TV/VIDEO

After months of rumors about several NBC News bureaus in the United States that may be closed or trimmed in staff, the network’s 10-member Houston bureau got the word Monday that it will be cut to a two-person office by January. NBC News said bureau chief Ray Cullin and correspondent Dan Molina will be reassigned to NBC’s Burbank office, but will still participate in news coverage of the Southwest. Six other Houston staffers, including two camera crews, will lose their jobs, but may continue working for NBC as free-lancers. The two staffers remaining in Houston, a producer and a bureau coordinator, will work out of NBC’s Houston affiliate, KPRC-TV. The cuts are part of a cost-reduction effort begun before and continuing after General Electric’s takeover of NBC in 1986. NBC’s Boston and Atlanta bureaus have been rumored to be facing similar cuts, but none currently are planned for either, the network said.