This is very sad. WTF?
CARTERVILLE, IL — “WSIL has you covered for all things news, weather and sports in Southern Illinois” — well, no longer sports, and now, no longer local weather either.
WSIL-TV 3, owned by Allen Media Group, will soon be laying off their local meteorologists Jacie Brianne, Nick Boynton and Garrett Hamilton. They are among nearly 100 local AMG meteorologists throughout the nation who will lose their jobs.
Emily Pike, who was a forcaster at WSIL-TV 3 until she left in January 2024, said AMG has started the process of laying off local most, if not all, of these local meterologists in a Facebook post Thursday. Christina Burkhart, a former forecaster at WJRT in Flint, Michigan, confirmed the layoffs extend to all the local meteorologists company-wide in a Facebook post Friday morning.
Instead of local meteorology, AMG will start “hubbing” weather forecasts from The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Burkhart said. The Weather Channel will send pre-recorded regional forecasts and live severe weather coverage to each Allen station.
You would think the weather team would drive the most eyeballs to these local newscasts. Seems like a big mistake that they'll eventually figure out down the line, especially when severe weather season gets here.
Social media has changed everything. As a former broadcast expert, I’ll weigh in. If I want Weather Channel, or Accuweather, I can tune them in. Now I’ll just check Nick Hausen’s page on Facebook.
Allen Media are run by bean counters not broadcasters. I switched to KFVS when the Oakleys acquired WSIL because I worked in the Quincy market vs those toads and still don’t like them after 30 years.
Thank God for local radio, which struggles, but I love. It’s all that’s left. I listen to Miller on CIL-AM every morning. Matt Varney pronounces basketball “bass ih boll” but other than that it’s good 🤓 I like Mike Murphys call of the Vols games, too.
”A good locally produced TV ad is an oxymoron”. -Chris Lytle
