By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Monday, April 13, 2015
CBS46 is about as stable as a Taylor Swift relationship.
The station has seen several departures recently. ( Stephany Fisher? Her status here.)
Here are a few:
- Renee Starzyk. Besides Rebekka Shramm, Fisher and Adam Murphy, Starzyk was the only other on-air personality who had been at CBS 46 for more than 10 years. She just sent out this note today:
Starzyk sent me an email this evening confirming what had happened and she predicts more changes forthcoming:
I was not renewed out of the blue today. The news director speaks to no one and makes no eye contact. They escort you out swiftly with few words. Very sad as I love what I do.
Starzyk worked at WXIA-TV (11 Alive) for three years before going to CBS46.
- Bernard Watson, a former AJC reporter, worked at CBS 46 for just over five years. He left voluntarily, I'm told. His final day was April 3:
According to his personal Facebook page, Watson had signed a new contract with CBS in February but recently resigned to become the director of community and media relations for the Gwinnett County school system. He started this past Monday.
He also included this:
Before I go, I must say WGCL has lost a LOT of QUALITY AND TALENTED people recently. Even though it's part of the business and I have NO DOUBT they will all resurface in better situations, it is sad and difficult to see. People who worked hard, produced excellent work are leaving, some forced out and the station is losing institutional knowledge as well as quality people. That and they will be difficult to replace. The station of course will keep moving forward because there are STILL a LOT of good people there. Best of luck to them.
- Frank Wiley joined CBS 46 as a morning anchor in January of last year from Tulsa, OK. But he was demoted to a reporter a few months later. And now he's left, too, after just 15 months. He found an anchor job in Cleveland at WEWS NewsChannel 5.
- Reporter Mike Paluska's contract was not renewed April 6. The multimedia journalist joined CBS 46 in August 2009. His replacement Brittany Miller starts April 20. She comes from News 12 in New York.
- Others who have departed in recent months include morning anchor Michelle Burdo and sports director Larry Smith while Fred Kalil has arrived as sports anchor and Gloria Neal will be coming on as a new morning anchor.
UPDATE 4/15/15: Strela Aidem, who represents sports reporter Davyee Sutton, sent me a note saying she had spent eight months at CBS46, from May, 2014 to February of this year. She was hired by the now departed Smith. Both had worked together at CNN.
"I will say she left because of the unbearable work conditions and expectations and management," Aidem wrote.
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