Bye Bye in teh Burgh

After 30 years at Hearst-owned WTAE, longtime anchor Michelle Wright signed off at the end of last week.

For most of her time at the station, Wright anchored the station’s morning newscast. The station ran now-and-then promos during the Feb Book, promoting the fact that it was Wright’s last month at the station.

“I hope you’re not sick of me at home because the commercials [about my retirement] have been nonstop,” Wright said.

On a personal note, I was working at WPXI in Pittsburgh about the time that Wright was starting at WTAE. I had the opportunity to run into her more than a few times at different events. She was that rare breed of anchor, who had almost zero ego and was generally a nice person. Those kinds of people are hard to find in TV news, so, yes, the business is losing a good one.

Wright even made her own goodbye package. Those are usually tasked to some other talent at the station and have to write a puff piece about a co-worker, and it almost always looks cheesy.

Wright did her own. It still was a bit cheesy, but she didn’t subject a co-worker to having to do it.