Ft. Smith Station to Move Out of Ft. Smith
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Many employees don't want it to happen, but it looks like it will.
Ft. Smith's KFSM is getting ready to build a new studio miles away in Northwest Arkansas.
Van Comer, the station’s longtime general manager, confirmed the station has signed a long-term lease for a build-to-suit project in Johnson, just east of Interstate 49.
Comer said the building will be approximately 23,000 square feet and he is hopeful to begin construction in April.
“We think we can be in a position to move into the new building about this time next year,” Comer said. “It’s an aggressive, but worthy, goal.”
Stations insiders tell FTVLive that Comer has yet to address his employees regarding the move, except for 2 vague emails regarding the singing of the lease.
"He has yet to address the employees personally," one staffer tells FTVLive.
Comer, who acknowledged the station’s interest in growing its operations in Northwest Arkansas more than two years ago, was non-committal on whether the Johnson studio would replace Fort Smith as the station’s primary studio for originating newscasts. A handful of KFSM’s most recognizable on-air talents — anchor Daren Bobb and meteorologist Garrett Lewis, for example — live in the Fort Smith metro. Sports director Bobby Swofford lives in Fayetteville, as do Comer and several other off-air executives.
KFSM and its sister station, KXNW-TV have about 110 employees, Comer said. The new building is being designed for approximately 100 workers.
“We are going to produce [news] from both studios,” Comer explained. “There’s going to be a time to transfer more staff to Northwest Arkansas when the facility is completed, and yes there will be some commuting and back and forth. But at the end of the day, our plans are to have both locations with [primary production] capabilities. Both markets are critical to our growth, but Northwest Arkansas…we all know about the growth in this region and this expansion is a reflection of that.”
Sounds like to us that the station will be moving most of the operations to the new bulding.
One staffer tells FTVLive, they hope the deal to build falls through and the station stays where it is.
H/T Talk Business
