Posted by chicagomedia.org on June 11, 2008 at 07:43:41:
Road taking Suppelsa in new direction
'This decision was made on: Where are my career and my life going to be five years down the road?" newscaster Mark Suppelsa said Tuesday, choosing his words with extraordinary care. "And I had a clearer picture from the suitors than I did from my previous employer … and, yes, without anything written down, that says something."
Nothing is in writing, nothing finalized, concerning WGN-Ch. 9- bound Suppelsa's future because any offer he fields before next Tuesday can be matched by that "previous employer," Fox-owned WFLD-Ch. 32, from which he abruptly bolted in March after five years.
Suppelsa is being ultracareful about what he says for the same reason, although sources say he is destined for Channel 9, which plans to launch a late afternoon/early evening newscast this summer and where he will succeed station mainstay Steve Sanders as Allison Payne's co-anchor on the marquee 9 p.m. newscast.
"You never quit without a plan," Suppelsa said. "I had some ideas, had some thoughts and had some feelers out there that would only work if it involved me quitting, stepping away from Fox. So when I had the feeling we had the pieces in place—some of it on a wing and a prayer, some of it confirmed—I was comfortable [walking away]."
It was reported here that Suppelsa was offered a pay cut by Channel 32, but Suppelsa said that was not the primary factor in his exit. "I had it in my head I was leaving even before I got the offer" from WFLD, Suppelsa said.
Suppelsa's real dissatisfaction is believed to have stemmed from a deteriorating relationship with Channel 32 management, which refused to allow him to venture into other media.
Tellingly, shortly after leaving WFLD—and visiting Channel 9's top-rated morning news as a tourist—Suppelsa joined Eric Ferguson and Kathy Hart as newscaster on their morning show for Bonneville International's WTMX-FM 101.9, a role he plans to continue.
Suppelsa also expressed concern about "the direction of local news at my former employer based on what may be happening at the corporate level." He declined to expand on that, but a rising star within Fox at the corporate level is Joel Cheatwood, the former news and promotion boss at NBC-owned WMAQ-Ch. 5 during a tumultuous, tawdry, unhappy span in the 1990s while Suppelsa was there.
Sources at Tribune Co., which owns WGN and the Chicago Tribune, indicated the hope is to retain Sanders, a 26-year WGN veteran who has been Payne's co-anchor for 15 years, by establishing a suitable high-profile role for him. He has been off the air this week due to illness.
Suppelsa knows where he's going, even if he cannot say. Just as important, he knows what he has left.
"It was a fine offer, thank you very much, but I was going to go in another direction," he said.
(Phil Rosenthal)