The more things change, the more they're unlike they were before. Such is the world of the news department at WCIA, where Morning Show anchor Jennifer Hendricks is saying adios and weekend anchor Elizabeth Wenger will soon follow. Wenger will be off to the Carolinas for a new gig, while Hendricks is taking a PR job at Carle. These two are talented young women who are going to do very well at whatever they do, but it also continues the trend of popular anchors and news talent jumping ship from a station where familiarity used to be the order of the day. Sure, there's Judy, and Jennifer Roscoe has been around for over 10 years. Beyond that, however, there aren't many sticking around. Considering the fact that Michael Marsh, Matt Metcalf, Chris Widlic, Mike Cleff, Gabrielle Martin and Trisha Shephard, among others, have all left, what does that say about Nexstar? It says to me that they aren't that serious about building and maintaing a strong news department that is able to develop a relationship with the counties they rely on for an audience. They'll keep a few cogs in place and let the rest go, but at what cost to the long term of the station? If they don't care about their staff, why should we still care about them?
Similar changes have occurred at WICD, as Aubrey Mika and Andrew Miller were jettisoned for fresh faces, so it's not that Channel 3 is the only one shifting talent. It's just that they haven't held the sphere of influence that WCIA has in the past, making their changes seem less maligned to the viewing public, at least in my opinion.
Unfortunately, as media conglomerates are slowly buying up TV markets across the US, these changes are becoming the order of the day. It's no longer as important to service the interests of the viewers as it is to fill the pocketbooks of the parent company, conveniently located many states away.
