Staying Afloat in Watertown, N.Y.

Welcome to the TVNewsCheck DMA Tour 2009, a rolling trek through four broadcast TV markets from upstate New York to East Tennessee with a look at stations in those markets and what they're doing to deal with tough economic times.

Contributing Editor Price Colman started his journey at WWNY in Watertown, NY., (DMA 177) and then headed south in his RV on Interstate 81, an 846-mile highway that mostly parallels the Appalachian Mountains.

After visiting WHP in Harrisburg, Pa. (DMA 39), he swung east over the mountains to Raleigh, N.C. (DMA 26) and WRAL. Then, following the sun, it was on to WVLT in Knoxville, Tenn., (DMA 59).

At each of the stations, Colman encountered managers showing no signs of quitting.

Mixing years of experience with local savvy, innovative thinking and maybe a dash of desperation, each manager is finding ways to survive the downturn and build a solid foundation for the uncertain future.

One thing is clear: Along the eastern continental divide, broadcast TV is far from done.

Today: WWNY

HARD TIMES, HARD DECISIONS

It's sunny and hot, a near perfect blue sky day in Sackets Harbor, N.Y., with just enough breeze blowing in off Lake Ontario to keep things comfortable.

Cathy Pircsuk, general manager of WWNY, the CBS affiliate in nearby Watertown, is enjoying a relaxed lunch alfresco with station sales manager Patrick Powers and a guest at Tin Pan Galley.

Looking at the busy restaurant, car and foot traffic in Sackets Harbor, the recession gripping the region and the country seems as distant as the lake's horizon line. But it's something that's been in the front of Pircsuk's mind for more than a year.

"Little did we know last summer was the good old days," she says. "What killed us was automotive."

“Little did we know last summer was the good old days,” says GM Cathy Pircsuk. “What killed us was automotive.”

Killed is hyperbole, of course. Business at WWNY and its companion low-power Fox affiliate WNYF-LP is down, but not out. The decline has been particularly tough in smaller markets where the margins have long been tight and the carving has taken not just fat and flesh but muscle and bone.

Factor in the loss of hundreds of area manufacturing jobs over the past 18 months as GM, Alcoa, Acco and Covidian have either shuttered or dramatically reduced operations, and it's no surprise that WWNY revenues for 2008 and the first half of 2009 have been trashed like a theater after a heavy metal concert.

WWNY scratched out a meager 1.5 percent gain in revenue, including political, from 2007 to 2008. Then things got really bad. Through August this year, revenues are down 22 percent, cash flow down a staggering 70 percent.

Projections for the full year are sobering. BIA/Kelsey research put overall revenues for the DMA at $8.9 million for 2008, declining 14.6 percent to $7.6 million in 2009. The DMA ranks 185th in revenues, according to the research.

It could be worse. WWNY could be saddled with debt, as many of the stations and station groups are that were part of the 2005-07 deal frenzy.

WWNY is owned by United Communications Corp., one of the increasingly rare family-owned TV licensees. It also owns KEYC, the CBS affiliate in Mankato, Minn., an even smaller market (DMA 199). The family business is headed by Howard Brown.

The station, Pircsuk observes, not only has no leverage, it rents out space in the downtown Watertown building it owns to bring in some extra cash.

Yet, when it comes to expenses, anything is fair game. The station has cut donations to civic groups and nonprofits, though it still tries to help out with airtime, Pircsuk says.

Other cost-cutting moves: United Communications eliminated the 5 percent 401(k) contribution, although it continues to match employee contributions up to 5 percent; the station is buying used equipment for repair parts instead of buying new equipment; and expensive equipment service contracts have been dropped.

Established in the early 1800s, Watertown is situated in the green, rolling hills of upstate New York. With world-class outdoor attractions including Lake Ontario, the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence River and Adirondack State Park nearby, the area seems more like a recreation and tourism haven than anything else.

Tourism factors into the economy, but manufacturing has long been a pillar. Watertown draws its name from the Black River that tumbles through town and whose hydropower drove industry in the area, particularly in the early 20^th century.

The birthplace of Woolworth's and the corresponding term "five and dime," Watertown once was known for having more millionaires per capita than any other U.S. city.

Signs of the boom times still linger in the Thousand Islands, where palatial homes from that bygone era rise from the rocky cays in the St. Lawrence.