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First Liam Martin, now Kate Merrill leaves WBZ

Kate Merrill celebrates 20 years at WBZ-TV

WBZ's morning anchor Kate Merrill hadn't been on the air in a couple weeks and now the station says she's left of her own volition - just three months after she celebrated her 20th year there.

The station has already scrubbed her from its Web site. Her fans are not happy with the station.

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Comments

The only local TV news I had watched with any regularity lately was a bit of WBZ in the morning, and now Kate and Liam have departed, along with longtimers at other stations. I guess the business is ultra tough now, and when was the last time a local newscast didn't go straight to weather first, and redundant sports segments second? Universal Hub provides more in a week than these TV stations do in a month.

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Voting closed 91

rapidly losing its local flavor.
We boasted the most locally raised news reporters and on-air personalities than most major markets, and personalities who stay with us for decades.
That's changing. It's sad.

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I've left jobs and they take your information offline, Email, bio etc.
Why do people think TV is different.?

If I had to guess it's probably a contract dispute, WBZ can probably fill her position for half the cost and of course we all think we deserve more every year.

I hope she lands on her feet

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Get you a job that isn't dependent on flimsy advertisers seeking to be adjacent to boomer crap.

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WBZ has been slowly tanking over the years and letting go of their long time staff. Sad to see Kate go, she was one of the good ones left.

There is no reason to watch WBZ anymore, they are just awful. More tabloid / Catchy Headlines / "investigative reportings".. things that make you want to tune in (okay maybe others). CBS has really done some wonders over there /snark

I won't watch WFXT b/c they are owned by Cox. WBTS-CD is well... its Comcast so nope, all set. (its awful to watch).

That leaves WCVB and WHDH. WCVB has tried to maintain its strong hold in local news. WHDH..

I gotta give Sunbeam TV's commitment to local news. Since its not some huge corporate conglomerate, they can focus on more news. (Sunbeam TV is small compared to other corps, folks..). I used to not like WHDH News, but in recent years it's become my go to.. because its on at odd hours AND I'll support a station's commitment to local news. Especially when it would be too easy for Sunbeam to turn WHDH into infomercial/2nd run talk show/Re-Run central like many indy TV stations these days.

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I absolutely agree, WHDH has become my go to over the past several years.

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When WHDH was an NBC affiliate before becoming an independent, the news was unwatchable. Once WHDH lost its NBC affiliation, it concentrated more on being a news station - 11 hours per day - but they could do better with their in-between news shows (weekend infomercials, endless Judge shows and Family Feud, etc.) Now, I watch the 9pm newscast religiously because they take great care of actually reporting the news without overhyping it.

As for WBZ, the news is OK, but not as great as it used to be. As it's a CBS O&O (owned and operated) station, most of the decisions come from on high at CBS. Same for WBTS, only NBC calls the shots. WCVB is owned by Hearst, and while they try hard to keep the news local, sometimes it's almost a carbon copy of ABC News. WFXT - news is OK, the network itself not so much.

Fun fact: Channel 7 has had all three network affiliates - CBS (1948-1961, 1972-1995), ABC (1961-1972) and NBC (1995-2016); it has not been a Fox affiliate, which its sister station WSVN in Miami is.

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I had forgotten all about ABC moving from 7 to 5 in 1972. You certainly jogged a deep memory there.

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I really like 7News New England for morning after work news and until my recent move to Milton for the 8-10 PM before work time slot as well.

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Management wanted to move her to the weekend night anchor spot, and she quit.

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Bring back Liz Walker, Jack Williams, Tony Pepper, Don Kent, Bob Lobel , Bruce Schwegler, Joyce Kulhawik the Glory days of WBZ TV news

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if Pepper, Schwoegler and Kent appeared

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Then Zack Green gets booted, Liam Martin leaves, and now Kate Merrill? And where are they hiding Nick Giovanni? It used to be the best morning show, now it’s the B team all the time. No thanks.

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I just read about Kate Merrill in the Daily Mail!

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