WLUV Box Set: Ignited, Consumed, Burned
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Authors: Jayne Blue
Ignited, Consumed, and Burned
WLUV Three Book Box Set
By
Jayne Blue
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These books were previously published as THE
CONSULTANT WLUV BOOK 1, THE ROOKIE REPORTER WLUV BOOK 2, AND THE ANCHOR WLUV
BOOK 3
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the
written permission of the author or publisher, except where permitted by law or
for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses,
places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s
imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
There it was on the front page of the
USA Today
Lifestyle section, the headline more tabloid than news: “Sports Anchor Phil
Strong Marries America’s Sweetheart, Kirstie Pippin!” A picture of the lovely
couple splashed across the paper and included an inset shot of their infant
daughter in a stroller festooned with flowers. With this all over the papers
today, Macy was glad to be in the air traveling instead of in a hotel
hate-reading all of it. And she wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or
enraged that she didn’t even rate a footnote in the coverage.
Thanks to the network’s efficient corporate damage control,
Macy had been out of the way of the happy couple’s fairy tale for months now.
They had obliterated her career as the network’s lead investigative journalist
to make way for the better storyline and bigger stars.
For the most part, her broken heart had mended and then set like
a bone; it was tougher and knit together. She liked it that way. Her heart
matched her head and her head matched her new career path.
Macy checked the directions on her phone. WLUV was a third-place
television news station. The new owner and GM wanted some changes, and so he
hired an outside firm to come in and fix the place. There were only a few big news-consulting
firms in the country, and after being bounced hard out of her network reporting
career, Macy needed a job. Luckily, she had some friends at the firm and that’s
how her second, decidedly less glamorous career was born.
It was now her job to read the research on a floundering
station, offer her advice, and implement plans for fixing things. She traveled
the country nurturing progress at her roster of stations. She used to travel
the country chasing the big stories…but that was before the “Phil Situation.”
She’d been doing so well, not letting it get to her. But the
wedding was this weekend and so she was mentally picking at the scab that had
formed over her old life. Macy struggled to put it out of her mind and
concentrate on her assignment.
WLUV, her newest client, was a mess.
She’d perused their website on the flight from New York. It
was an old station, expanded from radio, like most of the country’s first local
television stations. Based in Grand City, it served the upper portion of
Western Michigan. Television markets were ranked in terms of size; the number
one market in the country was New York, of course. Out of 210 television
markets, total, WLUV ranked 117
th
. In other words, it was small.
And it was a cash-hemorrhaging joke. Its deep-pocketed
owner, Rush Thompson, kept it afloat likely out of nostalgia—or more likely a
tax write-off. His focus was on the growth of the Thompson-Hardaway portfolio,
and so the station managers at WLUV did the bare minimum to keep its network
affiliation and FCC license. It was the first business he’d owned and he couldn’t
bear to just put it out its misery. Instead, he placed his son Wes in charge to
see what could be done with it. After decades of neglect, Wes Thompson was at
least making an attempt to fix things at the station.
Still, Macy suspected it was a case of a silver spoon type
of guy playing with one of his toys. She’d never met him, but she figured that
Wes Thompson was bringing her in so he could flip the station as if it were a
dilapidated house. He’d slap on a new coat of paint, mow the yard, and then try
to convince someone to buy it. Turn a little profit and get out. She didn’t
have a lot of hope that this was a place for real news or talent development.
Her bosses at American News Consulting and Research gave her
a secondary mission with the stations she consulted: she was to scout out good
talent. ANCR could then place the talent with jobs at the other stations in its
client list. That’s actually how the consulting firm had found her, fifteen
years ago, doing local news in a little town just like Grand City.
She had loved her days as a television news reporter, ferreting
out a story, meeting deadlines, and going live to share it with the viewers.
Maybe one or two of the faces she saw on the station's website biography page
had that same passion.
If WLUV was too far gone, she would salvage the situation
and find a few of the meat puppets – lovely name for on-air talent – to pillage.
But before that happened she was committed to doing her best. Though she was no
longer a hard-driving network reporter, she had found surprising satisfaction
in her ability to mentor journalists and add zip to a station. She was going to
try like hell at WLUV just as she did at her other stations, and it was going
to be a challenge—her biggest yet as a consultant.
