POLITICAL PR IS NOW HER THING
Former Flint, MI weekend anchor now a senior press secretary
Category: Life After
FORMER NEWS ANCHOR BECOMES JACKSONVILLE’S FIRST FEMALE MAYOR
She’s also only the second Democrat elected to the office in the last three decades
HANGING OUT HIS SHINGLE
Longtime sports and news anchor takes on the title of “coach”
LIFE AFTER TV GETS BUSY
Former Atlanta anchor opens social media marketing business
RETIRED HOUSTON ANCHOR NOW A COMMERCIAL PITCHMAN
Being a familiar face no doubt helps
HE WALKED AWAY AFTER EIGHT YEARS
And he's now a happy guy
FORMER TV REPORTER TURNED ELECTION TRUTHER WINS PRIMARY
Mark Alford, who for 23 years worked as a reporter/morning anchor for Nexstar’s WDAF in Kansas City, MO before deciding tv news was bad…really bad….prevailed with 35% of the vote in a crowded field ...
TWO TV NEWS CASTOFFS TAKE US BEHIND THE SCENES
When CBS swept through its news divisions back in 2020, casting bodies aside like rose petals, we’ll wager they never dreamed a couple of their castoffs would resurface to peel back the layers of ...
CENTRAL PA ANCHOR LEAVES TV NEWS BEHIND
Matt Maisel spent roughly 15 years in the tv news game, starting at WJAC in Johnstown PA as a sports reporter and eventually moving to Tegna-soon-to-be-Standard Media’s WPMT in Harrisburg, PA where he made ...
AN EMOTIONAL GOODBYE
Less than a week after her tear-filled goodbye from the anchor desk at WWL, Tegna-soon-to-be-Standard General’s New Orleans station, Karen Swensen turned up on “CBS Mornings” to talk about what comes next after ending ...
FROM THE “WHERE ARE THEY NOW?” DEPARTMENT…
Last November, Pittsburgh morning tv viewers were stunned to learn of the abrupt departure of morning co-anchor Kelly Frey from Hearst’s WTAE after 21 years with the station. Both Frey and the station issued ...
ANOTHER FORMER TV NEWSER CONSIDERING A FLING AT POLITICS
Cory Hepola, who manned the weekend anchor desk at KARE in Minneapolis from 2015 to 2018 and won a couple of Emmys during his tenure, is now considering a run to be the next ...
FORMER TV NEWS SEES HER FIRST NOVEL OPTIONED BY OPRAH
Charmaine Wilkerson was a reporter at WTNH in Hartford-New Haven several decades back when she left to pursue fiction writing. No bad jokes, please. Wilkerson now finds herself back in the media spotlight with ...
FORMER DES MOINES ANCHOR-REPORTER TURNS TO POLITICS
Sonya Heithusen is hoping that her 17 years as an anchor-reporter on Nexstar’s WHO (plus ten years before that at WOI) in Des Moines, IA translates into votes for her state house candidacy. Heithusen ...
STARTING THE NEW ADVENTURE
Back in November we told you that veteran WTAE reporter Katelyn Sykes opted not to renew her contract after six-plus years and was exiting the station with no job evidently lined up. “Pittsburgh Tribune-Review” ...
HIS EYE IS STILL ON THE SKY
Meteorologist Matt Rudkin left Sinclair’s WSBT back in June after almost ten years with the station to take a job as a flight planner for United Airlines. But his passion to share weather information ...
FORMER ANCHOR ELECTED MAYOR OF CEDAR RAPIDS, IA
Former television anchor Tiffany O’Donnell has been elected mayor of Cedar Rapids, winning a runoff by a more than two-to-one margin. She will replace incumbent mayor Brad Hart, who failed in his bid for ...
THIS POLITICAL THING IS GETTING TO BE A HABIT
And yet another former TV newser has decided to try his hand at politics. This time it is Eric Sorenson, former meteorologist at WQAD in Rockford, IL, and before that, at WREX, who announced ...
