Ken Kolker retires

[Big-D]

Today is Ken Kolker’s last day at WOOD TV as he is retiring after 47 years in journalism (radio, print, and television). Congratulations, Ken.

[rawmustard]

Today is Ken Kolker’s last day at WOOD TV as he is retiring after 47 years in journalism (radio, print, and television). Congratulations, Ken.

WOOD-TV's article on his retirement.

[MWmetalhead]

Good read!

Ken seems like a good dude who's interested in reporting the facts, not hysterics.

I will miss his work and wish him a very enjoyable retirement.

He's not the only local journalist who crossed over from print to TV. Barton Dieters (may he R.I.P.) was another.

[DefendTheDen]

All the best Ken enjoy rertirement. I wonder when Henry Hrb will retired although when Ken was hired Henry wasn't doing much reporting. Only see Henry with the promo for Target Team8.

[Feature/writer]

Re: print to TV personnel : I believe Todd Chance wrote for the Grand Rapids Press in the features section before moving on to FOX-17 morning co-host....

[TonySpaghetti]

Todd Chance would come in every friday and record a movie preview segment at Fox17 where he'd spoil the movies back in like 2013/14 before he was on the Mix

[Feature/writer]

Who, if anyone, will replace Kolker on the Target 8 investigative team???

[dwp49423]

Who, if anyone, will replace Kolker on the Target 8 investigative team???

The position will likely go unfilled until the NexStar/Tegna merger is approved or denied and we know if the 8 and 13 newsrooms will be combined or not. I haven't watched 13 News in years but they used to have an investigative team known as "The Watchdogs". My assumption is they would become part of Target 8.

[tommatinmichigan]

Congrats Len

[OneBigFan]

One down two to go and Nextstar can use the storage closet Kolker shares with Henry Erb (been there 50 years) and Susan Samples who is now heading up Target 8 Investigative team.
The days of hard hitting investigating is dead. Now the first question from the corporate overlords is how much do those reporters make and will they offend views/advertisers with a story.

[Big-D]

One down two to go and Nextstar can use the storage closet Kolker shares with Henry Erb (been there 50 years) and Susan Samples who is now heading up Target 8 Investigative team.
The days of hard hitting investigating is dead. Now the first question from the corporate overlords is how much do those reporters make and will they offend views/advertisers with a story.

Yep. Who’s going to be the new Robert Price?

BTW, I’d love to piss on Bob Price’s grave for his destruction of WZZM in the late 1980’s.

[dwp49423]

Yep. Who’s going to be the new Robert Price?

BTW, I’d love to piss on Bob Price’s grave for his destruction of WZZM in the late 1980’s.

The new destroyer of local stations in my opinion is none other than Adam P. Symson, President and CEO of Scripps News Group.

[DefendTheDen]

Yep. Who’s going to be the new Robert Price?

BTW, I’d love to piss on Bob Price’s grave for his destruction of WZZM in the late 1980’s.

The new destroyer of local stations in my opinion is none other than Adam P. Symson, President and CEO of Scripps News Group.

Scripps has its for sale sign up all those cuts means Scripps are sellers in my opinion. Unless the Scripps family does the right thing and fires Adam P. Symson and his board since all they do is say yes to Adam without challenging him and his ideas.

[IndustryIsDead]

Yep. Who’s going to be the new Robert Price?

BTW, I’d love to piss on Bob Price’s grave for his destruction of WZZM in the late 1980’s.

The new destroyer of local stations in my opinion is none other than Adam P. Symson, President and CEO of Scripps News Group.

Scripps has its for sale sign up all those cuts means Scripps are sellers in my opinion. Unless the Scripps family does the right thing and fires Adam P. Symson and his board since all they do is say yes to Adam without challenging him and his ideas.

Their stock has gone from $22 per share down to $3 over the past 4 1/2 years. If that's not fireable I don't know what is...

[MWmetalhead]

BTW, I’d love to piss on Bob Price’s grave for his destruction of WZZM in the late 1980’s.

Late 80s WZZM certainly wasn't as good as mid 80s WZZM, but the product remained pretty good into the first half of the 90s.

I thought Channel 8 at times looked like crap in the first couple years following restoration of the WOOD-TV call letters. I still have nightmares over that hideous fuchsia, red and purple wall paper and the clunky block letter italicized lower thirds with the malformed "8" logo. Whoever was responsible for that on-air look at channel 8 is an incompetent jackass.

Janet Mason and Cheryl Grant are the folks who really sucked the quality out of WZZM's news department.