WFBM-TV Channel 6, the precursor station to WRTV-TV, moved operations to 1330 N. Meridian St. in 1951. (IBJ photo/Dave Lindquist)
Circle City Broadcasting LLC terminated the jobs of more than 50 staff members at WRTV-TV Channel 6 on Tuesday, according to an employee affected by the cuts.
Circle City Broadcasting, the parent of Indianapolis TV stations WISH-TV Channel 8 and WNDY-TV Channel 23, completed its acquisition of ABC affiliate WRTV a few hours before notifying WRTV staff members they were out of work.
According to Frederick Bunzendahl, who worked as a creative services specialist at WRTV, fewer than five of roughly 60 WRTV employees were invited to join Circle City Broadcasting.
DuJuan McCoy, owner and CEO of Circle City Broadcasting, told IBJ that Tuesday’s personnel cuts did not affect all WRTV employees. He declined to say how many employees were retained.
“We were able to offer immediate positions to several WRTV employees whose skills and experience we had the opportunity to properly evaluate,” McCoy said in an email. “Those employees also have the choice and the right to decline our offer and pursue employment elsewhere.”
McCoy said former WRTV employees are welcome to apply for open positions at Circle City Broadcasting.
“However, they will need to participate in our interview and evaluation process, and they will be considered alongside all other qualified candidates,” he said.
The company announced on Tuesday afternoon that it completed its purchase of WRTV from Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC for $83 million.
Bunzendahl said Scripps leadership sent emails to WRTV employees indicating that health insurance coverage had been terminated as part of the sale. As WRTV staffers awaited updates about being added to Circle City Broadcasting’s health insurance coverage, most learned they were part of a mass layoff after attending a 5:15 p.m. meeting with human resources representatives of Circle City Broadcasting.
McCoy said WRTV will move operations from its building at 1330 N. Meridian St. to the WISH and WNDY building, 1950 N. Meridian St. He said the transition in location and staffing will take months to complete.
The first WRTV newscasts following the sale have featured WISH news personnel and touted the station as being locally owned and operated.
While Scripps is based in Cincinnati and owns more than 50 local TV stations, McCoy is an Indianapolis native who graduated from Ben Davis High School and Butler University. He presently lives in Houston.
McCoy founded Circle City Broadcasting and acquired WISH and WNDY in 2019 for $42.5 million after divesting himself of five stations — including two in Evansville — that he owned through his company Bayou City Broadcasting. WISH is affiliated with the CW network. WNDY is affiliated with MyNetworkTV.
McCoy posted on Facebook on Wednesday that Circle City Broadcasting will be “expanding the amount of local news aired on WRTV-ABC Monday through Friday in the mornings, as well as on weekends — areas that were previously underserved by the former owner.”
McCoy said that WRTV had been airing about 23 hours per week of local news, which he said was “a mix of live and recorded telecast.” By contrast, he said, WISH “already produces more than 90 hours of live local news and entertainment programming each week.”
He after a transition period of a few months, he expects WRTV to increase to 30 hours of live local news and entertainment programing per week, which he said would be distinct from WISH’s content.
McCoy did not address the layoffs in his statement — or say whether the company will add staff to achieve his local programming goals.
Circle City Broadcasting’s second mass departure
Bunzendahl joined WRTV’s staff in January. From 2023 to 2025, he worked as a promotions producer for Circle City Broadcasting property WISH.
He lost his job at WISH in September after declining to sign a contract addendum featuring revised noncompete language. More than 20 staffers quit or were fired under similar circumstances.
At the time, former employees told IBJ they believed Circle City Broadcasting was motivated to present the noncompete addendum because of litigation involving a former station meteorologist.
On Wednesday, Bunzendahl said his thoughts were with longtime WRTV employees.
“I know an engineer who has worked there since 2005,” Bunzendahl said. “He has a family and he’s an IBEW union member. Then he’s just gone. A lady in sales has been there for 30 years, and her husband has Stage 4 cancer. She found out her health insurance was cut 30 minutes before she was fired, with no prior communication.”
McCoy said severance packages were offered to WRTV employees who lost their jobs Tuesday, but noted that “some recently hired WRTV employees may not have been eligible for severance due to their limited time with the company.”
Bunzendahl expressed misgivings about WISH’s news operation taking over WRTV’s coverage with little carryover from Channel 6’s pre-acquisition staff.
“I think it’s important to have multiple voices, and now it’s just going to be the same stories and the same editorial decisions on two stations,” Bunzendahl said. “I don’t think any ethical journalist truly believes that’s good for the community.”
Multiple WRTV on-air personalities posted on social media that they were not being retained by Circle City Broadcasting and were no longer employed.
Chief meteorologist Todd Klaassen, who joined WRTV in December 2009, said on Facebook that “essentially the entire staff was let go.”
Morning news anchor Kaitlyn Kendall, who joined WRTV in November 2021, said on Facebook on Wednesday that she didn’t anticipate the layoffs: “Yesterday, when I said ‘Good Morning, Indiana,’ I didn’t know it would be the last time I’d get to say those words.”
Meteorologist Kyle Mounce, who joined WRTV in May 2013, said on Facebook that “the staff at WRTV was shown the door today, as new management took over.”
Weekday evening anchor and reporter Nicole Griffin, who started at WRTV in April 2017, said on Facebook that Tuesday was her last day at WRTV.
Community Reporter Nico Pennisi, who joined WRTV in 2022, said Tuesday evening that “I am officially unemployed. I just received this news minutes ago.” He posted a letter from Circle City Broadcasting that said he “was not being hired” by the company.
5 stations, 2 owners
Not all activity will cease at WRTV’s Meridian Street building. Bunzendahl said he learned that Scripps will continue to operate a “master control hub” in which technicians manage telecasts for multiple stations for the next 12 months.
The single-day layoffs at WRTV rank as the largest in Indianapolis television since 2019, when more than 30 employees lost their jobs after Nexstar Media Group Inc. purchased CBS affiliate WTTV-TV Channel 4 and Fox affiliate WXIN-TV Channel 59.
In March, Nexstar won regulatory approval to buy rival company Tegna in a $6.2 billion deal. As part of the merger, Nexstar is expected to divest six TV stations, including WTHR-TV Channel 13 in Indianapolis.
For the expected time — up to two years — after Nexstar acquires Tegna, five Indianapolis TV newsrooms will be owned by two companies: Nexstar (WTTV, WXIN and WTHR) and Circle City Broadcasting (WRTV and WISH).
WRTV is the successor to WFBM-TV Channel 6, which signed on as Indiana’s first television station in 1949. WFBM moved operations to 1330 N. Meridian St. in 1951.
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