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In a year and a half, Emmis Communications has streamlined New Orleans' struggling Fox affiliate WVUE-TV into a cost-efficient operation that has seen improved ratings. Emmis executives give much of the credit for the turnaround to general manager Madelyn Bonnot. Since Bonnot took over as WVUE gm and vp/operation for Emmis in September 1998, she tackled the tough job of scaling back the salaries of many of the news personnel, letting go several staffers in the process. The most recent casualty is sports director Jim Gallagher, who had been with the station for 15 years. Gallagher was unavailable for comment but local press reports said the split was amicable.
"The station is on fire, and it's all because of her," said Greg Nathanson, president of the Emmis TV group, who considers Bonnot to be his right-hand woman. "She had a very difficult job [handling the...