WCYB is currently searching for a replacement for longtime news director and anchor Steve Hawkins, who one veteran of the market recently described as “the Cronkite of the Tri-Cities.”
Hawkins, who had served as news director for the NBC-affiliate since 1985, left this month after more than three decades with the station.
WCYB has appointed assistant news director Terry Radnoczi, who has been the station since 1981, to interim news director as the station actively searches for Hawkins’s replacement.
Jim McKernan, WCYB’s senior vice president and general manager, told TVSpy that he could not discuss specific details of Hawkins’s departure. Discussions with several people who have worked at WCYB, though, offer clues to why the station is moving in a new direction.
“He was very old school,” a source told TVSpy about Hawkins’s approach to news. When told recently that the station’s website needed an overhaul, the source says that Hawkins replied, “the Internet is just not a priority.”
WCYB currently has a job posting on its website for the open news director position. Featured prominently in the “Experience/Skills Requirements” section of the post is “Understanding of New Media.”