Meteorologists At Allen Media Group TV Stations Give Emotional Farewells After Nationwide Layoffs

deadline.com:

It has been an emotional time for meteorologists at nearly two dozen Allen Media Group television stations across the country.

Deep cuts at the company have forced all local meteorologists to be eliminated or reassigned and replaced by a feed beamed to individual stations from The Weather Channel.

In all, at least 50 meteorologists in roughly two dozen local television stations from Massachusetts to Hawaii are affected, CNN reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Among them are meteorologists Patrece Dayton and Kevin Orpurt at Terra Haute, Indiana’s WKHI-TV, who gave an emotional farewell to viewers last week. “Kevin and I have come into your homes for decades — nearly 37 years for me,” said Dayton. “And more than 40 for me,” added Orpurt, the TV 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 nationwide and budget cuts are happening everywhere.” ‘ “We had both hoped to go out on our own terms to celebrate,” Orput added, “but that’s not the case.” He continued, “As you can see on the evening news each night, we are a close family here at News 10.