Tegna Station Fires Cop
Tegna owned WFAA in Dallas is firing a local police officer that gave the station's traffic reports.
Ed Bark reports that WFAA is putting the brakes on Sgt. Nick's career as a traffic anchor.
The cop been informed of the decision, but not of the date when he’ll go back to being a DeSoto police officer without a weekday early morning TV presence. It’s possible that will happen before the start of the February “sweeps” ratings period on Thursday, Jan. 26th.
Sgt. Nick (full name, Nick Bristow) was a corporal when his surprise hiring by WFAA News Director Carolyn Mungo in August 2014.
He had no previous TV experience before becoming D-FW’s first uniformed traffic anchor. Bristow has not returned an email asking for comment.
Bristow had a steep learning curve and got better as he went along. But after nearly two-and-a-half years with Daybreak, he still wasn’t put in the same shot as the on-screen traffic maps. It gave his updates a somewhat disembodied look and feel compared to the stations competitors.