Florida News Center

Viewers on the First Coast tell Florida News Center that Tera Williams (right) has found a job at Jacksonville’s WTEV/WAWS. She made her debut on the duopoly today, filling in on the morning show for anchor Dawn Lopez.

Sources tell Florida News Center that Lopez (left) is off the air, to “recover from a medical procedure.” Specifics were not given, only that Lopez will be off the air and Williams will cover her morning anchoring duties for the next few weeks.

Williams (now known as Tera Barz in her new gig at WTEV/WAWS) is sharing the anchor desk with morning co-anchor, and her husband, Mike Barz.

As Florida News Center reported several weeks ago, Tera Williams (Tera Barz) left Chicago’s WFLD-TV, “headed for a Jacksonville area station”. Her husband, Mike Barz (right), left Chicago’s WFLD-TV in 2009 and joined WTEV/WAWS in June 2010.

What will happen to Tera Williams (Tera Barz) after Dawn Lopez returns from her recovery? Will the husband and wife team continue to anchor together? Stay tuned….

UPDATE: Our friends at FTVLive.com report that Williams IS in fact headed to Florida to join her husband in Jacksonville. According to FTV, Williams is returning to Jacksonville to anchor full time “Monday-Friday.” Who is Williams replacing? At what station? Stay tuned…

(from ChicagoTribune.com) – Tera Williams (left), whose maternity leave from WFLD-Ch. 32 is scheduled to end Nov. 9, is not expected to return to the Fox-owned Chicago station where she has been a general assignment reporter for nearly four years, sources say.

Williams is the wife of Mike Barz (right), a former WFLD anchor who in August lost his arbitration case against the station related to his 2009 exit. Barz earlier this year landed in Jacksonville, Fla., as an anchor for WTEV-TV and WAWS-TV.

Williams, who grew up in Florida and has family there, declined comment on Sunday. Efforts to reach a station spokesman have been unsuccessful.

(edited from ChicagoTribune.com) - An arbitrator has ruled that Chicago’s WFLD-Ch. 32 had grounds to terminate morning anchor Mike Barz last year and will not have to pay him severance.

Barz earlier this year moved on, joining Jacksonville’s CBS and Fox affilliates, WTEV-TV and WAWS-TV. Efforts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful. The station would only confirm the ruling.

At the time of his WFLD exit in July 2009, Barz had about eight months left on his contract with the Fox-owned Chicago station….Cont….

5/26/10 -  UPDATE – Several sources tell Florida News Center that Dawn Lopez is NOT leaving WTEV/WAWS, as we reported yesterday (story below). However, other sources still report conflicting information about Lopez’s future at the station. These conflicting reports about Dawn Lopez, do not rule out future cuts at the duopoly. Stay tuned for further information.

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Insiders on the First Coast tell Florida News Center that the axe is swinging at Jacksonville’s WTEV/WAWS. Sources say that longtime anchor Dawn Lopez is being let go from the station. She was downgraded from primetime anchor to the morning shift about a year ago.

Last week our friends at FTVLive.com reported that former Chicago anchor Mike Barz is joining WTEV/WAWS as a new anchor.  FTV Live reported: “It’s obvious that Barz is coming to the station and a current Anchor is going to be bumped off a show or two.” Could Barz be the replacement for Dawn Lopez?

Sources say Lopez is the first, but NOT the last to be fired from the duopoly. All departments and all positions are in jeopardy. Stay tuned!