News Director: Kay Norred
Experience described as: “Truly terrible”
While working for WFXR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There is no pride, managers thrive on politics and playing games, very disorganized.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This is what you need to know about the actual station without getting into the managers yet: The station is 4th place and very new (only a few years old) and is literally considered a joke by the other stations in the market. Other managers within Nexstar joke that WFXR is a tax write-off for the company. Viewers and even government agencies within the market have never heard of WFXR and that will make your life harder as an employee there.
The fourth place mentality keeps employees and managers alike from wanting to win. Morale is low because of the feeling of absolute defeat, even before you add in what toxic management does to the place.
Also, real talk: the station only has a two-hour morning news show and a one-hour news show at 10 p.m. No mid-morning, mid-day, 4p, 5p, or 6p. They have a little digital show they just launched in the evening, but if you are wanting to get real-life news experience of what it is like to turn content for multiple newscasts a day … you won’t get it at WFXR. The other stations are equipped with SEVERAL shows and run circles around WFXR.
Morning reporters will have the closest real-life news experience with multiple live hits. Dayside reporters, forget about it. You won’t have ANY deadlines or opportunities to be live unless you are turning something for the digital “show” (not real life newsroom experience compared to other reporters turning stuff and going live for 4p,5p,6p shows). Nightside reporters will have the opportunity to go live at 10 p.m.
Here is something else major you need to know: the viewing area is EXPANSIVE. There are five major areas that make up the market: New River Valley (Blacksburg and everything west of it), Roanoke area, Lynchburg area, Danville area, and Lexington area. All of the other stations have invested heavily to make sure there is a bureau in each area to cut down on drive times/exhaustion and increase response time. However, WFXR has not fully invested in this idea. What this means for you: if you are a reporter, you will be driving A LOT, you will get burned out from having to drive so much. From a producer perspective: if breaking news happens in any city that isn’t Roanoke, you will be 100% beat by the competition because it will take your reporter an hour or more to get there whereas the other stations have bureaus a few minutes away. WFXR managers keep talking about getting a Lynchburg bureau and have hired an NRV bureau (he mostly does sports though) … but the other stations are lightyears ahead.
Okay on to management:
First off, if you ever are contemplating working at a station where Kay Norred will be your boss: Run, don’t walk away. However, if that isn’t an option for you, the following is what you can expect…
She will not be direct with you, passive aggressiveness is her specialty. If there is something she doesn’t like about you or thinks you need to improve, she won’t tell you right away. Instead, she will make fun of you or spend her time making passive aggressive comments about you. As soon as you leave a room, she will talk about you to others. There isn’t a single person at the station that I didn’t see her smack talk. She is CONSTANTLY rolling her eyes and bad mouthing her employees and will let anyone who will listen know how much she doesn’t trust her team.
She may appear sweet and genuine to your face but never trust her. She will find a way to use what you say against you, whether professionally or personally. Literally, nothing that comes out of her mouth is honest or genuine (think Regina George from Mean Girls). A co-worker witnessed her telling a reporter that she did a great job on her package, then turned around and told someone else she actually didn’t like it much at all. So if you are someone who craves honest feedback, you won’t get it from her. You will never know whether to believe what she is saying to you.
HUGE NOTE: She is a stickler about being on time. If you have to work for her…remember be early, not late. If you are even 1 minute late or even on time (not early), she will make fun of you publicly and talk about you.
She doesn’t have a life outside of work (no pets/kids/husband/family/hobbies, etc) and it shows because she has zero perspective on what life outside of work is like. She works long hours, never uses sick days, comes in on the weekends, and rarely takes a vacation — which is fine because it’s her life EXCEPT she will expect the same of you. She LOVES to boast about the long hours she puts in. She thinks of herself as a martyr in that way. Kay works so much… so she must stay on top of everything, right? Nope. She works 12 hour days but is somehow always still behind. She rolls her eyes when people ask to talk to her during the day and is constantly complaining that people are stealing her time. She blames others for not getting her work done. So when elections, special events, really anything rolls up…all plans are incredibly last minute and thrown together.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: She is VERY forgetful. So if you tell her something, make sure she writes it down in her notebook, otherwise, it will be like the conversation never happened.
Also, if you are looking for a news director who is willing to jump in the trenches with their team, Kay is not that. Most newsrooms have several managers to help with day-to-day but at WFXR the ND and maybe assignments manager is all you have. But if you dare ask Kay to do something that she believes is beneath her ND duties, she will tell you a little story about how pilots don’t have to land planes to get a passenger a sprite.
She LOVES playing games with people’s lives and plays politics in the newsroom. She has an “A-TEAM” made up of a few of her favorites. She even held a secret meeting with these employees and told them “they were chosen not hired.” But don’t be fooled, if you make it on this A-Team, she will still talk bad about you behind your back. But as an A-Team member you will be expected to never talk bad about her and emulate her by working long hours and never complaining. All of her new hires are her “friends” aka loyalists from other stations. It’s less like working for a news director and more so working for a cult leader. For those that don’t like pretending like they are in cult just to survive, she is pushing them out the door by making their lives miserable or demoting them. She likes to say the following all of the time: You are either with her or against her.
Kay is also extremely religious and will shove God and the bible down your throat any chance she can get. She must mention prayer, God, and the Bible 1,000 times a day. If she knows you are religious, she will use it against you. Kay told one employee she thought she was a “God-fearing” woman and “someone like that” shouldn’t be concerned with officially having a job title (having it publicly announced), even though that person was already promised the job.
