Yakima Herald-Republic
Two longtime Yakima television news figures have been laid off as part of cuts at KAPP-TV and its sister station in the Tri-Cities.
News director Mike Balmelli and anchor Dana Cowley were let go under cuts mandated earlier this month by parent company Morgan Murphy Media, said Brian Paul Lubanski, general manager of the ABC affiliate in Yakima and KVEW-TV, the Tri-Cities affiliate.
Two part-time production workers at KVEW-TV were also laid off.
Both Balmelli and Cowley have spent much of their broadcast television career in the Yakima Valley. Balmelli joined KAPP-TV in 1992 and has been the station’s news director since 1997.
Cowley has worked as an anchor and reporter at KAPP since 1989. She relocated to the Tri-Cities when KAPP began broadcasting its evening newscasts from there more than two years ago. More…