Happy Friday to all who celebrate. We have a lot of stories to get to that we didn’t get to when the getting was to be gotten, if that makes any sense. If it doesn’t? Well, read the stories below to see what I missed this week.
Let’s get to the getting:
Sandy Kenyon sits down with Emmy Award-winning entertainment reporter Joelle Garguilo, who is joining the WABC-TV Channel 7 Eyewitness News in New York team. Garguilo will take over for our beloved veteran reporter as he transitions to consultant for ABC Owned Television Stations. Click here for more.
Syracuse TV anchor Nicole Sommavilla is leaving NewsChannel 9 WSYR after nearly 6 years. Sommavilla, who anchored the local ABC affiliate’s morning and noon newscasts, announced Wednesday that she is moving back to her hometown to be near her family. Click here to read about it.
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame has announced a commemorative figurine celebrating legendary Chicago forecaster Tom Skilling (pictured) as he prepared to retire from the station after over 45 years. Click here for more.
WCAU in Philadelphia has added a new on-air reporter, for the second time in as many months. On Monday, March 4, Emmy-nominated journalist Yukare Nakayama will make her debut on the station’s news broadcasts. She will work as a bilingual reporter for NBC10 and Philly’s NBC-owned, Spanish-language station Telemundo62. Click here for more.
Vanessa Romo was well in her comfort zone as a sports reporter and anchor at KMPH Fox 26 in Fresno, California. Which made it difficult to leave the Fresno television station after more than two years on the job. Romo said her goodbyes during a final segment Sunday night. Click here to see her goodbye.
Al Gregory, who brought the news to Tri-Cities households for decades with WJHL, passed away at the age of 94 Monday. Gregory’s family members confirmed that he passed away in Johnson City at the age of 94. According to his family, Gregory’s wife, Genene “Top” Gregory had passed away nearly two months prior at the age of 95. Click here to read about it.
One of News4′s most known and beloved talents, sports anchor Nick Brooks is taking a new step in life while also saying goodbye to WTVY in Dothan, Alabama. Click here to read about it.
Opening statements were heard in Sonya Heitshusen‘s lawsuit against WHO in Des Moines, Iowa. She accuses station leadership of ending her employment out of bias against putting older women in front of the camera. Her attorney, Tom Newkirk, told jurors that Heitshusen was an “award-winning, proven-ratings employee” but, at age 53, no longer matched what her superiors were looking for when she was let go in 2020. Click here for more.
Kamie Roesler is joining KIMT in Mason City, Iowa after more than a decade of television news experience that has spanned over North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, and Minnesota. She was most recently the host of an hour long lifestyle show in Rochester. Click here for more.
Just over two weeks ago, FTVLive (and TVSpy) told you that WMBF’s (Myrtle Beach) Sports Director, Dave Ackert, was arrested after police say he threatened to kill a bar owner. Cops say they arrested a highly intoxicated Ackert, charging him with public intoxication. Click here to read what our friend Scott Jones had to say about it.
WPVI anchor Nydia Han spoke at a joint colloquium co-hosted by the James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies and the Phillip Jaisohn Memorial Foundation on Wednesday. Han spoke in front of a group of 20 students, faculty, and community members in the Kim Center for Korean Studies. The discussion, hosted by center director and sociology professor Hyunjoon Park, centered on Han’s experience embracing her identity as a Korean-American and her fight against Asian hate through the lens of broadcast journalism. Click here for more.
The largest TV station group in the U.S. is suing in an effort to alter current federal rules that limit its ability to grow in local markets. Nexstar Media Group filed the action in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, faulting the Federal Communications Commission for freezing or tightening TV station ownership rules in disregard of controlling law that points to deregulation as competition to broadcasting takes hold. Click here to read about it.