New Orleans Sports Anchor Departures Start Guessing Game

By Kevin Eck 

Hickman_KincaidNew Orleans will soon have two sports anchor positions open at two different stations at the same time.

Next week, Fred Hickman is leaving FOX affiliate WVUE and Juan Kincaid is leaving CBS affiliate WWL.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune speculates the two departures may be related, asking if Kincaid is leaving WWL to fill Hickman’s spot at WVUE.

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“I’ve had calls and text messages over the last week and a half congratulating me,” Kincaid said Sunday (Jan. 11). “And I’m like, ‘Congratulating me for what?’

“I haven’t done anything. Nothing’s been signed. Nothing’s been agreed upon. Nobody’s been meeting.

“But I understand how the game works. One person leaves and another person leaves and there’s speculation. I get it.”

Leaving WWL, Kincaid said, “is a personal choice.”

Kincaids last day is Tuesday, January 13. Hickman leaves two days later.

“I guess it was kind of a mutual accord,” said Hickman, who came to WVUE in 2011. “With me, it’s just time to kind of move on.

“You will see me again. I’m not at liberty to say where.”

A pioneering cable-TV sportscaster in the early days of CNN who went on to work in multiple markets as well as at ESPN, Hickman said he’s pursuing another network posting.

“I loved working with my colleagues (at WVUE), who are all good guys and gals,” Hickman said Sunday.  “I don’t think I had a real problem. They’re going in one direction and I don’t think I’d like to go in that direction. I really would like to get back into the national spotlight again, though. I’m working my way toward that. We’ll see what happens.

“One thing I’m going to do is grow a beard for the next couple of weeks, and not watch any TV for a while.”

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