Ward and Gable out at KDKA-TV
August 1, 2025Every now and again in this business we experience what has become known as a “blood-letting”. These gigantic companies that own our radio and TV stations have to let a few people go to “save money”.
Morning anchor Lindsay Ward, and afternoon anchor Kym Gable received their notice Thursday not to return to KDKA-TV after their vacations.
With the much ballyhooed (and somewhat controversial) announcement of Skydance Media purchasing Paramount… who owns CBS… and thereby all of the CBS O&Os (that’s owned and operated TV stations for those not up on the lingo) including KDKA-TV (2) and WPKD-TV (19), I’m not surprised by these and other similar actions.
In their social media posts this morning, Gable is perhaps the most honest when she says, “Not our choice. Because of ‘financial reasons,’ our contracts – both up in September – are not being renewed.” She went on to say that the industry can be brutal and more so to women. “Lindsay and I have grit, but also grace. And gratitude.”
Both said they aren’t finished, but their immediate plan is quite simply family. “They will always come first,” Ward said
Gable came to KDKA in 2006 from WPGH-TV (53) where she had worked as a reporter for the Sinclair version of the 10:00 news which went under the management of WPXI (11) that year. Ward arrived at KD in 2019. Both have been taken off the station’s website.
Read their complete stories via Facebook below.
Hate to say it but I look for KDKA and the other CBS O&O’s to make a shift right with their news coverage under Skydance ownership. As if that’s not seen enough with Sinclair, Nexstar, Fox, etc… Even though I haven’t lived in the area in eight years I tend to watch channel 11 when I want to see local news from back home (I still have the WPXI app on my Roku’s) since they seem to be the most politically neutral. Ironic since out here in Columbus I tend to watch Sinclair’s WSYX but they seem to be more neutral themselves than most of Sinclair’s news-producing stations–somewhat surprising since Sinclair has owned them since 1996. Ironically, they’re also one of Sinclair’s strongest and most profitable stations. Coincidence?
WSYX is one of the more neutral for Sinclair, but they’ve made a lot of personnel mistakes in the last 10 or so years. But they are very VERY good at public service and remotes… and even doing entire newscasts from events like the state fair or the Irish Festival.
Yes, they have made a lot of mistakes but not as many as WBNS (the CBS affiliate where former WTAE meteorologist Jerry Martz is at these days), plus until recently they kind of benefitted from having the majority of Ohio State football games through its affiliation with ABC on 6.1 and Fox (first on WTTE, then WSYX 6.3 when Sinclair started consolidating subchannels onto stations it owns outright). I imagine with Cox for sale if Sinclair does buy WPXI and integrates them with WPGH/WPNT, it would kinda be what Sinclair has already done in Columbus and a few other markets like Baltimore and Nashville.
Starting today, I will boycott KDKA news……they let these professionals go, ..There are others whom I feel would have been a better choice……….Good Luck Lindsay and Kim……without you 2…..KDKA news has lost me as a viewer…….I hope Kim and Lindsay go to a rival station and KDKA’s ratings go in the toilet………
This comment was edited to remove names. PBRTV does not need to be, nor do I want it being the cause of an air staffer being raked over the coals.
To that end… it’s hard to know or even find out why they chose the ones they did. Sometimes it’s who has the nearest contract renewal coming up as was the case here. Sometimes a reporter is a freelancer… so nothing there to protect their employment…