Valenta ankles KNBC-TV post
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Valenta's departure had been rumored for months, but station general manager Reed Manville had repeatedly denied that she was on her way out.
No immediate replacement was named for Valenta, who has held the post since March 1990. A station spokeswoman said managing editor Ken Boles and exec producer Nancy Bauer would handle Valenta's duties on an interim basis.
Among the candidates mentioned as possibilities for the job are Joel Cheatwood, a former Fox TV Stations vet who went back to Fox affil WSVN in Miami to head the top-rated indie news operation in the country, and Bob (Suitcase) Jordan, news director of KING-TV in Seattle (who turns up on the short list for many major-market jobs).
Valenta's exit follows one of the most dramatic downturns for a Los Angeles O&O in recent memory. Over the past two years, the station has gone from a solid first-place standing in the market to a neck-in-neck battle for second place in the early evening news race with KCBS-TV.
The CBS O&O in Nielsen is breathing down KNBC's back at 5 p.m. and pulled out front at 6 p.m. by a wide margin last month. KABC-TV, meanwhile, has widened its lead.
The ratings slide has coincided with declining morale at the station--the result of a cost-cutting effort, the exit of many of the station's news vets and the anchor shuffle that made room for Paul Moyer, who joined KNBC in June for the mind-boggling sum of nearly $ 9 million over six years.
Some insiders have said that Pate--not Valenta--has made many of the critical decisions, including anchor pairings.
One source suggested that anchor Wendy Tokuda's rapid rise from weekends to the prime 5 and 11 p.m. assignment with Moyer was the result of Pate's influence. Both Pate and Tokuda were vets of KPIX-TV in San Francisco.
