The May - Lecta - Sweet Neighborhood Association

Will This Be The Neighborhood VS.Equity Broadcasting - Part 2

You Might Want To Put On Boots Before You Read This One!

Taken from SWTR on Friday, May 27,2005.
Front page of Business Section
Article By Ben Boulden (bboulden@swtimes.com)

Broadcaster Cuts 10 Jobs

Equity Broadcasting laid off 10 employees at its Fort Smith offices, and a member of its management blames the city.

The jobs — half of them full-time — will go to company locations in Springdale and Little Rock, the company's general manager for the area, Terrill Weiss, said.

Equity owns four stations that broadcast to the Fort Smith and northwest Arkansas areas: Fox-affiliated KPBI; KFDF, a UPN affiliate; WB-affiliated KWFT; and a Spanish-language, Univision broadcaster, KXUN.

Weiss said the Wednesday cuts will take Fort Smith's staff from 25 to 15 and remove about $200,000 or more in payroll from the city.

The cuts occur in "master control," the department that handles the on-air broadcasting, and in personnel that write and shoot television advertising, Weiss said. The former will move to Little Rock and jobs in the latter category to Springdale.


All the laid-off employees will be eligible to apply for the jobs in those cities, but from his conversations with them, Weiss said he expected none to do that because of the necessity of relocation.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors on March 1 voted 4-3 to deny a conditional-use permit that would have allowed Equity to erect a broadcast tower at 501 N. Greenwood Ave., where the company planned to relocate its studio.

Residents of the nearby May-Lecta-Sweet neighborhood opposed the location of the tower.

Because of the denial of a permit and a lack of other options the company considers viable, Weiss said the jobs have to be moved and the personnel laid off.

Fiber-optic cable from the Greenwood location to a remote tower was too expensive at $238,000, Weiss said.

Other options weren't physically possible, he said.

Weiss fixed the blame on the city board of directors and a general atmosphere that is hostile to business.

"I think the pedantic nature of city government is probably the largest, single, overriding factor in the deterioration of the business climate in Fort Smith," he said. "I don't see it as business-friendly."

Dean Kruithof, deputy administrator for the city of Fort Smith, disagreed.

"I don't think it is indicative of our attitude toward existing businesses and helping existing businesses expand," he said.

Perhaps the chief obstacle was the fact Equity already had purchased the property before acquiring the special-use permit needed to put up a broadcast tower, Kruithof said.

Weiss said Equity was given a verbal assurance by Kruithof and Wally Bailey, director of development and construction for the city of Fort Smith, that the tower wouldn't be a problem.

Neither Kruithof nor Bailey recall giving anyone with Equity such an assurance before or after the purchase of the Greenwood property.

Kruithof said he believes satellite dishes, which are allowed, were discussed and possibly a 30-foot tower, but nothing like a 90- to 100-foot tower that Equity later said it needed. He also said for his part he didn't become involved until after the sale.

"Every time I've worked on this, I told them it was going to be the board of directors, not (city staff)," Kruithof said.

Efforts were made to broker an agreement between residents and the business, but no compromise was ever finalized, he said.

Equity has gone ahead and built a studio at the Greenwood location and will continue to keep some business office and other staff there, Weiss said.

Meanwhile, it is tripling the size of the Springdale office and adding jobs there.

"We had an easier time working with the municipality (in Springdale)," he said.

And now the rest of the story.....

It has taken a few months, but Mr. Weiss of Equity Broadcasting has made good on his words following defeat at the FS City Directors meeting in March.
He told us that he would "fight us in the press" because he lost the legal (and in this case - moral) battle.
Those members of the neighborhood and city that have been dealing with Weiss through this whole ordeal expected nothing less. We are very familiar with the way he has verbally attacked our neighborhood calling it a group of low-end drug houses and that nobody would really want to live in such a terrible neighborhood if we had a choice....we're just stuck in our crime-ridden, drug-infested, low-end ghetto of a neighborhood. Oh yeah...and we (our neighborhood) "should consider itself lucky that Equity wants to conduct business here and try to improve our neighborhood".
The fact of the matter is this: Equity bought a building for a use that it was not zoned for and is continuing to set up structures that are probably not allowed in C2 zoning. Feel free to look it up.
Throughout this ordeal, Equity's story kept changing from day to day - and even from minute to minute. It's a broadcast station, no it's a transmission station, no it's offices, no it's an undercover Krispy Kreme.
How about this one: We need 150 ft. no, 85 ft. no, 135 ft. no 68 ft. no, 110 ft. no.....80...ummm...no..wait...

Something else to consider, look at the permit that is taped to the door and then look at what they are actually building in the back. Doesn't exactly match up. And what about those jobs that are being 'cut' and the $200,000 that 'will be removed from the city'. Give me a break.
This is coming from the same source that stated "Equity is a fine company who gives back to the people...you know we gave money to those tsunami victims."
Everyone that I have spoken with that has been involved with this has been disgusted with the way Mr. Weiss, and therefore Equity, conducts business and we would rather not have that kind of 'business ethics' (or lack of) in our city. We encourage Weiss to move his whole operation to Springdale, where zoning and broadcasting regulations are much stricter than here in Fort Smith.
One more thing. Thank you Mr. Kruithof for your hard work and honesty through all of this.