WCTI ABC-12 — the home of our good friends Brian North, Derek Bayne, Wes Goforth, Skip Waters, John Swartz, Annette Newell and Carly Swain — has answered The Free Press’ original report about the merger of the three local TV stations with this story.
Here’s the original story (which has since been edited, but was much funnier here):
Reports in one local newspaper are erroneous about a merger between this station and two other competitors.
It was reported in the Kinston Free Press — a newspaper that’s aligned with the Jacksonville Daily News and the New Bern Sun Journal — that WCTI-TV would merge later this month with WNCT-TV and WITN-TV. Reports of that merger are completely false.
“I don’t know where that report came from, or who could have possibly confirmed it,” said Shane Moreland, news director at WCTI-TV. “But there is no such merger, and there has never been talk of such merger.”
Moreland went onto say that the only place one can see “that red dress” is on WCTI NewsChannel 12 and FOX Eastern Carolina.
WCTI-TV has file a cease-and-desist order against The Kinston Free Press and Freedom Communications, and will be seeking legal action against the newspaper.
The date on the cease-and-desist order is April 1, 2011.
My take: Hilarious! Good to see our friends at WCTI have a sense of humor, too!
Unless they’re serious …!
