BusinessReport.com

Once Nick Simonette decided to accept Raycom Media’s offer to leave his post as general manager of local ratings powerhouse WAFB-TV and take the reins at its newly acquired station in Charlotte, N.C., company brass wasted no time in moving him up and out. He accepted the promotion on a Friday; by noon Monday he was already settling into his new digs at WBTV-TV.

“It was one of those things that was too good to pass up,” says Simonette, who is moving up from market No. 94 to No. 25. “I couldn’t say no.”

There’s no official explanation for the apparent haste with which the executive transfer was made. But Raycom just recently acquired WBTV, bringing to 44 the total number of television stations it owns around the country, and it may not like that its Charlotte affiliate is running second in a very competitive market.

That’s very unlike the market Simonette left here, where WAFB has trounced the competition for the better part of the past two decades. The most recent Nielsen ratings, which were measured in February, are no exception to that rule. Among adult viewers in the area, WAFB had a rating of 19 at 6 p.m., compared to WBRZ-TV’s 11 and WVLA-TV’s 1. At 10 p.m., the station had a 21, compared to WBRZ’s 9 and WVLA’s 1. In other words, more than twice as many viewers were watching the station’s late news than the other two stations combined.

Whether those phenomenal ratings will continue in the post-Simonette era is of little debate, at least for now. No major shakeups or shifts in direction are expected—with the exception of the previously announced hiring of André Moreau to replace longtime anchor George Sells at 10 p.m.—especially given that several insiders have applied for the top job. Raycom execs have said they hope to name the new GM before the May ratings period.

Simonette wasn’t the only recent departure from WAFB. Weekend anchor and veteran reporter Avery Davidson left the same week his boss did to take a position in the communications department at the Farm Bureau. In his new job, Davidson will be working in public relations and also working on the bureau’s Sunday morning show, This Week in Louisiana Agriculture, which is produced in-house.

Like Simonette, Davidson swears he wasn’t looking around but found himself faced with an offer too good to pass up. “I’d still be at WAFB, perfectly happy,” says Davidson, a nine-year station veteran. “But this was the right thing to do at the right time.”

For now, other anchors and reporters on staff will take turns keeping the weekend anchor chair warm until a permanent replacement is chosen.

Making his pitch

Speaking of faces on TV, you might have noticed the familiar mug of Mayor Kip Holden on local commercials lately. Hizzoner has been pitching ice cream for Kleinpeter Farms Dairy and health insurance for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana.

Though he doesn’t get paid for his cameos, some have questioned whether there’s a conflict of interest for a public official to serve as a pitchman for a private company, particularly an insurance one.

“No way,” scoffs Holden, who says he sees it as a way to help promote local companies and local economic development.

That’s the same argument former New York Gov. George Pataki used three years ago when he caught flack for appearing in taxpayer-financed ads that promoted development in Lower Manhattan. Pataki argued that he was promoting investment in an area of the city that needed it. His political opponents didn’t see it that way, and convinced the state legislature to ban elected officials from appearing in ad campaigns financed by public funds.

This situation is quite different, as private companies pay for the commercials in question. And at least one local expert doesn’t see a problem with it. Kirby Goidel, director of the public policy research lab at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, says as long as Holden is doing it for free and for private companies, the mayor is smart to play up his popularity—and local businesses are wise to use it to their advantage.

Says Goidel: “To me, it makes a lot of sense.”