Fox 28 execs leave Elkhart station amid TV industry upheaval

Fox 28 lost general manager Merry Ewing in early June and news director Perry Boxx earlier this month, according to Ralph Oakley, president and CEO of Quincy Media Inc., the station's parent company based in Quincy, Ill.

The shake-up at the Elkhart-based station, which serves the South Bend region's 10-county primary TV market, comes as the Federal Communications Commission is in the middle of an airwaves auction that is expected to create big changes for the local TV landscape. That process is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.

The FCC wants to create more airwave room for smartphones and tablets, and it is looking to TV stations across the country to free up that space, meaning that some smaller stations eventually could go off the air or be absorbed by larger stations. Local powerhouse WSBT, for example, could absorb the Fox affiliate and carry the programming on a digital subchannel, such as 22.2.