Pioneering local anchor Romona Robinson is ending a 14-year association with WKYC (Channel 3), reportedly after she and the station could not agree to a new contract.
“We just weren’t able to come to terms on a new contract,” WKYC General Manager Brooke Spectorsky told the Plain Dealer on Wednesday. “Coming off a long-term contract, we certainly wanted to make this work. Obviously, Romona has been a significant part of the station for 15 years. She’s done a lot for us, but our world and our business have changed over the last eight years, so there are very mixed feelings about this.”
Robinson joined WKYC in September 1997 after nine years with WUAB (Channel 43). She was the first African-American woman to anchor a prime-time local newscast when she joined WUAB’s 10 p.m. news in 1988. According to WKYC, she is also the first woman to solo anchor a prime-time newscast in Cleveland, with WKYC beginning in December 2008.
Before that, she had co-anchored with Judd Hambrick and later Tim White, going solo after White left the station when they could not agree on a new contract.
Robinson could not be reached for comment. As of Wednesday night, she had not posted anything about the change on her Facebook pages, even as her fans were getting the news.
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article courtesy of Ohio.com
