Company Appoints Ray Schonbak Vice President and General Manager; Station's
Local News to Expand
CHICAGO, March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Tribune Broadcasting today announced
that KSWB-TV in San Diego will join the Fox television network effective
Aug. 1. The company also announced that veteran broadcasting executive
Ray Schonbak has been named the station's vice president and general manager.
"This is a huge development for our television group and makes it clear
that the new Tribune is aggressive and willing to move quickly to upgrade our
position in a market, especially when we can improve our financial results
almost immediately," said Ed Wilson, Tribune Broadcasting's president. "We're
not sitting around waiting for the advertising environment to improve, hoping
things will get better on their own -- we're taking action."
KSWB will immediately begin ramping up to air four hours of locally
produced news daily, including a three-hour morning show.
Schonbak has more than 30 years of television experience and was most
recently president of Emmis Television, overseeing the operation of
16 stations across the country in such markets as New Orleans, Orlando and
Portland. Previously, he was instrumental in building the Fox-owned station
group.
"This is like being handed the keys to a cool new car and told to go break
the speed limit," said Schonbak. "The #1 television network, the chance to
build a news department from the ground up, and on top of all that I get to
live in a city that's totally awesome -- 80 degrees, sunny all the time and
right by the ocean. I'll just wear a Speedo under my clothes and be ready to
hit the beach at a moment's notice."
"Fox is a proven winner, and Ray is the right guy to be the new GM," said
Wilson. "He's talented, innovative and has tremendous experience building Fox
television stations. But he's going to be working constantly, so he can
forget the Speedo."
TRIBUNE is America's largest employee-owned media company, operating
businesses in publishing, interactive and broadcasting. In publishing,
Tribune's leading daily newspapers include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago
Tribune, Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.), The Sun (Baltimore), South Florida
Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel and Hartford Courant. The company's
broadcasting group operates 23 television stations, Superstation WGN on
national cable, Chicago's WGN-AM and the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Popular
news and information websites complement Tribune's print and broadcast
properties and extend the company's nationwide audience.
SOURCE Tribune
Gary Weitman, VP-Corporate Communications of Tribune, +1-312-222-3394,
gweitman@tribune.com
