Another weekend morning anchor has seen the light and escaped local TV news!
Yesterday afternoon, Shelby Montgomery – a weekend anchor for KOCO Channel 5 – announced on Facebook that she’s not renewing her contract with the OKC ABC affiliate and is apparently saying goodbye to the long hours and low pay of the TV news field.
Although TV stations generally prefer their former anchors to disappear without a trace, Channel 5 was cool enough to let Shelby announce her career move on her soon-to-be-deleted Facebook page.
Once again, I rarely – if ever – watch local morning news, especially when hungover on the weekend, but I do have three quick thoughts on this:
1. I’d like to wish whoever in Shelby’s family is dealing with cancer the best of luck in their recovery.
2. TV news stations have plenty of dumb policies, but not letting their employees own their social media profiles is one of the pettiest. Being popular online – and constantly judged by retirees – is the only perk of being a local news anchor, so taking away their following feels downright cruel. At least let the former employee keep the clout as a parting gift.
3. Shelby has a master's degree and was stuck in Oklahoma City reading teleprompters about overnight apartment fires and tossing it over to Sabrina for the weather? Yikes! That’s almost as depressing as having a bachelor’s degree, but still living in your mom’s basement writing about the careers of morning news anchors. I guess you can’t blame Shelby for leaving!
Anyway, we wish Shelby and her family the best of luck in getting healthy and actually using her degree.
If you’re a local news viewer and you’re sad that she’s gone, don’t be too sad. The KOCO weekday news desk will still be occupied by a familiar face:
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