BITING THE HAND THAT FED HIM FOR 23 YEARS
We reported to you a couple weeks back that Kansas City morning anchorman Mark Alford headed for the exit at Nexstar’s WDAF after 23 years at the station. Alford, who already had a real ...
CAREER CHANGE
Up until last August, Wilmington, NC viewers regularly saw Bob Bonner reporting the news on Gray’s WECT as he had done for the past two decades. Now, when they see Bob Fankboner speaking on ...
FORMER REPORTER ANNOUNCES CONGRESSIONAL BID
Gail Huff spent 17 years as a reporter at Boston’s WCVB television, even after her husband, Scott Brown was elected Massachusetts governor in 2010. She last worked in tv news at WJLA in Washington, ...
“THE TIME ISN’T RIGHT” TO RETURN TO TV NEWS. BUT….
Former Louisville anchor and meteorologist Lauren Jones has been through quite a bit in the past year….a long struggle with COVID that kept her isolated and off the air, her contract not getting renewed ...
FORMER COLUMBUS REPORTER WANTS A SHOT AT POLITICS
Tom Sussi, a former TV reporter who kicked around the business for nearly thirty years….nearly nine of them in Columbus, OH…and who one time surprised a plumber by jumping out of a bathtub, now ...
FINDING LIFE AFTER TV NEWS
Back in March, Delaine Mathieu abruptly walked away from her anchor chair and 16 years at Sinclair’s WOAI in San Antonio, TX. This was when Sinclair was in the midst of deep personnel cuts ...
ANOTHER FORMER TV NEWSER DECIDES TO TRY OUT POLITICS
Former Illinois news director Nora Baldner is running for mayor of Quincy, IL. She spent four years as news director for KHQA in Quincy (leaving in 2014 at about the time Sinclair Broadcast took ...
FORMER TV NEWSER CHALLENGES AOC
Former CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera (left) is the latest challenger to incumbent Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (oddly enough, on the right). The total number of Democratic primary entrants – including Ocasio-Cortez – now stands at ...
A NEW JOB FOR FISHEL
A year after his rather unceremonious exit from Capitol Broadcasting’s WRAL, former station chief meteorologist Greg Fishel has landed in a new position outside of the business. Fishel is now a senior atmospheric scientist ...
HE WON
A couple weeks back, we told you about former Kansas City meteorologist Mike Thompson’s decision to take a deep dive into politics. Thompson, who took a buyout from WDAF a little over a year ...
FORECAST FOR RETIRED WEATHERMAN: POLITICS
Mike Thompson, the longtime WDAF meteorologist who took a buyout in December 2018 after 26 years with the station, has decided politics is his next act. Thompson, who left the station just before Nexstar ...
FORMER FRESNO ANCHOR TURNS TO REAL ESTATE
Jenny Toste worked for nearly a decade as a TV reporter and news anchor for KSEE and KGPE in Fresno, CA. And it was just last June that we reported to you on her ...
MORE HATS IN THE RING
What do you do when your tv news career draws to a close for one reason or another? It used to be a trip to the public relations side of life with a local ...
IT’S NOT PR….IT’S COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT, OK?
Robert Feder reports that Rob Johnson, who abruptly signed off in March as top news anchor at Chicago’s CBS-owned WBBM, has segued to a new career as a communications consultant. Yeah, they used to call ...
COMES TO THINK OF IT, HE KINDA LOOKS THE PART
He wrapped up 35 years of being the face of news for Sinclair’s WKRC in Cincinnati, OH back in June. At the time, Rob Braun said he wasn’t being forced out – he just ...
GETTING TO BE A HABIT. PUN UNINTENDED
We told you last week that in an effort to put the past, and a harsh grand jury report behind it, the Pittsburgh PA Roman Catholic Diocese had created the new position of executive ...
GETTING FURTHER INTO ACADEMIA
Former sports anchor Neil Hartman has been named Rowan University’s new director of the Center for Sports Communication & Social Impact. Rowan is located in Glassboro New Jersey. Hartman spent 19 years as an ...