Macy had low expectations when she pulled into the station’s
parking lot just outside of downtown Grand City, Michigan on that January day.
She was a perfectionist, though and fixing newsrooms was what she did best these
days. She certainly would not make any friends at WLUV, but maybe she could
make a dent in their ratings.
***
Three months earlier …
“You’re sending me
where
?” Wes’s father, Rush
Thompson, was a self-made billionaire, and at 80 years old, he was sharp as
ever. But this suggestion, order, assignment, banishment – whatever it was –
proved the old man was losing it, Wes thought; dementia had set in overnight.
“You’re going to go get your hands dirty at my first
business, WLUV-TV.”
“Where again? Wisconsin?” Wes unbuttoned his suit jacket as
he walked towards the window and glared at one of the many tall bookcases in
the room, “From the time I was eighteen, I’ve done everything your company
needed. As far as getting my hands dirty, I hardly think I’m wet behind the
ears.”
It was true. He helped take his father’s holdings in
Michigan nationwide, then worldwide. They had turned a few media properties
into a billion-dollar hedge fund. Since finishing his finance degree, he had
worked every day to build on what his father started. Hell, he’d burned through
a marriage doing it. Now, at 45 – just when he was ready to take his dad’s
place at the top – he was being sent to the minor leagues.
“Not Wisconsin,
Michigan
! Grand City. I grew up just outside
of there... it’s beautiful. It’s no backwater though; I hear Grand City has all
the things your refined tastes are used to.” Rush and Wes sat in the study.
Books were piled everywhere, and a fire roared, like always, in the fireplace.
Rush Thompson lived more like a college professor than a corporate raider. He
was a student first, a conqueror next, an investor last.
In addition, WLUV was the place that started it all for him.
Thompson Broadcasting turned into Thompson Media, which turned into
Thompson-Hardaway, Inc. A conglomerate with a portfolio from ice cream shops to
microchips.
“I’ve got three sons. And you’ve all learned this business
from the top down.” Rush’s deep voice had gotten gravely in his old age,
perhaps a result of his daily cigar.
“I think you owe us a bit of credit for doing everything we
could – everything you asked – to turn it into what it is.”
“I do, but I have a decision to make. I have to decide what
to do with Thompson-Hardaway after I’m gone. All three of you would make fine
CEO’s, but don’t forget we’ve got the Hardaway heirs out there,” Rush said.
They owned a lesser percentage, but what his father said was true. The Hardaway
siblings had some claim to the top job.
“I’m assigning you and your brothers each a few tasks. I
want to see how you do. No interference from me. At the end of the year I’ll
decide what I want to do.”
“Is this some sort of test? I won’t compete with Sloan and
Max.” Wes loved his brothers. They were competitive with each other but not
cutthroat. Their father had brought them up as a team.
“No, it’s not a competition. In fact, all of the businesses
need help. We need to take a good look and decide whether to save, sell, or shut
down these losers. To be honest, I’m entrusting my favorite business to you.
WLUV has a place in my heart.” Wes’s dad lost focus on the conversation and
seemed to be rolling something around in his memory.
Wes interrupted his father’s revelry, “You first saw mom
there. I get it.”
“Yes, among other things...” he started to drift away again,
but snapped himself back into the study, and looked carefully at his son,
“Listen. You’ve been pretty ruthless since…well, since your marriage collapsed.
I’m worried about you. You don’t enjoy very much.”
The tabloids had nicknamed Wes’s father “The Happy
Billionaire.” He had a twinkle in his eye that couldn’t be extinguished.
“Dad, no one is as lucky as you, to find someone like mom.
And yes, I’m ruthless. But how else do you think we have the majority stake
over the Hardaways?”
“No accident, son, you’re right. I’m proud of that brain you
have—your strategy, your loyalty, your knack for numbers.” He stood up and
walked to the sideboard, reaching for a scotch glass, “You need a change,
though, and you don’t even know it. A change of social circle, a challenge, a
change of scenery, plus it will help me make some decisions.” He poured while
he spoke, and after taking a sip, he stared out the window a few moments before
adding, “I think I know who you and your brothers are. But I also believe I
robbed you.”
