WGRZ-TV (Channel 2) General Manager Jim Toellner is a Trekkie.
He would return home from Niagara Wheatfield High School as a teenager and turn on reruns of the classic series “Star Trek” in which William Shatner starred as Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock and DeForest Kelley as McCoy.
As he is about to give up command of WGRZ after more than 19 years, the 63-year-old Toellner used “Star Trek” references to explain why he has picked April 1 as his time to retire.
“As a boomer, there are pop-culture references,” said Toellner in a recent interview over lunch. “I’m a big ‘Star Trek’ fan, it was very prescient in the way it depicted environmental issues, race relations. I swear they predicted the pandemic because notice no one ever shakes hands in ‘Star Trek.’
“When I first became GM I think, I was a lot like Spock, I was very data driven in my decisions, very unemotional,” added Toellner. “As we got a lot better, I tried to channel more like Kirk, a little more expressive. I knew what the ship could do, I know the things I should tell Star Fleet Command and the things I shouldn’t tell Star Fleet Command. But lately, I’m just getting all emotional and cranky like McCoy, so I know it’s time.”
People are also reading…
His time at WGRZ started when the station was deep in third place in local news ratings. It is a credit to Toellner's leadership, eye for talent and creativity that at one point several years ago WGRZ took over first place from WIVB-TV (Channel 4). WIVB has since regained the household ratings lead, and the two stations now compete for local news supremacy.
Toellner spreads the praise around for the station's ability to boldly go where it hadn't before he became GM. He calls rebuilding WGRZ “team and station successes.” He gave his predecessor, Darryll Green, credit for providing some positive momentum.
“My greatest success was to be able to retain a lot of talented people around me who were focused on our mission and lived our brand, ‘2 on Your Side,’ ” said Toellner. “Anything we do to help this community or shine light on injustices or hypocritical politicians, holding people in power accountable.”
He credits several behind-the-scenes personnel for the station's success, including Mark Manders, the general sales manager recently named his successor; former news director Ellen Crooke; Jeff Woodard, who recently returned for a second stint as news director; and marketing director Dan Meyers.
He also credited a laundry list of present and past on-air talent.
“Scott Levin and Maryalice Demler were here before me, but we kept them together. Adam Benigni, Patrick Hammer, the morning team, Jodi Johnston, Melissa Holmes, Pete Gallivan, John Beard. Maria Genero. I’m probably leaving someone out.”
Kevin O’Connell? “You’d include Kevin O’Connell, he was there a long time. He was a big part of our success. And Ed Kilgore, too, in the early days. A lot of reporters. I think about (the late) Scott Brown and how much we miss him. The difference he made. Dave McKinley, great new talent like Kate Welshofer, even though she has been here almost five years now.”
WGRZ has also created several local shows during Toellner’s reign, some more successful than others. The successes include “Most Buffalo, “Sports Talk Live,” "WNY Living” and the recent 5:30 p.m. “Town Hall” created during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The misfires include a political show, “2 Sides,” a late-night comedy show “Late Night in the Buff” and a psychic show with Karyn Reece, which moved to WBBZ-TV with a live audience.
Toellner knows he will miss some things about the job.
“The daily interaction with all of the people on the team,” said Toellner. “All the action. No day is the same, every day is fascinating and different. A new set of challenges and successes.”
He won’t miss the 150 emails he gets daily or the sleepless nights about human resource issues, difficult news stories that require attorneys to look at them, budget and business issues.
“There is always a pending business issue that seem a lot more perplexing at 3 a.m.,” said Toellner.
One of his more difficult days concerned the public DWI charge against meteorologist Patrick Hammer almost seven years ago in his early days at the station.
“His transparency and the seriousness in which he handled it made me feel confident that after his time away from the station he’d be good,” said Toellner.
Then there was the time a newly hired personality called to say he couldn’t make it to work because he was being held in an Atlanta airport jail after a legal paperwork issue.
“I just hired the person and I thought, 'What have I done?' ” said Toellner, laughing about the incident now.
“It is fun but it ain’t easy,” he said of the job. “There is a lot of stress involved. Whenever you are partially responsible for 120-125 people and potentially their families it never is without stress and worry.”
Some of his toughest calls concern having to fire someone.
“Some are obvious, some are not,” said Toellner. ”When we have to shut down a show, that is never fun.”
He is an optimist about the future of local TV, saying that local news viewing levels have held up very, very well given the decline in prime time.
He references Logan Roy (played by actor Brian Cox), the media tycoon and father on HBO’s “Succession,” when thinking about the TV business.
“He has it right when it comes to investing in television stations, not on the other 90% of the stuff he says,” Toellner said while laughing.
“The financial health of the local TV industry is very, very, very strong and will be for the foreseeable future. There are a lot of people still buying stations," he said. (Tegna, WGRZ’s owner, was recently sold to Standard General). "I think local TV news has a great future. And I think more localized programming is the future.”
He said the decline in prime time makes it more difficult than it used to be to promote and attract new news viewers.
“Back in the day, if I was trying to attract Ch. 7 viewers, I would have ‘Law & Order’ and ‘ER,’ powerful platforms outside of our news to attract those viewers.”
He noted that Buffalo also was ready for the “2 on Your Side” journalistic approach when the news turnaround began.
“Buffalo was really not in this renaissance track then so there was a lot of frustration from viewers that things just weren’t getting moving,” explained Toellner. “And we were able to identify a lot of those problems and bring them out to the light.”
Many people on social networks feel WGRZ brings them to the right.
Toellner laughed before pushing back at the suggestion the station is slanted politically.
“We get complaints from both sides,” he said. “Because our color is red some people mistakenly think that is some sort of political stance. Obviously, it was not. It is their right to interpret what they hear but we always strive for balance. Our editorial meetings have debates about balance all the time.”
On his last day, Toellner’s plan was to balance his emotions as he prepares to say his heartfelt goodbyes and continue to live long, and prosper.
“I’m hoping to keep my emotions in check,” said Toellner. “I have grown close to a lot of people and have respect for a lot of people in the station.”
He looks forward to his future away from television, with these famous words from Spock seeming to be appropriate: “Change is the essential process of all existence.”