A RETURN TO ACADEMIA
Tribune-soon-to-be-Nexstar’s WHNT in Huntsville, AL is saying goodbye to its weekend morning weather guesser, Gabrielle Deabler. Deabler, who spent three years at the station, is off to a pursue Masters of Science at Indiana ...
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO “HMMMM??!!!”
Down Knoxville way, some fans of discarded WVLT meteorologist David Aldrich was up against it. So, they started up a “Go Fund Me” campaign to help Aldrich out. We reported back in April when ...
GLOR RESURFACES AND SEEMS UPBEAT
Tonawanda, N.Y.’s gift to tv journalism has given his first post-“CBS Evening News” interview to a Buffalo journalist and one thing is clear. [Jeff Glor] doesn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him and he ...
PUTTING HIS STAMP ON A NEW JOB
Tom Loebig has a new job as the Chief Content Officer of the American Philatelic Society. (see what we did there?) Tom’s been with AccuWeather since 2005 and served as VP for Digital Media ...
FINDING A NEW PASSION IN AN UNLIKELY PLACE
Once upon a time, Russ Ptacek went after discriminatory cab drivers, vermin-filled restaurant kitchens, and more as an aggressive investigative reporter for Tegna’s WUSA in Washington, DC He did that for five years until, ...
CARVING OUT A NEW CAREER IN SCHOOL PR
Julie Bercik spent ten years in tv news as a reporter, most of them at Nexstar’s WKBN in Youngstown, OH. When she left the station back in 2017, it was so she could show ...
“NO IMMEDIATE PLANS” GETS IMMEDIATE
Remember back in January when we told you that Nadine Woodward, on her way out as anchor at Morgan Murphey’s KXLY, said she had no immediate plans to run for mayor of Spokane, WA? ...
CURRY TO FRONT MEDICAL MYSTERY SERIES
The rumor mill may have Ann Curry heading for a slot at CBS News – most likely at “CBS This Morning”, but she’s not letting any grass grow under her feet. Come July she’ll ...
WE COULD HAVE FORECAST THIS
You could say it’s weather for the Heller of it. Tim Heller, who signed off from Disney’s KTRK after 17 years of forecasting weather for the station, has hung up the shingle of HellerWeather, ...
AN ATYPICAL LIFE AFTER TV NEWS
Life after tv news usually involves a pr job, something in the nonprofit world or writing a book. Or you survived all the interoffice or corporate b.s. and actually retired without so much as ...
LONGTIME TV EXEC PENS “HOW-TO” BOOK
Hank Price, who retired last November from Hearst’s WVTM in Birmingham, AL after four years decided it’s time to share the wisdom he accumulated in more than three decades of television management experience. Price, ...
FORMER ND LANDS OUTSIDE THE BUSINESS
Chris Turner, when we last checked in November, had exited as ND for WJTV and WHLT in Jackson/Hattiesburg, MS . He’s made a soft landing as he’s the new director of the Public Affairs Division for the Mississippi ...
“WHY I DISAPPEARED…”
In one of those web postings that quickly achieves viral status, Brittany Noble, a former tv journalist at Nexstar’s WJTV in Jackson Mississippi, describes how she filed an HR complaint after her boss at ...
FORMER WFAA ANCHOR UPDATE
You may recall long time WFAA (ABC) anchor Shelly Slater. She stepped away from the anchor’s desk back in September of 2016 and transitioned to a smaller schedule, eventually leaving the Dallas station after 10 ...
DON’T CRY FOR ME, GREATER WICHITA
If you were wringing your hands over the fate for former KAKE morning anchor Jemelle Holopirek, you can stop now. She left the Lockwood property in Wichita, KS back at the beginning of September, ...
FORMER WKMG REPORTER NOW AN AUTHOR
Steven Cooper, once upon a time an investigative reporter for Graham Media’s WKMG in Orlando, will be back on the station ever so briefly this week…as an author. “WKMG was my work family for ...
“SHOULD I RUN FOR PRESIDENT OR BE A CABLE TALKING HEAD?”
