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CNN
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“Kevin and I have been coming to your homes for decades — almost 37 years for me,” Patrece Dayton, a news anchor in Terre Haute, Indiana, told viewers Friday in front of a box of beans. “And more than 40 for me,” added Kevin Orpurt, the station’s chief meteorologist.
“For those of you who don’t know, both of our positions are being eliminated here at WTHI-TV,” Dayton continued. “The television business in general is changing across the country and budget cuts are happening everywhere.”
The on-air duo, who have long been household names in western Indiana, bid a tearful farewell to viewers Friday after the station’s parent company, Allen Media Group, announced sweeping cuts that will see all local meteorologists either eliminated or laid off. are reassigned to nearly two dozen. stations nationwide.
In place of local weather forecasters will be a national “hub” based in Atlanta, led by Carl Parker, a veteran storm and climate specialist at The Weather Channel — which the Byron Allen-owned media group bought for $300 million in March 2018. The plan will see the locally produced segments replaced by an individual station broadcast source from The Weather Channel, which could include some of the former station meteorologists.
The layoffs at roughly two dozen local TV stations stretching from Massachusetts to Hawaii will affect at least 50 meteorologists, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person said some of the meteorologists will be offered new positions at The Weather Channel in Atlanta, while others will be allowed to stay in their respective markets as part of the initiative.
“By now most of you have probably seen the chatter about the Allen media letting local meteorologists go, but I’m the one who will be affected by this,” wrote Amber Kulick, a meteorologist at WAAY in Huntsville, Alabama, in a Facebook post. “At the moment I’m still at the station, but I’m looking for my next career opportunity.”
Christina Burkhart, a meteorologist who recently left Flint, Michigan-based WJRT, described how remote weather reports will be handled.
“Weather forecasts will be sent by the Atlanta Weather Channel,” Burkhart said in a Facebook post. “These will be recorded in advance by the regional meteorologists who record the blows for each Allen station. Live coverage of severe weather will also come from them.”
In a press release Saturday, Allen Media said the Atlanta-based operation will offer local stations new technology, improved forecasting tools, additional graphics capabilities and the ability to cover weather stories 24/7. A person familiar with the matter said Atlanta-based staff will also be deployed during certain weather events. The company stressed that weather coverage will remain a “top priority” for local stations, adding that the new format will “dramatically improve reporting capabilities, especially in high-risk weather situations.”
The elimination of local meteorologists marks the latest round of layoffs at Allen Media Group, which last year cut an undisclosed number of employees, citing “strategic changes.” The Weather Channel, which will run the new center, also cut its staff last year, laying off key employees in October in what the company called “a continuation of workforce reductions.” Allen Media also shut down the Weather Channel’s Spanish-language version, citing “extensive cost-cutting measures.”
Byron Allen, the company’s founder and chief executive, has made several failed bids for major media companies. Last year, he offered $30 billion for Paramount Global in a widely reported move. In 2023, he offered Disney a reported $10 billion for ABC and several of its cable networks and considered a bid for EW Scripps. None of the offers were realized.
Spencer Denton, a meteorologist at Gray Media-owned WVLT in Knoxville, Tennessee, noted on Facebook that while the change “may save money in the short term,” it also “takes away value and credibility in the long term.”
“WEATHER is the number one reason most people watch a local newscast,” Denton wrote. “These people are more valuable than some companies realize, and I’m sure they will step up.”
While Americans’ trust in the news media has declined as the country becomes more polarized, local news remains one of the most trusted forms of information. Meteorologists at local stations are trained scientists who are intimately familiar with their community’s weather threats and vulnerabilities, providing critical forecasts and information during emergencies.
Although traditional television media has seen its viewership shrink in recent years as more Americans switch to streaming services, weather has consistently been a top reason for viewers to tune in to local news. A 2019 Pew study found that weather was the most important news topic in respondents’ daily lives, with 70% of respondents “expressing a daily need for information”.
Recent weather-related disasters have also highlighted the need for local news reporting during emergencies. As devastating wildfires tore through thousands of homes and structures in the Los Angeles area this month, local television media saw a surge in viewers seeking immediate information, with audiences doubling and tripling their usual size for news programs, according to data from Nielsen.
Some meteorologists warned that the loss of local weather forecasters across the country will come at a cost to their communities.
“Local meteorologists are essential to local news,” Sam Kuffel, a meteorologist at a Milwaukee CBS affiliate who was not affected by the layoffs, wrote in X. “Communities will suffer during large, local weather events for because of this decision.”
