. On top of that deal with prompting a show daily, no exceptions besides breaking news and going to the bathroom. There is a foot pedal but it doesn't work properly and they won't fix it. So you are prompting a show after you did one, that's it right? Wrong! You also need to time the newscast, write, start and stop the live feed, hit the space bar, cue the reporter(s), check the TVU(s) and communicate with your anchors! It's a lot.

If you are working the morning show, two anchors, one met, a producer (maybe you), an editor, a reporter, a photog and a director. Dayside is the same but add on about five reporters. Along with up to three photogs.

Anchor wise it really varies. Matt is fine at night, a bit stiff but works hard and will write new content (co-anchors 5:30pm and produce and anchor the 11pm), though you need to shorten his copy for reuse. A great reporter. Maddie is disappointing. she's a decent anchor and a great reporter. But she can be temperamental. She's supportive and like a best friend but then turns and acts too boss like at a drop of a coin. She's a really good producer and a decent Assistant ND.

The reporters and the photogs are all talented but not very kind or genuine if they stop liking you. The mets are all easy to deal with.

As for morning anchors, Mal is a great reporter and a decent anchor. She will do extra work, a pkg and or VOSOT regularly, but don't ask her to write anymore than that or she will get annoyed. The expectation for all producers is to get all the show done yourself, don't ask for much help or you will look foolish, all the anchors produce close to daily but still get annoyed by that at times. Charlie will take all the credit for the morning show, but he doesn't do much besides complain, rewrite a CNBC business report as his own and remind you he can do sports. He used to be a sports anchor but it is helpful when you aren't given one in the morning from the Delmarva Sports Network.

But the biggest problem is WBOC and Draper. They try to make it two completely separate stations but that doesn't fully work, master control, IT, HR, sports, newscast directors and the helicopter are still shared.

Craig the president of the company made me feel uncomfortable on my first day. He has a lot of power and said "if you ever lie to me, I'll fire you on the spot." Nice guy right.

John Dearing is the WBOC ND, he is very cold, very aloof and tries to pretend you work for him. You have to do their four week training perfectly and they will teach you their way even if it doesn't apply to you. When you mess up in the training there is hell to pay for later.

Ron the Assistant ND at WBOC is nice though, the EP Bill, not so much be careful.

If you work overnight you will have no help or support from 11pm to 3am so be ready to change parts of a fully ready show, trust me it's hell, but at least it's not distracting. Dayside is the most support but very tiring to work in. Plus you may get flipped between overnights and dayside, it's as tiring as it sounds.

Milton is a great place to visit, love that town. But the drive from Salisbury is long and unless you take a company vehicle they won't reimburse you for the gas and you may be there up to two weeks going back and forth daily.

As for reporters, mornings a vosot live and a vosot or pkg later. Dayside a PKG and sometimes a vosot too. There is no nightside reporter, and when there is a weekend reporter, a pkg and sometimes a vosot. The station is also a Telemundo affiliate and many staffers are bilingual.

Overall in my experience, don't go there. They pay well but the expectations are sky high and you work with little in house support or guidance. They will make you cry, take advantage of you mentally and unless you are really good at kissing butt they won't really like you.

Salisbury is a great little city but the stations aren't great. Really only come here if you have few other options and if you have any extra experience get ready to be worked to the bone. So happy I don't work there anymore and I wouldn't recommend it to others.