FARGO – A longtime WDAY meteorologist will leave television at the end of the week.
Daryl Ritchison, who has talked about weather on WDAY-TV’s First News for the last 18 years, is leaving for a job at the state climatologist’s office at North Dakota State University. His last day on WDAY will be Friday.
“I loved my job in weather and TV, but I’ve been doing it for 25 years,” Ritchison said. “So this will just give me a different challenge, something else to do for a while. Twenty-five years is a long time.”
Ritchison said the normal 8-to-5 schedule at the NDSU job also interested him. In those 25 years on television, Ritchison has either worked late night or early morning shifts.
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“I’ve never actually had a ‘day job,’ so to speak, in my adult life,” he said. “So it was just an opportunity that I just thought I would take.”
WDAY News Director Jeff Nelson said the search for a replacement has already started, and the TV station will look nationwide as well as internally.
Aaron White and Rebecca Lebak will help fill in before a replacement is found, Nelson said.
WDAY is owned by Forum Communications, which also owns Forum News Service.
