Allen Media Group is reportedly reversing its controversial plan to ax local meteorologists and replace them with a Weather Channel source after facing backlash from loyal viewers, who called the move ” greedy’, ‘funny’ and ‘damn cheap’.
The Byron Allen-owned media company over the weekend revealed plans to lay off or reassign workers at all of its nearly two dozen television stations — including FOX, NBC, ABC and CBS affiliates stretching from California and Hawaii to Alabama and Arizona, according to a press release.
“Allen Media should get out of the weather business altogether. Lost all credibility with their greedy and ridiculous plan to export local TV weather to a Weather Channel HQ in Atlanta,” one viewer said in a post on X. “What a disaster.”
Now, the media group is halting its plan to lay off about 100 meteorologists and offload coverage from The Weather Channel after local community members criticized the callous layoffs on social media, according to The Desk, a digital-focused news site. in media and technology. news.
“After receiving significant feedback in various markets, Allen Media has decided to stop and re-evaluate the Weather Channel’s local weather delivery strategy in Atlanta,” a sales manager at an Allen Media-owned station said in a statement to The Desk.
Allen Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amber Kulick, a meteorologist at WAAY in Huntsville, Ala., who announced last week that she was being laid off, celebrated the change on social media.
“Allen Media has reversed its decision to let all local meteorologists go, so I’ll be staying in Huntsville on the air,” Kulick wrote in a post on X.
“Thank you to everyone who reached out and made your voice heard,” she added, alongside a heart emoji.
Matt Hoffman, chief meteorologist at Allen Media’s KDRV, was happy about the political hiatus and announced that weather reporters at his station and KEZI, which both cover California and Oregon, were keeping their jobs.
“We’re hanging around, people!” Hoffman wrote in a post on X. “Our local meteorologists will continue to bring you the weather here at KDRV and up at KEZI. Thank you all for your support!”
Allen Media-owned stations including WTVA in northeast Mississippi, KWWL in eastern Iowa and WSIL in southern Illinois also said they received word that their weather departments remained intact.
It’s unclear how many local meteorologists who have already received pink slips, like Kulick from the Huntsville station, will get to keep their jobs.
The media group is reportedly still moving forward with its plans to build an Atlanta-based team to lead coverage at The Weather Channel, which the company bought for $300 million in 2018, so some local stations could are still forced to replace their teams with food.
Many weather reporters had already said their tearful goodbyes and posted farewell messages on social media. But loyal viewers — many of whom turn to local stations for accurate weather coverage — took to social media to blast the decision and call for a boycott of Allen Media’s stations.
Another viewer lamented the loss of WTVA’s chief meteorologist, Matt Laubhan, who was originally slated to be affected by the layoffs.
Laubhan was praised by community members for praying for the town of Amory before it was struck and destroyed by a tornado.
“I hope to God a better TV station out there hires Matt,” wrote one WTVA viewer on X. “Shame on the Allen media group and Byron Allen specifically for being so cheap.”
A photojournalist from Kentucky called out, “I hope the backlash against Allen Media Group’s terrible weather decisions wakes up the big media conglomerates that are destroying local news.”
The layoffs were part of a cost-cutting plan at Allen Media, but outrage from local viewers prompted advertisers to threaten to pull their spots on the affected stations, The Desk reported.
Allen Media did not respond to earlier questions about whether the layoffs were part of a cost-cutting plan.
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