WTVM, an ABC-affiliate based in Columbus, GA, has let go of its chief meteorologist. After more than two decades covering the weather in the Chattahoochee Valley, Kurt Schmitz has left the station.
“Their official line was that I did quit,” Schmitz told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer recently, “but that is not the case.”
Calling the move “sudden and unexpected,” Schmitz, 55, says that he recently signed a contract renewal and had planned to finish out his career with WTVM. Now he’s left looking for work, hoping to stay in the Columbus market.
WTVM hired Schmitz as its chief meteorologist in 1989. The station has so far remained mum on the details surrounding Schmitz’s dismissal.
As ALNewsWatch points out, Schmitz’s is just the latest high-profile departure in the last couple of years. WTVM cut veteran anchor Dee Armstrong in 2008 after twenty years with the station and Wayne Bennett, another longtime WTVM anchor, retired in 2009.