On Friday, FTVLive told you that longtime WITI main Anchor Brad Hicks had very quietly left the station. Hicks had been anchoring the news at the Tribune station for nearly 15 years.

The station tried to spin Hicks leaving as the old “spending more time with his family.”

The station even released this statement:

"After much deliberation and 30 years anchoring newscasts, Brad Hicks has decided to step away and focus on his family. As many people may know, Brad’s brother and parents in California all face difficult health challenges. We at FOX 6 have known for some time that Brad may need to leave us to help care for these family members. Brad feels that now is the time. Brad has made many contributions to FOX 6 in his over 15 years here. We will miss him and wish him the best."

But, insiders tell FTVLive this is all spin and that is not how it went down.

A number of sources tell FTVLive that Hicks was walked out the door after he sent a tweet calling out the Milwaukee Bucks for not tweeting out support of a Milwaukee Police that was shot in early February.

Seems the Bucks called station management ranting and Hicks was taken off the air.

According to FTVLive sources, Hicks and the station had been negotiating a separation agreement for weeks.

They came up with the “spending more time with his family” line and the two sides parted ways.

In other words, screw transparency, we will go to the old stand by.