We’re happy for WTNH meteorologist Steve MacLaughlin that he’s headed to a new job in Pittsburch at WTAE, the Hearst-owned ABC affiliate. He will serve as the station’s morning and noon weather guy. Steve has been at 8 since 2011 when he was put in the uncomfortable position of replacing Geoff Fox. We always thought he got a raw deal as he was then moved aside from the main newscasts in favor of Erika Martin. Good luck to him in the Steel City.
Sorry, meant to add that Gil is the good one they currently have, in the am’s…should have been promoted. God bless Dr Mel, miss Geoff!
Yes…watched WTNH for years, Fox left and followed him to FOXCT, he later was fired…but I enjoy Rachael Frank and think she is great! Miss the old wtnh days RIP…my tv is now watching FOXCT or NBCCT. Steve was a nice guy! Now there is a beauty contest on the New NEWS8…Good luck Steve…maybe we will see you again!
NBC CT guy here, but thought Steve did a good job during the times I caught the news on WTNH. I thought it was horrible how he was treated given the situation he walked into. I hope his new gig works out well for him.
Great for Steve! An actual academic meteorologist, he deserves much better after he was tossed aside so quickly for the highly underqualified, but somewhat prettier and more ethnically correct Ms. Martin. The Ch. 8 weather team, once a proud, trusted legacy, is now weaker than ever.
I am glad for Steve he got a bad deal
at WTNH.
Agree with all above. Now a regular watcher of NBC Connecticut, all because of what TNH did with their weather. Steve was good. Gil is solid. Can not watch Erika. Wishing Steve the best – he deserved better.
Kudos for Steve for getting out of the sinking ship that 8 has become. Mediocre and inept management from the GM’s office down to the news floor has decimated 8 over the past 2 years. Their morning news is dismal, unwatchable and often in 3rd or 4th place; their 5pm hour barely manages a second place finish; their 6pm news is in 3rd and their 11pm news is in 4th. They have no weekend news coverage to speak of, morale is in the toilet, their weather team is Gil and “that girl” and their demos aren’t worthy of a dog’s dinner. That awful smell at Elm and State in downtown New Haven is doom hanging over the building. Changes are coming. Big ones.
Read enough posts on this and Besthoff’s link and you’d think the world was upside down. 3 & 8 are still 1 & 2 n’ the double digit stations are still accounting for the low end. Maybe if the folks at 30 & 61 spent less time posting wishful thinking on blogs and more time doing the news they wouldn’t be spending their lives looking up at FSB & TNH for years on end.
Good luck Steve When they threw him overboard for Erika I knew his resume would be out there She looks good but doesn’t have the weather knowledge that Steve has I watch any station but 8 !
It’s not fair to blame Erika for anything. She has the right, as anybody else, to pursue her career.
The blame for the demise of Channel 8 weather credibility lies with management. They are the one(s) who brought in Steve with his big market experience and meteorology degree, only to quickly dump him to weekends to promote Erika from weekends. She has tough shoes to fill, Geoff Fox, who was an institution. Erika has minimal experience in small markets and was bumped up at 8 surprisingly quickly.
She seems like a nice woman but just doesn’t have the charisma experience or the creds of her predecessors for the science of weather. She should (again management) have stayed on weekends to build her audience and recognizability first. Joe Furey and Bruce Depriest are my go-to guys for serious, believable weather forecasts. They have been here for decades and have paid their dues.
Didn’t Fox and Martin go to the same weather school?