That hypothetical question may be running through the head of Ohio Governor John Kasich, whose term as the Buckeye State’s Chief Executive is drawing to a close. While his “Never-Trump” stance would seem to ...
FORMER SPORTS GUY TEAMS UP WITH QB AARON ROGERS FOR AD
Back in the 90’s, he was the “nice guy” sports anchor at Lafayette, LA’s. KATC. Pat Minnis’ on-again-off-again tenure at the station between 1992 and 2002 was punctuated by stints in New Orleans and ...
FORMER LOUISVILLE ANCHOR GETS A QUICK PROMOTION
Former anchor Renee Murphy made her tearful goodbyes last month at Tegna’s WHAS in Louisville after 15 years. Now it’s all smiles as her new employer has already given her a promotion. She’s the ...
FORGET THE LAW, WHAT DO YOU THINK?
An unsuccessful Congressional run last year has former Dallas investigative reporter Brett Shipp back pursuing his former avocation, in a slightly different format. Shipp abruptly left Tegna’s WFAA last year after 22 years to ...
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO….?
Mark Clegg was a more-than-familiar face during his 12 years anchoring at Scripps KSHB in Kansas City. He ended his 27-year tv news career back in 2014 and, by all accounts, he never looked ...
“…MOVING BACK TO CAMPUS…”
KOMU morning meteorologist Tori Stepanek has left the station after ten years, declaring on Facebook she is returning to campus. “I can honestly say I’ve loved every moment I’ve spent in this building and ...
FORMER PHILADELPHIA SPORTSCASTER NOW SELLS HOUSES
After 19 years on the air covering MLB’s Philadelphia Phillies and holding down an anchor slot at the former Comcast SportsNet (now NBC SportsNet), Leslie Gudel seems to be enjoying the relatively anonymity of ...
FORMER EL PASO ANCHOR EDGES INTO POLITICAL ARENA
Back in February, Rick Cabrera stepped down from the anchor desk at News-Press & Gazette’s KVIA in El Paso, TX, calling it a “scary decision.” “Scary” because he had been with the station for ...
FORMER REPORTER GOES A LITTLE BIT CORPORATE
Julie Parise, who exited Weigel’s WDJT in Milwaukee, WI earlier this year, has turned up as director of broadcast services for a suburban Philadelphia PR firm with a worldwide clientele. In the post, Parise ...
SUPPELSA HAS LEFT CHICAGO
Seven months after he retired as news anchor at Tribune’s WGN, Mark Suppelsa and his wife, Candus, put Chicago in their rear-view mirror and headed for Montana over the weekend. They’ve long had a ...
FORMER CNN REPORTER GOES THE POLLING ROUTE
Mary Snow, who spent more than a decade reporting for CNN, is now a polling analyst with the Quinnipiac University Poll. Her job will include providing analysis to the news media about Q-Poll findings ...
FROM THE ANCHOR DESK TO THE BOOKING DESK
Starting today, if Rockford Illinois morning tv viewers are looking for Christie Nicks, they’ll have to check the cop shop. Nicks has signed off Nexstar-operated WTVO to take a job as the public information ...
FORMER ND FINDS PURPOSE IN NUMBERS
Jerry Post spent more than 25 years in the news business, 20 of them at Morgan Murphy’s KXLY in Spokane, WA. But last October, he left his job as news director to head in ...
STARS IN HIS EYES
From 2004 to 2014, JB Bauersfeld held forth at Gray’s WIBW in Topeka, KS, starting out as a photographer and eventually becoming sports director. Then one day, he felt the irresistible pull of Hollywood. ...
SIGNING OFF IN DES MOINES
It’s a lucky 13….years that is, for KCCI sports director Andy Garman. He’s signing off the Hearst station in Des Moines, IA, after a baker’s dozen years at the sports desk, and leaving the ...
NEW BUSINESS, NEW LOOK. AND HOW!
