Taking Shape

Scott Bucholz has been through this before.

The project manager for Time Warner Cable's newest 24-hour news channel in Buffalo helped build master controls and newsrooms in the Local News Division's other ramparts: Texas, Florida, North Carolina.

What's different this time around, in the division's final untapped market in New York State?

"Every one is different in its own way. This one, technically, has the least amount of infrastructure, but nearly as much capacity as the others."

Scott and his crew wrapped up installation and integration in the first days of Febraury. He agrees the Buffalo channel is, in one way, like a nesting doll compared to the larger parts of the set it belongs to across the Empire State. Rochester remains the most independent of the New York channels, Albany, which is the upstate hub for other markets, feeds other markets, as large as Syracuse and as small as Binghamton, Utica and Watertown. Of course, "the mothership," NY1, TWC's original 24 hour news channel, remains the largest in the set.

"The system we're using here (Buffalo) will really be able to do a lot with little." Scott said

A catchphrase that applies to the numbers that will make up the staff of this new channel. The numbers in the Queen City will be backed by the resources of the division's statewide news network. But be sure; this will not be an army. One person in the organization mused it would be more like a sleeper cell.

On the ground, each person in Buffalo will be able to fill any role: anchors become producers, become editors. News assistants will grab a camera to respond to breaking news, or, if they have to, report live from the scene of the story.

The jobs we have in Buffalo offer true security in a turbulent time in our industry, let alone the state of the nation's economy. Both are conditions that do not allow us to blow candidates away with contracts of a lifetime.

We've had the good fortune to meet a lot of media veterans shaken loose by the contracting mainstream media of Western New York. It's been a healthy mix of people with a great deal of experience and others looking toward their second or third markets. After a month of interviews with candidates, we have nearly completed our first staff.


We have been fortunate to find a promising group of emerging journalists. Backpack journalism is all they have known. They embrace it. And by our good fortune, the group may be the most diverse Buffalo television's seen on one news channel.

One-third of the group comes from the Time Warner news group family. Two-thirds of the group is from Buffalo and WNY. Three are from New York State. Another considering joining us knows Buffalo from living in southern Ontario.

They begin arriving this, the second week of February. By month's end, the group will be assembled.

How do you consider hundreds of applicants, interview dozens of them and know you've chosen the right ones to get something new off the ground? My experience has been about listening. Hearing what people want to do, what they believe works.. for them and for television news. Many have said "go with your gut." And maybe looking enough people in the eye helps you know whether they're up for it, or have "it" or even care about the opportunity journalism provides.

Were there close calls? Plenty. Did we find the perfect candidate for any of our jobs? Not one, (including the guy doing the hiring for the place.)

Thank God.

All we found were plenty of people with an entrepreneurial streak capable of checking their egos at the door and working together to get the job done and grow as journalists.

With that, we wrap up the first trimester of this baby. Hope there's no morning sickness with the next.