KDKA-TV anchors laid off amid sweeping cuts
KDKA-TV laid off anchors Susan Koeppen and Rick Dayton on Wednesday as the CBS News division announced cuts both nationally and at its owned and operated local stations.
In December, a ViacomCBS merger was created. In streamlining operations, layoffs on the entertainment side as well as news side have ensued.
Ms. Koeppen had been with KDKA since 2011 and anchored the 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts Tuesday.
Mr. Dayton was a morning anchor who joined the station in 2009. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.
“I am going to miss the amazing people I work with. I had such fantastic co-workers … and the people of Pittsburgh have always been wonderful to me,” said Ms. Koeppen, who has won seven regional Emmy awards.
“The silver lining is, I get to spend more time with my children and be a great mom to them. And I’ll figure out what’s next. But I can only be positive.”
Ms. Koeppen had worked at
WTAE-TV for four years until 2004, when she left for New York and a job as consumer investigator with CBS’s “The Early Show.” She began at KDKA after the show was revamped.
Shortly after returning to Pittsburgh in 2011, she was out running with friends when she suffered a cardiac incident that nearly killed her.
“Nov. 20 changed my life forever, and it made me really appreciate life to the fullest, to live my life every single day with purpose,” she said.
“So I’m looking at this [layoff] as ‘All right, what is the silver lining? What is the positive here?’
“Things happen in life, and you have got to get through it. You have got to be positive, and you have got to do your best.”
In early March, KDKA began its streaming news service, CBSN Pittsburgh, as the network expanded its round-the-clock local coverage.
KDKA general manager Chris Cotugno, in confirming the layoffs, emailed a corporate statement: “We are restructuring various operations at CBS as part of our ongoing integration with Viacom, and to adapt to changes in our business, including those related to COVID-19.
“Our thoughts today are with our departing colleagues for their friendship, service and many important contributions to CBS.”
Hours after Ms. Koeppen and Mr. Dayton were laid off, their bios were removed from the KDKA website.
An earlier round of ViacomCBS reductions were concentrated mostly on the new company’s cable television side. Pittsburgh was far from the only local owned and operated station affected Wednesday; WBBM in Chicago reportedly has lost at least a dozen people including news and sports anchors.