By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – 27-jobs were eliminated at the Empire Sports Network Tuesday. The move was made by its owner, Adelphia Communications.
Adelphia, which continues to recover from bankruptcy, reports that changing economic times for Empire led to the reductions.
In Buffalo, Adelphia's vice president Thomas Haywood said along with the job cuts, they are also scaling back some of the weekday programming hours and eliminating local weekend shows.
Haywood said they were forced to make these "tough decisions" due to a drop in advertising and affiliate revenues.
"It is a difficult situation for these individuals and company," said Haywood. "We need to do this to go forward. We employ 1,700 employees and actually hired 400 additional employees over the last two years. We encourage those individuals that were displaced to apply for additional jobs."
Empire has eliminated its popular "Fan TV" program, but will continue the Empire Sports Report and Buffalo Sabres Hockey broadcasts.
"Sabres will still be on Empire Sports. The pre and post games will be done by Empire," said Haywood. We are looking forward to the hockey season."
Weekday programs will be reduced from five and a half hours to four hours per day.
Adelphia also owns WNSA radio, which is affiliated with Empire Sports, but no cuts were reported at the station.