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DEVELOPING: CBS Layoffs


NBC 5 Chicago

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15 minutes ago, NBC 5 Chicago said:

 

My goodness, this feels like a greater slashing than the 2008 bloodbath.

 

In addition to Pam Zekman in the headliner, also apparently gone are anchor Erin Kennedy, sports anchor Megan Mawicke, morning meteorologist Megan Glaros, reporter Mike Puccinelli, and weekend anchor Mai Martinez, who had been on medical leave for most of the last year after suffering a concussion (not on the job).

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3 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

This is shocking. Some of them were long runners, too. Here's hoping they all find work somewhere else.


Zekman is 75, so she was probably going to hang it up soon anyway. 
 

Everyone else that was cut isn’t a shock to me. No point of having both Erin and Audrina on the morning shift for example. Who knows when Sports is fully coming back, so to eliminate the dept., however tough the decision was/is, makes sense short term.


I feel for those out of work because this is probably the worse time to lose a job in decades (not that any other time is ideal). 

 

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2 hours ago, TheRob said:

Pam Zekman let go after 40 years at WBBM? Maybe she could join Carol Marin at WTTW's Chicago Tonight (which is now seen around the world on YouTube), but at her age, 75 is enough to call it a career.

 

Let's hope the layoffs don't reach KCBS/KCAL; their loyal viewers would hate losing David Goldstein, who doesn't mind being on his own without landing at another station.

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4 hours ago, TheRob said:

Wow. Susan Koeppen out at KDKA? I'm shocked. She was one of the station's better anchors. I'm a little sad about that.

 

Rick Dayton was alright. He had chemistry with both Jennifer Antkowiak and Heather Abraham, but he wasn't a huge favorite of mine.

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40 minutes ago, tjt24 said:

Wow. Susan Koeppen out at KDKA? I'm shocked.


Me too.  Per the “May Pandemic Sweeps” thread, KDKA continues to perform well in the ratings.  If contracts weren’t an issue, perhaps they should’ve asked Stacy Smith to “retire” instead?

 

Does Kristine Sorensen take the slot, or do they hire young and cheap?

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Mike Schuh is out at WJZ after 27 years, also affected with the layoffs.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/columnists/zurawik/bs-ed-zontv-mike-schuh-wjz-20200527-u5ach2kpwbbljaquarpc72shfq-story.html

 

Speaking of KCBS; Tay, Kemp and Michael's bios are still on the stations site. I just hope and pray they aren't let go, but if it's true... I'm going to get real upset. As for my station; KTVT, Doug Dunbar is my favorite anchor and I also hope he's not laid off as well as some of the on-air staff.

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1 hour ago, ttvn2000 said:

Me too.  Per the “May Pandemic Sweeps” thread, KDKA continues to perform well in the ratings.  If contracts weren’t an issue, perhaps they should’ve asked Stacy Smith to “retire” instead?

 

Does Kristine Sorensen take the slot, or do they hire young and cheap?

Well Brenda Waters is set to "retire" at the end of the week, so they certainly could have, but who knows? 

 

And I really hope that Kristine does not take Susan's spot because IMO, she wouldn't fit in that role very well. Don't get me wrong, she's a good anchor, but I don't think she's that good. 

 

They probably won't try to lure someone from either WTAE or WPXI.

 

Its anyone's guess what's going to happen at this point...

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I can’t understand why they’ve held on to Kristine Sorensen this long. She’s the one I would have cut loose. Looks like CBS is determined to take legacy Group W stations into the dumper with the CBS O&Os. 

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1 hour ago, TexasTVNews said:

And according to that article, Pat Warren is also out. 

1 minute ago, newscopter7 said:

I can’t understand why they’ve held on to Kristine Sorensen this long. She’s the one I would have cut loose. Looks like CBS is determined to take legacy Group W stations into the dumper with the CBS O&Os. 

I agree. I would've kept Susan over Kristine because she is not nearly as good as Susan is, IMO. 

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Remember I said two hours ago that I hope and pray that the CBS 11 News (KTVT) staff won't be laid off... scratch that!

Morning and Midday anchor/reporter Russ McCaskey's bio is gone, which also means he's gone from the station.

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Cross-checking missing bios on the websites, the following are also gone from their respective stations but haven't been mentioned yet.

I might have missed some and the situation's clearly really fluid, so it's not all set.

 

KTVT

Jennifer Lindgren (weekend morning anchor)

 

WJZ

Pat Warren (reporter)

 

KYW

Natasha Brown & Alexandria Hoff have been curiously removed from the "Anchors" category, but kept in the "Reporters" category (they were both anchors of "CBS3 @ 4")

Cleve Bryan (reporter)

Crystal Cranmore (reporter)

Chanteé Lans (reporter) 

Lesley Van Arsdall (weekend sports)

Chandler Lutz (traffic)

 

KCBS

Sandra Mitchell (midday anchor on KCAL9)

Jennifer Kim (traffic)

 

All of this is so sad, with most having been on-air just yesterday.

@TexasTVNews, I join you in the CBS 11 grief; Russ had just streamed another one of his "BTS at CBS DFW" Facebook videos on the station's page yesterday morning -- everything's so abrupt 😕 

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2 hours ago, C Block said:

KCNC traffic anchor Joel Hillan has been laid off.

 

 

 

Except that he hasn't been a traffic reporter for a couple of years. He was moved to nightside. CBS 4 has been cutting a lot of staff lately, it's not been great. They're trying to edge Jim Benemann with Dominic Garcia who's quite a bit cheaper... But he's honestly a bad anchor. 

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O_O

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2020/5/28/over-a-dozen-gone-in-philly

 

Quote

According to our station insider, some of those that have been bounced are Reporte Chantee Lans, Reporter Crystal Cranmore, Senior Reporter Cleve Bryan, Traffic anchor Chandler Lutz (who didn’t even make it two years), Sports Anchor Leslie VanArsdall, and Photojournalist Tom Kelly.

 

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