Kristina’s new world: WLWT in Cincinnati
Former NBC29 anchor Kristina Cruise, who was “reassigned” to general reporting earlier this year to make room for another anchor, has disappeared from the NBC29 website.
But not to worry, Kristina fans. Cruise has a new job with another, much larger NBC station: WLWT Channel 5 in Cincinnati. She’s a reporter for its morning news show, and starting on October 17, she’s back behind the anchor desk, filling in for the next month for an anchor on medical leave.
“We’ve seen her anchor and we know she can do that,” says WLWT’s news director, Brennan Donnellan.
And indeed, Cruise anchored NBC29’s news at noon and 5 until she was unceremoniously sent home by the station, purportedly for talking to the Hook without authorization, although former NBC29 staffers say her “special assignment” back to reporting was a move long planned by station management to make room for new anchor Sharon Gregory and Laura French’s return from maternity leave.
Cruise’s move to the Buckeye state sends her leap-frogging from Charlottesville’s number 181 media market to Cincinnati’s number 33.
“I see a lot of tapes and DVDs from candidates for positions like this, and they’re talented and they look good,” says Donnellan. “Kristina really sold us when she walked in the door. Her attitude, her love of journalism– there was a passion there and a sincere commitment to reporting.”
He points out that television news gathering is a team effort, and that Cruise displayed the same kind of passion for being a team member. “We talked with other people who knew her and they confirmed that,” says Donnellan.
The Hook was unable to reach Cruise for comment before blog time, and hopes her new station won’t send her home for talking to us about her new job.
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Good for her! Probably a healthy change for her in the long run. To replace her with that irritating Gregory was a mistake.
Nice to see art history majors get to write headlines at the Hook.
NBC 29 sure does seem to be losing a lot of their best. Sara Drown, Beth Duffy, and now Christina Cruise.
And that Gregory person coughing on air all the time. It IS getting really annoying.
It’s not that Gregory coughs, everybody does that. She tends to make her own little comments and inferences in stories. That’s what I find irritating. Plus the whole damn Shenandoah Valley focus is why I usually watch WCAV now.
Yeah, Sharon is hard to watch. She choked so bad last week, her partner had to start reading for her. CBS 19 is really the station to watch. I’m tired of hearing about the latest COW story in Augusta county. NBC29 better get some reall talent becauwe iot seems like they’re just living off second and third string reporters and anchors.
MaryLou, for someone who professes to hate NBC29, you sure watch enough of it. What’s your beef with Sharon Gregory anyway? Are you a disgruntled ex-employee?
No one forces anyone to watch TV. If you see something you don’t like, change the channel or better yet, turn it off. Read a newspaper. Read The Hook.
Those kids at both stations are doing the best they can. At NBC29, the situation is less than ideal. That’s their management’s fault. As for Sharon Gregory, yes, she’s a party girl with a past. But it’s the personalities you remember. I get the feeling watching her that she had loads of personality and NBC hasn’t shown that off yet.
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Well Mary Lou? Real nice.
i stopped watching NBC 29 when the whole Beth Duffy and Christina Cruise story broke last time. I thought that Christina was treated very poorly from NBC 29.
Jee,
What happened between them?
I only watch NBC 29 news for the (unintentional) entertainment value. their attempts at news reporting are routinely funnier than anything NBC likes to fob off as comedy during primetime.
But the station allegedly pays starvation wages, so what;s a hungry young journlaist to do? Get some good video, grab a year of experience and get the hell on down the road.
It would appear that the station deals with 100 percent turnover approximately every two years. Anyone around longer than that prolly doesn’t have the chops to make it anywhere else, anyway. As a companion point to this aergument, look at the lifers at the Daily Progress. Trying to read their stuff is the rhetorical equivalent of speedbumps on an interstate.
I quit watching NBC when the story broke about Kristina Cruise. I heard her on the radio and someone told me whe was back on mornings. I watched one day and she was gone after that.f I don’t watch NBC29 any more. You are right I have the right to choose my radio and tv stations and I have chosen Channel 19. I like Beth and I would have liked to see her and Kristina team up.
Yea, Beth and Kristina could have read the hell out of those teleprompters!.