Eight departures at Radio Pilatus, Tele 1, Grips and PilatusToday

Tele-1 presenter Sedrina Schaller already left the TV station in central Switzerland at the end of February. Since the beginning of May, Schaller has been working in team management at German Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Editor Irene Müller left PilatusToday at the end of January for Swiss Regiomedia, where she has been writing and editing for the Luzerner Rundschau since March.

Andrée Getzmann has also resigned. At the news portal PilatusToday, the 40-year-old worked mainly at the desk and was the day manager there. Getzmann "wants to seize the opportunity" and will start at SRF in the online news department on July 1.

Monica Gambuti has also handed in her notice of termination. Gambuti had been working in sales at Radio Pilatus / Tele 1 since 2007.

Primetime host soon away from the microphone

Maik Wisler was on the team at Switzerland's second most listened to private radio station for even longer. The morning show host is leaving the station after 16 years. "I've decided to go full throttle once again," Wisler tells Werbewoche.ch. The 39-year-old will continue to work at Radio Pilatus until the end of July. He can't say where he's moving to yet: "I'm totally into entertainment, and in this sector I've now received an offer tailored to me that I'm extremely excited about!" Whether his new employer will be Energy Lucerne, which will be launched in AugustWisler left it open. Roger Spillmann, Chief Radio Officer of Energy Group Switzerland, also doesn't want to be seen in the cards yet. "We will provide information about the Energy Lucerne team in due course."

Also on the move at Radio Pilatus is editor Giulia Jung, and in the TV division Remo Krapf and David Ramseier will soon be leaving CH Media. Video editor Krapf is joining his father's glaziery, and advertising producer Ramseier will only be working at Grips, CH Media's video and audio production company, until the end of June.

Team not satisfied with wages

Since 2015, David Ramseier has been responsible for public reports for clients from the Lucerne region at Tele 1. The 36-year-old has now resigned to work as a multimedia producer at a bank in Zurich. As Ramseier says, he had not been satisfied with the salary at CH Media for some time. "They were always demanding more from us, but weren't accommodating the team in terms of wages."

"Job changes are part of every professional life and are also important and right, so that the employee can further expand his or her wealth of work experience," says Florian Wanner, the radio manager at CH Media. In the case of the employees mentioned, the reasons for changing jobs are individual.

But if you listen to the employees of Radio Pilatus, PilatusToday, GRIPS and Tele 1, you will register a certain dissatisfaction. Team members at Radio Pilatus in particular complain, for example, that since the departure of long-time CEO Joachim Freiberg, there is no longer any sense of leadership. The accusation is that nobody knows what's going on in the back and vice versa, which repeatedly leads to major problems. After 23 years as CEO of Radio Pilatus, Joachim Freiberg had played a major role in shaping the Central Switzerland radio station, explains Florian Wanner. "When new management takes the helm after such a long time, it inevitably leads to changes in leadership."

Not physically present in Lucerne

The Head of Radio at CH Media does not have an office in Lucerne and, according to the team, is only very rarely seen on the premises of the Maihof in Lucerne. Because Wanner is responsible for a total of nine radio stations at the media group's five locations, he says, it is not possible for him to be physically present at every site every day. "However, I am in regular contact with all sites and always have an open ear for the concerns of every employee," the 32-year-old emphasizes to Werbewoche.ch.

At each of the CH Media locations, there would be an editor-in-chief (Matthias Oetterli in Lucerne), an editorial manager Radio/Today (Yanik Probst in Lucerne), a program manager (Thomas Zesiger in Lucerne) and a sales manager (Sascha Vonesch in Lucerne). They would be responsible for the media on site and would be the direct contact persons for the employees.

Is too much being expected of employees?

Some people at CH Media's electronic units are apparently suffering from the trimedial work. Today, they have to do radio, TV and the Internet at the same time, which repeatedly leads to great stress. Is Wanner asking too much of his staff? With the expansion of the Today portals, convergent editorial teams have been continuously introduced at the respective locations. Pilatus Today went live a year ago in March (Werbewoche.ch reported). The main difference, he says, is that a story that used to be produced for one vector is now played on all three. "Here, however, we are mindful that employees are deployed where their skills lie," explains Florian Wanner. "The well-being of our employees is our top priority."

Florian Wanner has been responsible for Radio Pilatus since November 2019, and PilatusToday was added in March 2020. Colleague Pascal Scherrer, Head of TV Regional, is responsible for Tele 1. As Wanner further notes, all eight departures at Radio, TV and Online will be newly filled.