Gibson out, Allen in as WIKY/South Central Media shakes up news department

JDTVB has confirmed this morning that there has been a personnel change in the news department at Evansville's #1 radio station, WIKY (104.1 FM).

John Gibson, who served with the station for more than two decades, is no longer with WIKY's parent company, South Central Media.

No reason was given for Gibson's departure.

A new voice in the news department - although certainly a familiar one to listeners of WIKY - is longtime air personality Rick Allen. I'm told that he has been made a part of the news team "effective immediately."

I will keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Comments

Anonymous said…
After 20+ years of service at all hours of the day or night - it looks a lot like age discrimination to me. I mean, they wouldn't bring in a radio personality (aka - DJ) for a fraction of the cost of a seasoned and experienced newsman in his 50's. That would be illegal wouldn't it? It would be immoral - certainly. NOBODY should be treated as John Gibson is being treated by his former employer. What they are doing to him is an obscenity.
Thursday, August 29, 2013 at 5:29:00 PM CDT
Anonymous said…
After spending his working career at WIKY for the past twenty plus years, I'm shocked and saddened by the news that long time Newsman/News Producer, John Gibson has been 'downsized' due to financial concerns at the station. It appears that the station is addressing their financial stress by letting the more experienced and seasoned newsman go and replacing him with a green DJ who is now going to play the part of a newsman on the radio. It is both inexcusable and probably illegal to discriminate against an employee based on his or her age. John Gibson is in his 50's. His replacement is younger. John has 20 some years of on the air experience working in the Evansville market. His replacement... not so much. Evansville's radio persona will be much the poorer without John's calm and authoritative manner of reporting generations have grown to trust.
To the management of WIKY - you should be ashamed of yourself for treating a senior member of your staff so poorly after 20 some years of being able to count on him to be there for you... day in, day out.... year in and year out. While I can only suspect that your age discrimination against John is illegal I can assure you that it is - immoral. You should be ashamed of yourselves for treating John in such a shoddy and transparently financially driven manner. I hope the cheaper labor costs are worth it. Unfortunately, we, the audience will be the worse for it.
Thursday, August 29, 2013 at 5:46:00 PM CDT
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