VILLARREAL LAID OFF BY STAR
What does 17 years of being among the most versatile writers at the local daily newspaper get you? Out of a job if you’re Phil Villarreal, and if those 17 years happened to be spent with the Arizona Daily Star.
“I had worried about layoffs for many of the past several years, but strangely had slipped into a comfort zone, assuming that my job was as safe as any, and that the herd had been thinned out as much as possible for the time being,” said Villarreal in a blog post at becauseItoldyouso.com, referring to the rash of layoffs that gutted the Lee Enterprises property a few years ago.
“As soon as I stepped into the office and saw a higher-up waiting for me, I knew what was going on … I accepted my fate with solemn dignity. Or apathy? I was told I’d be paid for the remainder of the day, receive a last paycheck and lose my benefits at midnight. They asked me to hand over my badge and lanyard and told me they’d box up all the junk in my desk for me and ship it home. The upshot, encased in kindness, was that I’d never be allowed to go anywhere near my desk again. Just like that, it was no longer my desk, but just a desk.
“I was handed a two-page contract that offered me a severance check in return for my signature. To get my hands on that money I would have signed a sworn affidavit accepting responsibility for the Kennedy assassination, the Hindenburg disaster and New Coke, so I didn’t much care about the specifics. Still, I read every word, signed two copies and was escorted to the parking lot by a tiny little security guard who surprised me by not selling me Girl Scout cookies afterward.”
And that was that. In the now typical corporate way of downsizing, where the “fear” of somehow stealing company secrets or taking a hammer or some other device to the desk and its surroundings has made it an acceptable way of conducting business. As if being laid off isn’t degrading enough, it’s now ok to treat the long-time dedicated employee to a security-accompanied trek out of the building.
By eliminating Villarreal’s regional reporter position, the Star also said an unceremonious good-bye to a talented reporter who had transitioned flawlessly through a number of assignments. Villarreal started with the paper as a freelance sports reporter at the age of 18, then became the paper’s movie critic for an eight-year stint until 2009 when the newspaper decided a local film reviewer wasn’t necessary, and opted for syndicated coverage instead. He survived that decision with a general assignment position and later northwest side regional reporter duties.
He received 10 awards from various journalism organizations and even garnered the Star’s Employee of the Year honor in 2003. He continues to write movie and video game reviews in a freelance capacity for COED.com and a personal finance humor column entitled Funny Money at MoneyUnder30.com.
Villarreal has published two books: Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel, released by Skyhorse Publishing in 2009, and the self-published Stormin’ Mormon on the Kindle platform. He plans on distributing numerous other projects on Kindle over the next few years.
KEVT MAKES CHANGES TO LINEUP
KEVT AM 1210 had to make a quick adjustment to its afternoon lineup a few weeks ago when syndicated liberal talker Randi Rhodes announced she was ending her show, broadcast on roughly 35 stations nationwide. To fill the void, Operations Manager Jim Parisi went with Thom Hartmann. Hartmann now airs noon to 3.
But that isn’t the only change on the docket.
Starting Monday, two-time KGUN news director Forrest Carr enters the local talk show foray weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon.
“Forrest and I together, for a five hour block of talk time, is probably the most journalistically strong lineup on radio, maybe in the history of Tucson,” said KEVT Operations Manager Jim Parisi, whose show runs weekday mornings from 7 to 10. “Who needs a kid ripping and reading AP stories when if something ever happens in this town, we have it covered better than anyone has ever had it covered on local radio in this town. I respect the heck out of Forrest.”
Carr has spent a good portion of his career in television newsrooms, including a pair of stints at KGUN TV 9, the second of which came to a conclusion a little over a year ago.
“I’m thrilled with how the station is coming along,” Parisi said. “We have the best local talk lineup in town.”
Additionally, KEVT has agreed to air Arizona State football and men’s basketball games.
“I don’t want to have to rely on just Fox Sports talk programming to bring sports fans in, so I thought that’s hard to pass up. It fit in really nicely with programming,” said Parisi, who balances a mixture of local and national political talk with an overnight and weekend affiliation with Fox Sports Radio. “There are a lot of alums who went to ASU in Tucson, and the last game is Arizona, so I’ll be able to market that game, sell that game, get tickets for that game. Basketball is just fun. I’d rather flip around and hear a basketball game on, and they’ll be playing teams that Arizona fans will want to hear too. I just like being an affiliate of a major college. I haven’t hated a station for carrying the enemy, so hopefully nobody will hold it against us.”
The last Tucson station to carry ASU broadcasts was 1330 AM, which then went by KJLL. That station is now KWFM.
CLARK NAMED VP/GM OF JOURNAL TUCSON RADIO OPERATION
The Journal Broadcast Group has tabbed Leon Clark to head its Tucson radio division. Clark’s broadcast background includes stints as sales manager for online streaming outlet Tunein, CBS Radio Atlanta, Emmis Communications in New York and the CBS radio cluster in San Diego.
“I am honored to lead the Tucson team forward and become part of a broadcast group that shares the same core values that I do,” said Clark in a Journal Broadcast Group press release announcing the hiring. “We have some incredible opportunities ahead of us and I look forward to much success for our Tucson team.”
Clark is the company’s first official hire since Journal decided to separate television and radio managerial roles. Operations Manager Shaun Holly had been handling VP/GM responsibilities on the radio side in an interim capacity.
This article appears in Jul 3-9, 2014.
Sorry to hear about Phil. I thought he was a great movie reviewer when he had that gig and I’ve enjoyed many of his other articles. Good luck Phil and I hope you find another job soon maybe in a better market that will appreciate what you do.
And the Arizona daily Star continues to stink.
Yes, the Az Dark Star sucks. They treat their reporters as bad as the Weekly. Hey, anyone remember the long standing and well noted reporter Tim Vanderpool? He got the same treatment from the Weekly as this Dark Star reporter received. People in glass houses…
…and the Wall Street Journal just suddenly fired up to 40 of its news staff. Maybe all of these dumped reporters can get a job working for Chuck Huckelberry’s dynamic PR machine that has hired scores of reporters to gear up for the next bond election.
Bog Mann: The situation with Mr. Vanderpool was entirely different, starting with the fact that he was a freelancer for the Weekly and not an hourly/salaried employee like Mr. Villarreal. The decision made to no longer use Mr. Vanderpool as a freelancer wasn’t based on “downsizing.”
I worked for a newspaper in New Orleans from 1970 to 2012 (42 1/2 years) and then laid off/forced retired. Started when I was 18 and continued to grow with the company in the advertising dept. The writing was on the wall, like Phil said, but that doesn’t less the blow or disappointment. It’s like being put up for adoption and your parents still live across the street and you see them everyday. It sucks Phil and I understand how you feel.
You guys dumped Tim Vanderpool?? That’s disapponting.
This equally sucks about what happened to Villareal, but that’s a very difficult, ticky line. Talented, no doubt, but would there be any other positions for him to take up? (If the Star is hiring on JournalismJobs.com at the same time as dumping Villareal, thhat is very cruel.) It appears the AZDS dropped his beat. The fact he survived the loss of being the movie reviewer and was able to keep a role at the Star is admirable, but he also ended up a GA reporter in a risky position because of it.
Poor Phil has signed on at KGUN.