She is also very terrible with communication. New hires will show up out of nowhere without an email from Kay, others will disappear with no word from Kay. An evening anchor team and morning team was swapped, with no words/explanations from Kay. The lack of communication creates rumors and stirs distrust.
The chief meteorologist John Carroll is the other decision maker in the newsroom. He is also a snake in the grass. He is constantly rolling his eyes behind the news directors back about decisions and griping about adding extra shows for severe weather, really he will gripe about any decision that isn’t made by him. He rules his weather team with an iron fist (micromanager, much?) and talks bad about his weather people to anyone who will listen. The worst is how much he hates the morning meteorologist and how uncomfortable that makes everybody else. He will openly talk bad about him in the middle of the newsroom and do everything in his power to make the morning meteorologist mad. He openly talks about wanting the morning weather guy fired to anyone who will listen.
John is very similar to Kay in that he has no life outside of work (no spouse, kids, hobbies, nothing) and will work long hours and work on the weekend. But you better believe he is going to tell everyone about how long he worked, even though it is voluntary and it’s because he has nothing to go to at home. He expects his weather team to be the same. Every time anybody on his team requested vacation days or called out sick, he would complain to anybody who would listen and would always remind people that he never takes vacation days. He would also imply his employees that took sick days were faking an illness. In conclusion, if you are going to take a spot on the weather team, be prepared! You have been warned.
The GM Arika Zink makes zero sense with her decisions. She is a nice lady, but incredibly incompetent. She keeps toxic and/or lazy managers around in and outside of the newsroom who are hurting the station and its employees. Arika not only keeps them around, but she also PROTECTS them. The HR violations that happen at WFXR are horrendous.
The station needs managers who are going to clear the air, be true leaders and leave the politics and games at home. The station needs someone who will want to win and will constantly encourage their employees to be better. They need a leader who believes and trusts them. Truly, Nexstar needs to replace the GM, ND, and every other department head that is there right now with new energy and proven leadership. Until that happens, stay far away from WFXR.”
Thank you RateMyStation.com for writing this article about this matter which is ongoing for many entry-level job seekers and college graduates that can’t seem to catch a real, genuine break in local TV news. I strongly wish that all news directors are real, authentic, and genuinely honest with entry-level job seekers whether they can truly help entry-level job seekers that genuinely wants to be a reporter/MMJ, but are getting interviews for producers roles or the news director just want them as a “producer” claiming they can do news reporting on their time when there is no time. Thank you for writing this. I wish that all starter-market news directors (even the good ones in the good/best starter stations) are completely open, frank transparent, sincerely, truly, authentically, and genuinely honest with entry-level job seekers. There should more additional conversations about this and especially on why news directors and others keep saying to people “to be a producer in order to be a reporter” or making an attempt to offer someone a producer job when the job candidate’s passion is to be a reporter.
This particular matter is not discussed at all J-schools (journalism schools) and the J-School professors (full-time and adjunct) and all other faculty members there as well as in colleges and universities knows the real truth. Same thing goes for on-air demo reel companies, such as Reel Media Group, American Broadcast Talent, and Showcase Resume Tapes, TV agents, TVSpy.com, FTVLive (Scott Jones), executive producers at all markets, and news assistants, desk assistants, and news associates jobs at national media outlets like NBC News, CNN, CBS News, ABC News, FOX News, and PBS NewsHour . Each one of them all know the real truth!
Again, thank you, RateMyStation for shedding the light on this. There must more discussions and conversations about this ongoing matter which is neither fair nor right to entry-level job seekers and job candidates.
I know some people who went from producer to reporter but it doesn’t happen very often. I love producing though and hate the idea of reporting
Hello ProducerMaddy, thank you for your comment. I just wish that news director, assistant news producers, general managers, and executive producers, and professionals in the local TV news industry are completely open and honest with entry-level job seekers, college students, and college graduates. Especially, all news directors and assistant news directors at all starter (small) market stations. I wish they were honest. Even WCAV-TV CBS 19 News in Charlottesville, Virginia even had newscast producers (morning producers and evening producers), news editors, and photojournalists made the move to news reporter roles and news anchor roles at CBS 19 News. The news director, Val Thompson has done this recently and in previous years (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013). I wish that he too is truly honest will all parties especially job seekers who genuinely want to be a television news reporter/MMJ, but have no intentions whatsoever of being a producer despite producing a college newscast and does not want a news producer/news management career, and simply wants to be a reporter. It is not fair to entry-level job seekers, college students, and college graduates to be deceived, lied to, tricked, conned, and cheated by news directors in all starter market stations. News directors in all starter market stations, help production assistants, newscast producers, entry-level job seekers, entry-level job candidates, college students, and college graduates be on-air news reporters/MMJs, especially if their undergraduate journalism school, undergraduate college or undergraduate university have very limiting options for students, and those who went to compile a reel with a third-party on-air demo reel company, such as Reel Media Group (This company is NOT a professional journalism organization. It is an ON-AIR DEMO REEL SERVICE!) and American Broadcast Talent A third-party on-air demo reel service company is NOT A PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM ORGANIZATION. IT is NEITHER SPJ, NPPA, IRE, AAJA, NOR NABJ. It is JUST a third-party on-air demo reel service company that simply wants $1,000 dollars to provide a demo reel that is not landing the vast majority of job seekers into an on-air television news reporter/MMJ job at a local starter small-market television station in the United States. Starter market stations and news directors, HELP US COLLEGE STUDENTS, COLLEGE GRADUATES, ENTRY-LEVEL JOB CANDIDATES, AND ENTRY-LEVEL JOB SEEKERS. WE NEED SERIOUS HELP!