Sarah Lucero’s exit from the tv news business was not exactly voluntary. She left Tegna’s KENS in San Antonio last fall after 20 years at the station for the clichéd “more time with family” ...
BUH-BYE TO THE BIZ IN BIRMINGHAM
School communications must be the new PR for people trying to escape tv news, because we’ve reported on quite a few in the past few months. The latest is Terri Brewer, of Raycom’s WBRC ...
HOUSTON REPORTER HANGS UP HIS MIC
Veteran Houston tv reporter Kevin Quinn signed off Disney’s KTRK for the final time last week as he left the business to become spokesperson with the Constable for Precinct 1 in Harris County, Alan ...
PHILLY WEEKEND ANCHOR SEEKS “FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY”
After ten years, weekend morning anchor Nicole Brewer called it quits over the weekend. “There’s no drama, no back story. I just want to be able to eat dinner with my husband and tuck ...
“IT’S A DYING BUSINESS”
C’mon Elsa, tell us how you really feel. Less than a year after Elsa Ramon renewed her contract with CBS duopoly KCBS-KCAL in Los Angeles, she’s declared her old business dead and plans to ...
ANOTHER WANE ANCHOR HEADS FOR THE DOOR
When Heather Herron announced back in March that she was leaving the tv news business after 17 years to take PR job for a music store, the folks at Nexstar’s WANE in Ft. Wayne, ...
CONNECTICUT PUBLIC’S JERRY FRANKLIN SETS RETIREMENT
After more than three decades of leading Connecticut Public (Broadcasting), Jerry Franklin is ready to give someone else a shot at it. And by all accounts, the candidates are already lining up despite the ...
DFW TV NEWS VET FLEES FOR PR JOB
Boy, Saul Garza had really had it uptohere with the tv news business and his early morning shift. While scheduled to work until the end of the month at Fox O&O KDFW in Dallas, ...
UNHAPPY RUMBLINGS BY THE BAY?
Bay area blogger Rich Lieberman is reporting that another KGO veteran is out the door of a dissatisfied shop. He’d been reporting for the station’s weekday afternoon newscasts. Jonathan Bloom left after seven years ...
PANHANDLE WEATHER VET CALLING IT QUITS
A 29-year run forecasting weather for Nexstar’s WMBB in Panama City ended this weekend for Jerry Tabatt. Tabatt joined the station in 1989 after a 20-year career as a US Air Force meteorologist. He ...
THE RETURN OF RON MAGERS
Legendary Chicago anchorman Ron Magers, who retired from Disney’s WLS in Chicago two years ago this month, will be back on the air at the station later today. While Ryan Chiaverini is away, Magers ...
IN SEARCH OF “A BETTER WORK/LIFE BALANCE”
Kaley O’Kelley, who has been an anchor for Dallas CBS O&O KTVT since January 2015, announced Thursday afternoon on Facebook that she will leave the station this month, in search of a life. She ...
33-YEAR NEWS VET OPTS FOR LIFE AFTER
Veteran Honolulu morning news anchor Ron Mizutani has left Nexstar’s KHON in Honolulu to become president and CEO of the Hawaii Food Bank. “How exciting is that? I’ve actually wanted to be part of ...
WICHITA SPORTS ANCHOR HEADS FOR THE DOOR
Will Kunkel, sports director at Gray’s KWCH in Wichita posted the news on – where else? – Facebook. “THANK YOU to everyone in Kansas – in particular the Wichita area. Wichita has become another ...
ANOTHER DEPARTURE AT WGNO
Please say the Tribune New Orleans station isn’t being fitted for a revolving door. A week after anchor Anne Cutler announced her departure from WGNO, her fellow “Good Morning New Orleans” host Jackie Jing ...
LEAVING THE ONLY JOB HE ‘REALLY EVER WANTED TO DO’
A 40-year broadcasting career, begun when he was still in his teens, comes to an end next month when Roger Cornish steps down from the anchor desk at Gray’s KWCH in Wichita. Cornish’s father ...