“What?” Wes rubbed his forehead. His dad was giving him a
headache.
“You watch. You’re going to love working with people,
lifting up the hood and seeing what makes a small business run. You’re going to
want to fix it if you can. We’ve all been looking at spreadsheets for too
long.” He took a generous sip from his glass, “That’s what I robbed you of, the
guts
of it, the way a company works… or doesn’t. You’ve been on the
phone or on a plane too long. Why don’t you stay on the ground and roll up your
sleeves for a while? Even if you come back after a year and can’t salvage it,
you’ll be a better man for knowing what it takes.”
Wes didn’t have an answer. The old man’s mind was made up.
“You leave tomorrow.”
“I get the sense you’re telling me to get lost, dad.”
“No. It’s the opposite. You know I love you. But you and
your brothers need to find something, and you all need different things right
now…I’m interested to see just what it is, for each one of you.
The man was nothing if not decisive. Wes hugged his dad and
walked out. Apparently, he was headed to Bum Fuck, Michigan, also known as
WLUV-TV in Grand City.
***
Present day…
Wes was three months into his exile at WLUV and so far,
nothing about the place looked promising. He’d spent plenty of time unraveling
the books, but he had no idea how to fix the mess that was on the air each
night.
November ratings were in the toilet as usual, even after Wes
put some money into billboards. WLUV was still a dismal third place, where it
had been for fifteen years. The poor performance meant they had to sell
advertising at rock-bottom prices. A recipe for profitability wasn’t even on
the horizon.
Wes looked over the ratings book again. He knew how to
balance the budget and cut some fat, but how was he supposed to bring the
station out of the 1980s? His few months at WLUV had pretty much convinced him
he’d be selling it when his time was up. Most of his workday was spent lining
up prospects for that eventuality.
Rush would be quizzing him on what steps he’d taken to try
to save the station, so he’d have to go through the motions and at least
attempt to rehabilitate the place. That meant hiring the best news consulting
firm in the country, American News Consulting and Research. They were
effective, even if expensive, but if his father questioned what he’d done to fix
WLUV, the consulting firm would be his answer.
He called out to Mrs. King, his 200-year-old secretary who’d
been at the station since the beginning, “Mrs. King, make sure that Bernie
greets the consultant and brings him up here.”
He heard wrinkled fingers on a hunt-and-peck expedition on
the computer.
“Mrs. King?” He wasn’t sure she could hear anything.
“Yes sir, I’ll tell Bernie to bring the consultant person
here to you,” she yelled back to his office.
Wes put his head in his
hands. For some reason he didn’t have the heart to force Mrs. King into
retirement. She was eligible for sure, 50 years of service. She was in her
seventies, and had no ability to use any modern office software. Even the
facsimile machine was too complicated for her. But she did a good job answering
regular phones and taking messages for him, he’d give her that.
And to be fair, what she lacked in technological know-how
she made up in bakery skills. She brought baked goods to the office for
holidays that only she knew existed, and had a “Happy Birthday” sign in the
lobby for whichever of the station’s 100 or so employees was celebrating that
day. She also knew to whisper the names of the employees into his ear—even if
she did it too loudly, since she could hardly hear. Other than that, he had no
idea what Mrs. King actually did in her 50 years at WLUV. He made a mental note
to ask his dad the next time they talked.
Bernie Manfred was another old-timer, a newsman who’d had
every job in the station at every other station in Grand City. Wes wondered
what the consultant would think of this mixed bag of employees. Working at WLUV
was either the start of a person’s news career or the end of it. Either way,
the ax was going to fall for some of them.
This firm, American News Consulting and Research, was known
to suggest drastic measures and, from what he could see, WLUV needed it. He did
not have a soft spot for lost causes. If the experts thought it was time to
fire, cut, or close up, Wes had no problem with it. Still, he resolved to make
sure the old-timers had a soft landing with good retirement packages. He put in
a call to Thompson-Hardaway’s main offices to get the wheels in motion for
anyone with 15 years or more at WLUV.
