Meteorologist Drew Switzer will be leaving Topeka CBS affiliate WIBW, the station announced Thursday.
Switzer, who has been at WIBW since 2007, announced he will be leaving to pursue a new career in the financial industry. His last day will be Friday, August 29th.
He explained his decision in a personal letter posted to the station’s website. Read it, after the jump.
Dear WIBW Viewers and Supporters:
It is with mixed emotions that I announce my departure from WIBW as a full-time meteorologist. I am going to greatly miss everything about WIBW and my time here. However, I will not be leaving this wonderful community. I am extremely excited to begin my next phase in life and pursue another passion of mine as a Financial Representative with Thrivent Financial, right here in Northeast Kansas. I may no longer be your everyday weatherman, but you are not getting rid of me. As many of you know, my wife and I were blessed with our first baby last summer. Many of you also understand that having kids changes your life, for the better of course, but it does change your priorities. Being an on-air meteorologist has been a wonderful career and WIBW has been an amazing place to work, but it is not the career that is conducive with the type of family lifestyle I desire. This decision has come after many months of discussions, reflection, thought, and prayer, and it is simply the right thing for to do for my family and me.
I want to take a moment to thank all the wonderful viewers that have welcomed me into your home each morning for the better part of the last decade, as you prepare for the day. You have trusted me in times of life-threatening weather, and you have shared a laugh with me to help get a work week started off on the right foot. I arrived at WIBW in March of 2007 as a young college graduate, and since then you have allowed me to grow and to share with you many milestones in my life, including my engagement, my wedding, and the birth of my son. This is just one more of those, a life transition. I have loved meeting many of you in person at various community events, and I have loved sharing my passion for the weather with many of your kids in their classrooms at school. This community supported and embraced me from the very beginning of my time at WIBW, and I am truly grateful. Again, I will still be involved and a part of this community, it just won’t be in quite the same public setting as before. If you see me out an about, please still come say hi and chat about the weather, as you always have.
Family is the most important thing in my life, and this opportunity will allow me to enjoy the kind of time I want to spend my kids and wife as we grow together. I will always consider WIBW home and will miss it greatly, but I am very excited for this next phase in my life.
Sincerely,
Drew Switzer