If he can kick the competition in the teeth in one market, give him a try in another!

Word on the street is that the success of the GM at the Raycom station in Huntsville, Alabama is one reason he's supposed to be taking over operations on Union in Memphis. Those familiar with the Huntsville market know that about ten years ago the NYTimes station moved up to dominate news there. They had the brightly colored chopper along with the other brightly colored toys. Sound familiar? Heavy promotion along with solid news reporting and good news teams boosted their numbers in a solid way.
Apparently the Raycom station decided to get serious again about the news business in that market. The man heading that station in recent years has a strong news background, not a sales background and in my opinion, that can go a long way when you're fighting a battle for dominance in the local news business. An example of this is a former ND from down on the river who is now the GM at the NYTimes station in Oklahoma City at KFOR. To my knowledge they are the Number One station there. When big news breaks I'm told the GM in OK City goes in to help man the phones and offer assistance where he can. I'm told he is well thought of by the troops since he knows what he's talking about and doesn't rely heavily on consultants.
So, perhaps the reasoning down in Raycom land is that if this GM can kick some NYTimes rear in Rocket City USA, then maybe he's the man to do the same thing in the Bluff City. I would imagine that some folks in the newsroom are really starting to feel nervous. That's not necessarily a bad thing and it will be interesting to see what everything looks like in about six to nine months on Union. This could shape up to be a bloody fight.