LONGTIME RICHMOND ANCHOR SETS RETIREMENT
Chalk up another sweeps farewell tour as Sabrina Squire retires May 23 from Raycom’s WWBT (NBC12) in Richmond, VA Squire began her career at WWBT in August 1981 and became a primetime news co-anchor ...
ANOTHER ONE FLEES THE BUSINESS
Kristen Drew, a soon-to-be former reporter for Sinclair’s KOMO in Seattle, WA is waving goodbye to the business and saying hello to “life after” as the city of Bainbridge Island’s new communications coordinator. Drew ...
REPORTER LEAVES WFSB FOR PARTS UNKNOWN
It’s three years and gone for Hartford, CT reporter Sujaita Jain, who’s cleared out from Meredith’s WFSB. According to her Facebook post, her landing spot is TBD. “I have always believed journalists work for ...
BUH-BYE TO THE BUSINESS
Saying farewell to Topeka and to the teevee news business is Kyle Borchert, meteorologist at Nexstar’s KSNT for the past 5+ years. He’s announced he’s leaving the station “soon” to move to Minneapolis-St. Paul ...
NORTH CAROLINA ANCHOR MAKING EXIT
The days are dwindling down to a previous few for Nicole Ducouer at Hearst’s WXII in Winston-Salem, NC. Friday is her last day at the station, as she announced in a Facebook Live video. ...
FORMER CNN WH CORRESPONDENT TURNS AUTHOR
Jessica Yellin reported for ABC News, MSNBC and, finally, was chief White House correspondent for CNN before leaving the business in 2013, is now an author. Yellin, who covered four presidential campaigns during his ...
TEN YEARS AND OUT
And another exit from the business. Zack Schneider, who’s been doing sports on Quincy Media’s KBJR in the Duluth, MN market for the past ten years, is done with teevee news. Schneider is leaving ...
A NEWS DIRECTOR HEADS FOR ACADEMIA
Alfredo Sánchez is no longer news director at KDEN Telemundo Denver. Sánchez, who spent nearly 20 years with Telemundo, is leaving to join Metropolitan State University in Denver as a tenure track professor. “After ...
HEADING FOR THE “AFTERLIFE”
And another one exits the business for the corporate world (really, is there a difference these days?) Kristin Kelly, evening anchor at Gray’s WCAX in Burlington, VT is leaving the station to become director ...
OUT OF THE BUSINESS
After two years in local teevee news, WTNH sports reporter Henry Chisholm has evidently had enough and has left the business. He’s moved on to the world of fundraising as a development associate with ...
BALTO’S ADAM MAY LEAVING TEEVEE NEWS
Some Baltimore media observers are mourning the imminent departure of veteran reporter Adam May from the local airwaves, the teevee business and Baltimore itself. May, a 15 year veteran of Baltimore television news, is ...
FORMER HOUSTON TEEVEE REPORTER NOW A FLACK
An interim job as the Houston mayor’s press secretary has turned permanent for former KPRC reporter Mary Benton. She was on interim status for the past two months until being officially named to the ...
FORMER N’AWLINS REPORTER NOW IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Former WWL bureau reporter Ashley Rodrique is now promoting fire safety and prevention efforts as the newly-named public affairs director for the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal. Rodrigue left WWL this month after ...
THE LIFE AFTER THE LIFE AFTER
Anthony Ponce’s post-teevee career as a Lyft driver in Chicago fell short of the two-year mark. Ponce has signed on as “Good Day” co-anchor on Fox-owned WFLD. He will co-anchor with Natalie Bomke from ...
DAYTON ANCHOR SIGNS OFF
Deborah Linz, anchor-reporter at Sinclair’s owned/operated Dayton, OH duopoly WKEF/WRGT, is calling it quits after five years. “It’s been a journey these last 5 years and I am so grateful to have worked with ...
VETERAN DETROIT ANCHOR KICKED TO THE CURB
After 20 years, WXYZ noon anchor JoAnne Purtan is leaving the station later this month after learning her contract will not be renewed. She put out the word on Facebook “I learned recently that ...
