TV/RADIO: Lenise Ligon ousted from job at WBTV

Charlotte.com

February 09, 2008

Lenise Ligon ousted

from job at WBTV

And then there's the not-so-glamorous side of TV.

At 9:14 a.m. on Jan. 14, about two hours after finishing her 5 to 7 a.m. shift co-anchoring 'WBTV News This Morning,' Lenise Ligon got an e-mail at her desk. Come meet with the news manager and the human resources director, it said.

Channel 3 was 'moving in a different direction,' she was told. And she wouldn't be a part of it. Her three-year contract, which was up that week, would not be renewed.

'Then I was quickly ushered out. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to my colleagues or the viewers ... I was flabbergasted.'

'Moving in a different direction' is a euphemism in television news that can mean anything from 'you're too old' to 'viewer research shows you just don't connect' to 'you make too much money.'

In a business where on-camera news people are bound by multiyear contracts and often get their jobs through the intercession of an agent, the rules are different. They don't have to give you a reason.

It's a personnel matter, says Dennis Milligan, WBTV news director, and by policy he can't comment. Ligon has been replaced by Barbara Pinson.

'There is an ugly side to television,' Ligon, 30, says philosophically. 'Sometimes you're what a station wants and sometimes you're not ... That's the nature of the business.'

Ligon was named best local anchor by Creative Loafing in 2005 and the audience was growing for the morning show, which she did with John Carter and Chris Suchan. So her unexplained disappearance resulted in a torrent of inquiries to her colleagues, questions on local blogs and calls to the station.

She was also active on the speaking circuit and had to call organizers for upcoming engagements to explain it wouldn't be 'Lenise Ligon of WBTV' coming to talk, but just Lenise Ligon.

Come on, anyway, they said.

Last week she spoke to about 200 at the 25th anniversary of the Dulatown Outreach Center in Lenoir.

Ligon grew up in Southfield, Mich., just outside Detroit. Her first exposure to the South was her job in Charlotte.

'I knew there was such a thing as Southern hospitality, but I never expected the kindness and support I've gotten from people,' she says.

She's not certain what her next move will be. She can't work in local television for a year, unless she can get her noncompete agreement with Channel 3 waived.

She's thinking about taking classes at UNC Charlotte next semester. She doesn't want to leave town.

Her husband is an engineer in Shelby and they have a toddler, Sidney.

'My husband and I love Charlotte and we intend to raise our son here ... He's 1 year old and walking -- and I'm getting a lot of exercise now.'

Media Movers

Weekend anchor Janelle Martinez is leaving WCNC (Channel 36) after seven years. She wants to spend more time with her children, ages 2 and 5. 'I may pop up somewhere else,' she says. 'Right now I wanted to spend some time with them.' ... Keith Monday joins the WSOC-TV (Channel 9) weather team. He was previously at a station serving Huntington-Charleston, W.Va. ...At WKKT-FM ('Kat' 96.9), Ryan Dokke arrives from Spokane, Wash., to take over as music director ... Richard Hinshaw, once of Charlotte's 'Big WAYS' and WROQ-FM, takes over as general manager for a cluster of stations in Gainesville, Fla. ...

Cellist Kendall Ramseur of Charlotte, a student at the N.C. School of the Arts, will be in the orchestra Sunday when NCSA Chancellor John Mauceri conducts Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' at the Grammy Awards ... It's a boy for Sloan Rutter of Charlotte, who stars on public television's 'For Your Home' show with her mother, Vicki Payne. Rutter's pregnancy will be in an episode on nursery makeovers next season ...

Golfer and Charlotte native Perry Swenson is featured in the series 'Road Trip: Myrtle Beach' airing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays on the Golf Channel.

TO EMAIL LENISE LIGON

lenise.ligon@gmail.com

tv/radio tv/radio Mark

Washburn

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