Florida News Center

Are layoffs coming to FL Fox O&O’s? Read the story below to see how new technical changes, could effect employees at Tampa’s WTVT, Orlando’s WOFL/WRBW and Gainesville’s WOGX.

(from TVSpy.com) – Chicago’s Fox O&O WFLD-TV today notified 10 technicians that their positions are being eliminated in the coming weeks.

A Fox spokesperson confirmed the job cuts to TVSpy, saying that it was part of the station group’s move from an engineering-based system to an IT-based system. The transition has been in the works for more than a year now and Fox plans to begin running much of its stations’ technical operations, such as the distribution of programming and insertion of commercials, out of a new hub based in Las Vegas.

Master control operations will continue at the local level however and the spokesperson says that, while jobs associated with the old system are being eliminated, stations will potentially be hiring for positions in master control….Cont….

After a little more than two years, chief meteorologist Tammie Souza gave her last forecast on WTSP’s Friday 6pm newscast. The 5-630pm news blocks were filled with goodbyes to her fellow anchors and to WTSP viewers.

Souza explained that she was leaving the station to be closer to her son and husband who live in the Chicago area. Souza’s husband, who tried to find work locally, could not find a job comparable to his job in Chicago.

Souza is re-joining Chicago’s WFLD Fox 32, where she was a meteorologist prior to joining WTSP in October 2008.

So far, there has been no word on her replacement. Sources tell Florida News Center that a nationwide search is on and everyone is being considered, even those at other Gannett sations and those already at WTSP. Stay tuned…

Watch Tammie Souza sign off c/o FNC on YouTube

Sources tell Florida News Center, that after just two years, WTSP chief meteorologist Tammie Souza is leaving the Tampa station to return back to Chicago. She will return to WFLD Fox 32 (although suits at WFLD have yet to officially confirm her return), where she was a meteorologist before coming to WTSP. She joined WTSP in Oct 2008, becoming the Tampa market’s first female chief meteorologist. Her final day at the station will be Jan 21, 2011.

Souza is returning to Chicago to reunite with her husband and child, who still live in the Chicago area. “My decision to leave is totally family-0based and completely mine,” said Souza, who agonized over how best to reunite her family. “I love 10 News and the people I work with — you don’t leave chief meteorologist jobs unless it’s over something very big. My bosses gave me time to think about it all and left the decision up to me.”

(from TampaBay.com) - Tammie Souza has confirmed she will soon leave her job as chief meteorologist at area CBS affiliate WTSP-Ch. 10 just two years after she arrived, negotiating a return to Chicago in order to reunite her family.

Souza will likely return to the station she left for WTSP, Chicago-area Fox affiliate WFLD-TV.  She said the move was prompted by the difficulty her husband, Greg Hendricks, has had in finding a position in Florida comparable to his job teaching industrial arts in the Chicago area.

Hendricks never moved to Florida, prompting Souza to commute between the two cities — even after the pair adopted a baby boy, Caleb, now 22 months old.

“My decision to leave is totally family-0based and completely mine,” said Souza, who agonized over how best to reunite her family. “I love 10 News and the people I work with — you don’t leave chief meteorologist jobs unless it’s over something very big. My bosses gave me time to think about it all and left the decision up to me.”….Cont….

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….