Changes, Comings and Goings in Huntsville

Some changes are happening on air and off at WAAY in Huntsville.

Here is the internal memo that was sent out to the staff from GM Paul Dughi and obtained by FTVLive:

TO:  WAAY31 Team
 
A new role for Jillian and new additions to the WAAY31 news team:
 
Jillian Pavlica, WAAY31 Weekend Anchor, is taking on an important new role.  In June, she will be moving to the morning newscast to anchor the Digital Content desk.  She will be reporting on breaking news, developing stories, internet trends and videos, and be a major contributor to the morning news.  She will join Erin, Ari, and new co-anchor Justin McFarland in the studio.  This move will happen sometime in the middle of June.
 
Demetria McClenton will be joining the WAAY news team as Weekend Anchor/Reporter.  Demetria has been the morning anchor at WTVY in Dothan, AL for the past four years while also teaching as an Adjunct Professor at Wallace Community College.  Prior to that she was a Production Assistant at FOX/Chicago.  She has a B.S. in Business Administration from Florida A&M and a Masters in Communications from Governors State.  Demetria starts June 17th.
 
In case you missed the previous announcements, here they are:
 
Jennifer Hardy, News Director, starts June 2nd (and maybe a few days before that depending on travel).  She’s currently ND at KOLO in Reno, NV.

Isaac Williams, Weekend Meteorologist, has been working part-time on the weekends while getting his Master’s Degree.  He graduates this weekend (Congrats, Isaac!) and starts full-time with us on May 19th.

Liz Cosgrove joins the team as 9pm FOX54 Meteorologist and WAAY31 Tech beat reporter on June 2nd.  Liz is currently the AM & Noon Meteorologist at KIDK in Idaho Falls.

Justin McFarland, AM Co-Anchor, joins us June 9th (right after his wedding!).  Justin is currently reporter/fill-in anchor at FOX in Nashville… and an Oakwood grad.

Sadly, we have a couple of departures as well:
 
Lillian Lalo, WAAY31 Morning Reporter, will be leaving us on May 30th to join her husband who took a job in Birmingham. 

Kalie Lanford, WAAY31 Reporter, is leaving June 4th to head back home.  Thanks Lillian and Kalie for all the hard work.  You will be missed.

Stay tuned!  We have more reinforcements coming soon!

Paul Dughi  
VP/General Manager