KVLY-TV 11 meteorologist Tom Szymanski, one of Fargo-Moorhead's most recognizable personalities, was fired Monday night.
Szymanksi, the station's weatherman for 15 years, was informed after his final 10 p.m. newscast that the corporate owners of KVLY, Dallas-based Hoak Media Corp., had ordered his firing.
General Manager Charley Johnson, a close friend of Szymanski's, broke the news to him. Szymanksi said he wasn't given a specific reason. "I was just told that the company is going in a direction that they feel I shouldn't be a part of," he said Tuesday. "There were just some general statements that, 'We are going to start doing some things different before the November ratings period.' "
November is one of the four months of the year, called "sweeps weeks," used to set local advertising rates.
Johnson said he could only confirm Szymanski no longer worked at the station, declining to elaborate on the cause.
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"Fifteen years is a long time. He's our good friend, and we wish him nothing but the best," the general manager said. "I can't tell you how much we like Tom."
Szymanski said plans are in the works for KVLY and KXJB-TV 4, which share news staff and management, to start broadcasting the same newscast on weekdays at 10 p.m., as they already do on weekends. He said the move to simulcasting may be connected to his release. Johnson disagreed that the firing and whatever changes may be in store for the two stations - about which he has nothing to announce - are directly connected.
"It's not a reduction in force kind of thing. We're going to replace him," he said.
Johnson did say KVLY and KXJB are reviewing how to take better advantage of the two-station arrangement.
Szymanski said he was surprised to be fired, but had no hard feelings. "I'm not the first guy it's happened to, and I'm certainly not going to be the last," he said.
The meteorologist is a 6-foot-10-inch former college basketball player nicknamed "Too Tall." He's been the spokesman for "Tom's Coats for Kids," a campaign to collect coats for needy children.
Szymanski is a high-profile enough public figure that his likeness has graced a bobble-head figurine, and he was one of three finalists in the "personality" category of a recent online reader poll by The Forum.
Szymanski said he will be looking for work, preferably in the Fargo area. He'd like to return to broadcasting or the jump to teaching.
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"Let's just say folks around here aren't done hearing from Tom Szymanski, one way or another," he said.
