WSLS VP and GM Leesa Wilcher is leaving the Roanoke NBC affiliate in May.
“Due to personal reasons I am leaving WSLS and returning to the TriCities,” Wilcher told The Roanoke Times. “It has been an exciting time for me these past three years.”
Before coming to WSLS in 2011, Wilcher worked at Media General’s WJHL in Johnson City, TN.
WSLS took in a record $6.6 million in political spending in 2012, when more than $27 million was spent in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market during the 2012 presidential campaign. Channel 10’s take still trailed WDBJ-TV (Channel 7) and WSET-TV (Channel 13). The station’s evening newscasts usually finished third in the Nielsen ratings during Wilcher’s tenure, which is where Channel 10 has ranked consistently since the late 1990s.