UPDATED — It looks like KSN, Channel 3, has imploded its 10 p.m. newscast.
Neither general manager John Dawson nor news director Jason Kravarik returned calls to comment.
Sources say, though, that anchors Stephanie Bergmann and John Snyder along with chief meteorologist Dave Freeman and sportscaster Jim Kobbe have been told their services will no longer be needed at 10 p.m.
“I have been told that sometime here shortly I will no longer be doing the 10 o’clock news, and, of course, by extension that means I will not be doing most severe weather coverage since most severe weather happens in the evenings,” Freeman says. “I have not been told anything about what the reasoning is or what the plan is.”
Freeman, who is known for his sometimes passionate delivery when reporting dangerous weather conditions, has been doing the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts since 1993.
“As you can imagine, it’s very surprising,” Freeman says. “I would say that probably the biggest feeling that I have is just a sense . . . that I would really hate to be letting people down, and that’s the feeling. You know, there’s an intimate relationship between the people at home and the meteorologists of this part of the world.”
Freeman won’t discuss what’s happening with his colleagues.
“It would not be appropriate for me to speak about other people’s destinies,” he says.
Kobbe and Bergmann declined to comment.
Snyder acknowledges the change but says he can’t say much more.
“I have been told I will not be doing the 10 o’clock,” he says. “I don’t know what the situation is.”
Snyder says Kravarik didn’t give him a reason for the change.
Nor does Snyder know what his assignment will be in the future.
“I truly don’t know.”
Bergmann hosted the morning and noon shows before she and Snyder, who used to anchor the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, N.C., took over anchoring duties in April 2009 after Anita Cochran left the station.
Freeman says he doesn’t know many details about the latest changes.
There is one thing he does know, though.
“It’ll be very hard to not be doing what I have been trained to do all these years.”