The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, KSDK news director Mike Shipley has announced he is leaving the St. Louis NBC affiliate.
The Post-Dispatch says Shipley told staffers this morning he would stay until a replacement is found. He was named news director in 2000.
>UPDATE: A station spokesperson told TVSpy Shipley is retiring. He has worked in broadcasting for 41 years, 35 of those at KSDK.
After a years-long run of being the top local station for newscasts, KSDK has slipped in the ratings, being passed at times by KMOV (Channel 4) and KTVI (Channel 2).
“He had a No. 1 legacy station here, and he let it slip,” said one source in local television.
This year, the station’s news operation has caused controversy in St. Louis.
In January, the station apologized for one of its news crews causing a lockdown at Kirkwood High School. In that incident, it was unclear if a station cameraman identified himself as a journalist after entering the building.
In mid-August, the station again apologized, this time for airing video on one newscast that showed the home of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who on Aug. 9 shot teen Michael Brown.
Shipley was personally mentioned with frequency in 2003-04, when KSDK picked sports director Mike Bush to be the news co-anchor with Karen Foss. Then, the station passed over several in-house sportscasters — namely Frank Cusamano and Malcolm Briggs — to hire Rene Knott as Bush’s replacement. This came shortly after the station also had jettisoned other well-known reporters, such as Rick Edlund, Ruth Ezell, Jeff Fowler, Dan Gray and Jean Jackson.