Former Fox News Channel anchor and reporter Brian Wilson returned to the airwaves this month, at the Washington, DC O&O where he worked for twelve years before joining FNC in 1998.
“I like to keep my finger in the broadcasting pie,” Wilson tells TVSpy. He has appeared twice in December as a news analyst on WTTG’s morning show, the program he co-anchored for six years starting in 1992.
Wilson made his 2010 WTTG debut on December 9, followed by a lengthy segment on Monday. “It was lovely to get the opportunity to go back on a Fox-owned station,” he says. “And I was very happy to do it.”
So what does the Fox homecoming mean in the context of the FNC split that sparked headlines back in September? “I’ll let you draw your own conclusion about that. And I would never want to speak on behalf of Fox News,” Wilson tells TVSpy. “But I will say…that a lot of what was written about my departure from Fox News was a little off-base, because we did part as friends. And I continue to have only the highest regard for all my old friends at Fox News, and, of course, Mr. Roger Ailes.”
Three months into his post-full-time-TV life, Wilson says he still watches Fox News – “all the time” – and considers himself “a recovering journalist” who “truly enjoy[s] sort of getting into a little broadcasting from time to time.” That includes fill-in work all next week at Washington’s WMAL-AM, substituting for morning host Fred “Gopher” Grandy .
As for a complete return to news, Wilson says he’s “fully committed” to his new life, running his own media training and strategic messaging firm, Right Tone Communications. He’s also signed with a booking agency for public speaking gigs.
He enjoys “the pace of life a lot better being outside of news”. But Wilson admits that the business is tough to fully shake. “I don’t know if it ever leaves you,” he says. “It sort of gets in your blood and you never lose it completely.”