Blangiardi Fired As General Manager At King Broadcasting

It didn't take long for the new owners of Channel 5 to make their presence felt inside the station.

Yesterday, with the ink still wet on the final sale documents, King Broadcasting's general manager was fired to make way for his hand-picked replacement, an executive who has worked at a KING-TV sister station.

The Providence Journal Co. yesterday took control of KING-TV, making official a purchase announced last March. With yesterday's electronic transfer of funds and the signing of several documents, the East Coast media company also became owners of King Broadcasting's stations in Spokane, Portland, Boise, Twin Falls and Honolulu. Also included in the deal: cable TV systems in the Northwest, Minnesota and California with more than 250,000 subscribers.

Not included in the deal: Channel 5's Rick Blangiardi.

He was replaced by Anthony R. Twibell, whose resume includes five years as general sales manager at KREM-TV in Spokane. Twibell was named general manager of KING-TV; Blangiardi's other functions of overseeing the former King stations will be handled by a Providence Journal executive based on the East Coast.

"Knowing the history of King, its standards over the years . . . knowing the goals they had, I think that helps. I think a lot of those goals are similar to the Providence Journal Co.," said Twibell, who leaves his job at WSYX-TV in Columbus, Ohio.

Ancil Payne, former CEO of King Broadcasting, agreed. "It comes as no surprise (that the Providence Journal Co.) would put their own person in this pivotal position," Payne said. "I was very pleased to see he was selected."

Blangiardi did not respond to a request for comment.

At a time when the local TV stations are tightening belts, Twibell said he has not been given a mandate to put KING's budget on a crash diet.

"I have not been asked to trim anything," he said. "I've been asked to look at the budgets. If there are areas where we can save, look at those; if there are areas we need to spend more, look at those.

"The Providence Journal Co. believes in investing in the station. I wouldn't be here if I thought this was the kind of company that was going to take the station and try to milk it down."

The Providence Journal, hungry to add to its string of stations, looked at WSYX a little over a year ago, Twibell said. Twibell and Providence Journal Broadcasting president Jack Clifford already knew each other from the days they both worked at TV stations in Arizona.

Twibell said it was too early to talk about specific changes at KING-TV.

"I don't believe in coming in from the outside and having instant answers," he said.

Twibell noted, for example, that yesterday would be his first opportunity to watch a Channel 5 local newscast.

Twibell did affirm, though, his belief in the importance of local programming.

"One of the frustrations I had in Columbus was I did not get the support to do additional local programming," he said. "There's a place for well-produced specials, not just on the weekends but in prime time. I think if anything, we'll see a little more of that" at KING.

That would continue a trend shepherded by Blangiardi.

Though he came from a station that aired no nightly local newscast, Blangiardi approved KING's continued expansion in news, even to the point that Channel 5 canceled some Saturday morning cartoons to make room for it.

Blangiardi joined the station as general manager in October 1989, leaving his job as GM at an independent TV station in Hawaii that was also owned by King Broadcasting.

Blangiardi revamped KING's sales staff and hired a news director who has reversed Channel 5's slipping local news ratings. KING managed to increase its revenue last year, Blangiardi has said, even as overall spending on TV advertising in the market declined.