Will Mark Suppelsa stay in Chicago?

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: From Phil Rosenthal: : Newscaster Mark Suppelsa, who has left Fox-owned WFLD-Ch. 32 after shooting down a contract renewal offer to remain its 9 p.m. co-anchor, said Monday that he has no plans to sell his Chicago-area home. : So either he plans to keep working here or he's wary of the local real estate market. Or maybe both. : In local TV news, as in local housing, there are only so many prime locations. : That's why Suppelsa's surprise move has triggered widespread speculation, among local broadcast executives and rank and file alike, concerning where he might land, around town or beyond. : Does WGN-Ch. 9, owned by Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co., use the hiring of an affable, popular anchor such as Suppelsa as the impetus to annex a late-afternoon/early evening slot for a brand new newscast? : Is Suppelsa hoping to return to NBC-owned WMAQ-Ch. 5, which he ditched five years ago for Channel 32 because he couldn't land the 10 p.m. slot he coveted? Warner Saunders is still in that top job, with Bob Sirott and others in line behind. : "Mark's going to have to have Mark's own reasons for doing this, and I'm not going to speculate on that," said Pat Mullen, the former Tribune Broadcasting head who runs both WFLD and WPWR-Ch. 50 in Chicago. : CBS-owned WBBM-Ch. 2 only recently installed Rob Johnson in its Suppelsa role, and ABC-owned WLS-Ch. 7, the longtime market leader, isn't liable to mess with success, though stranger things have happened. : And then there's the whole world beyond Chicago, no matter what that means for Suppelsa and his family's home. : "It's presumptuous for me to say anything at this point except that this is not a retirement announcement, and I will try to get back to work as soon as I can," Suppelsa said by e-mail. : Suppelsa's WFLD contract doesn't expire for another week or so. But Channel 32 management pulled him off the air, replacing him with 10 p.m. co-anchor David Novarro, who is pulling double duty at 9 p.m. while the station figures out what it wants to do. : "We'll make a decision at a later time whether it's appropriate for David to anchor both shows on an ongoing basis or whether we structure the department in another manner," Mullen said. : Suppelsa isn't expected to resurface anywhere else until at least mid-June. His agents, Todd and Brian Musburger, are free to negotiate on his behalf, but there's a 90-day window in which WFLD has the right to match any formal offer he receives. So they're in no hurry. : The Musburgers and Suppelsa surely have a game plan, even if it doesn't yet make sense to discuss it publicly. These coveted jobs are rarely abandoned, and no one knows that better than Suppelsa, who has had to maneuver before to get into one. : Suppelsa, 45, who was born in Milwaukee but grew up in the Chicago area, spent 10 years at Channel 5. Although he anchored the station's 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts, he pined for a 10 p.m. slot and, having failed to secure it, jumped to WFLD in 2003. : Initially at Channel 32, he bumped Novarro from the station's noon newscast, but with contractual assurances he eventually would succeed local news veteran Walter Jacobson on the station's marquee 9 p.m. broadcast with Robin Robinson. That happened 18 months later. : "Mark's been a talented anchor. He's a good guy. I consider him a good friend," Mullen said. "We're going to move on."

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