First, veteran reporter Ed Gallek jumps ship, now Cleveland CBS affiliate WOIO will say goodbye to its news director.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports Dan Salamone is leaving WOIO Friday, January 9.
Salamone told staffers the news today in a memo. “I know it probably caught some people by surprise,” Salamone told the Plain Dealer. “I was hoping to make this announcement before the holidays.”
Salamone’s departure means that Channel 19 will be the fourth Cleveland affiliate station to have a new news director in little more than two years. Brennan Donnellan was named news director at Channel 3 in December 2012. Cleveland native Jeff Harris started as news director at WEWS Channel 5 in October. And Orange High School graduate Andy Fishman became news director at WJW Channel 8 in November.
Salamone joined Channel 19 in 2005 after a two-year run as general manager at KOIN Channel 6, the CBS affiliate in Portland, Oregon. Before moving to KOIN in 2003, he had been a news director at stations in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Detroit; Providence, Rhode Island; and Springfield, Massachusetts.
“It’s been my honor and privilege to work beside each of you for the past nine years,” Salamone said in his memo to colleagues at Raycom-owned Channel 19 and Channel 43. “You are all pros and I’m grateful for your hard work and resiliency.”