WAFF (Huntsville, AL) staff changes

[WesL]

Looks like Gray's takeover of WAFF in Huntsville is getting messy. They let the news director go a few weeks ago, Kimberly Essex who had been there for like 20+ years was let go last week and now they have let sports anchor Paloma Villicana go. Brad Travis is on vacay and comes back today....
hopefully.

Any other former Raycom stations seeing layoffs?

 

[Mike S]

Looks like Gray's takeover of WAFF in Huntsville is getting messy. They let the news director go a few weeks ago, Kimberly Essex who had been there for like 20+ years was let go last week and now they have let sports anchor Paloma Villicana go. Brad Travis is on vacay and comes back today....
hopefully.

Any other former Raycom stations seeing layoffs?

Haven't seen Trent Butler in a couple of weeks either.

 

[ghost]

WAFF is our go to station for local news primarily because of their anchors like Kimberly and Trent. Sheila O'Connor left last week too. If they let Margo and Brad go... we're done with them.

 

[Mike S]

Haven't seen Trent Butler in a couple of weeks either.

He is back this morning

 

[rolltide_130]

Looks like Gray's takeover of WAFF in Huntsville is getting messy. They let the news director go a few weeks ago, Kimberly Essex who had been there for like 20+ years was let go last week and now they have let sports anchor Paloma Villicana go. Brad Travis is on vacay and comes back today....
hopefully.

Any other former Raycom stations seeing layoffs?

This is turning into a bad look for them. At this point it's just Travis keeping the station afloat and once he gets shown the door (And after the Alan Seals debacle down in Mobile I'm worried it's a when-not-if thing now), WHNT will become the only relevant station in the Huntsville market.

 

[maroonedinhsv]

I always watch WHNT because I prefer their anchors, and more importantly, I prefer their format. I will occasionally toggle between WHNT and WAFF during severe weather to get the opinions of both Jason and Brad, but for nightly news (and morning news), I'm 100% on the WHNT bandwagon. I will say that I always thought Kimberly did a good job "back in the day", so getting rid of her is a bad idea.

Do you think they'd have the guts to get rid of Liz?

 

[akt1985]

Does anyone on this board besides me think meteorologist Eric Burke look like Pee Wee Herman?

 

[rolltide_130]

I always watch WHNT because I prefer their anchors, and more importantly, I prefer their format. I will occasionally toggle between WHNT and WAFF during severe weather to get the opinions of both Jason and Brad, but for nightly news (and morning news), I'm 100% on the WHNT bandwagon. I will say that I always thought Kimberly did a good job "back in the day", so getting rid of her is a bad idea.

Do you think they'd have the guts to get rid of Liz?

They dump anchors purely for money reasons and nothing else. If they have a cheap, young anchor lined up and they don't have to pay Liz anymore they'll remove her and not lose a minute of sleep. The culture under these companies like Gray is extremely toxic and purely money driven with no other real considerations given according to several people I know who work in broadcast.

 

[barcncpt44]

You can now add WBRC Fox 6 to the layoff news.

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/8/6/gray-still-swinging-the-axe