Sinclair's Oklahoma Problem

FTVLive was the FIRST to tell you that Sinclair was gutting legendary Tulsa station KTUL. The company basically hacked KTUL down to nothing and farmed out the newscasts to sister station KOKH in Oklahoma City.

There were a few people left in Tulsa, including the weather folks. Tulsa and OKC are in the heart of tornado ally and keeping weather people in both markets made sense.

But, the common sense has left the building.

Let me explain.

Griffin, the owner of KOTV (Tulsa) and KWTV (OKC) employs 12 full-time meteorologists statewide (6 in OKC, 6 in Tulsa). In Oklahoma City, KFOR and KOCO both employ teams of 5 meteorologists. KOKI in Tulsa employs 5, and Scripps-owned KJRH employs 4 full-timers.

KTUL and KOKH will have 2 full-time meteorologists on staff for entire state. Joie Bettenhausen is the only full-time meteorologist at KTUL, and the newly employed Konrad Supinski is the only full-time meteorologist at KOKH.

FTVLive told you that KOKH meteorologist Elliot Wilson was sacked after dropping a couple of F-bombs on air. Chief Meteorologist at KOKH Jack Gerfen went on paternity leave at the beginning of severe weather season. The Chief Meteorologist at KTUL, Kevin Coskren terminated his contract just after 1 year at the station. Meteorologist Colton Williams left the station in April, deciding not to renew his contract.

Sinclair management knew that people would be leaving, but didn’t seem to move on filling the open positions.

KTUL’s Joie Bettenhausen has been pulling long shifts since the day Elliot was fired. She has covered weather in both markets, requiring her to come in earlier than her already absurdly early time of 2:45 am, and record weather hits for 2 hours-worth of OKC shows, record radio hits for both markets, prepare website blogs for both markets, record weather cut-ins for both markets, as well as any other preparatory materials before she begins her regularly scheduled duties of covering the "local" weather at KTUL starting at 5:00 am.

This has extended her work days to 10 hours a day (with no paid overtime considering she is salaried), and has eliminated her ability to take off given that there is no coverage of the shift in either market possible. Her work day starts at 2:15 am and she does not see a moment to take a break until 9 am, where she then prepares to record hits for the KTUL lifestyle show, before finally covering the 11am newscast for both markets.

“Their blatant disregard for this being a radically unsustainable working environment is abhorrent and should be condemned by the rest of the industry,” says a KTUL insider to FTVLive. The insider adds, “I do not believe that others in the industry, or even others in the market understand what is happening at KTUL and KOKH. It is abhorrent and unacceptable. Sinclair needs to be called on for gross negligence and abuse of employees, particularly given they have no regard for these stations.”