Tag: Channel 8

Jeff Brady in Brad Hawkins out at WFAA Channel 8’s Daybreak

jbrady_n
Jeff Brady

Jeff Brady is taking over for Brad Hawkins now on WFAA’s Daybreak.


Brad Hawkins

Brad Hawkins has left Daybreak for “corporate America” and former 5 p.m. anchor, Jeff Brady is taking his slot alongside Cynthia Izaguirre “for the time being.”

Hawkins posted a video blog on WFAA explaining the switch and seemed to really put an emphasis on “this is not permanent.” Sounded like perhaps he’s not too happy with the switch.

Been a crazy 12 months for the Daybreak team. First was the change of bringing in Izaguirre, next was the departure of Justin Farmer, who was replaced by Brad Hawkins, and now Hawkin’s departure. Will be interesting to see what happens next.

It’ll also be interesting to see what kind of reaction this gets – the original announcement about Justin Farmer remains one of the #1 blog posts on my site. Crazy!

Brady Media Group

UPDATE (11/13/09): Jeff Brady has left WFAA as well. As of March 12, 2009, he left the station to start his own new media/PR consulting company – Brady Media Group.

In a Tweet from June 27, he suggests that folks aren’t interested in “appointment TV” anymore. We don’t rush home to watch the news at 5,6 and 10 anymore. He’s right – probably why I hadn’t noticed he was no longer with the station.

From his site:

My name is Jeff L. Brady. I’m the CEO of a new media advocacy agency called the Brady Media Group. We are journalists, photographers, creative digital architects and – in the end – professional storytellers. We have not formed an ad agency, production house or a traditional PR firm. We approach commercial marketing from several new directions. All focused on authentic, value-driven media content. All of them focused on the future.

So good luck to Jeff and his new venture! Hopefully he’ll start Tweeting again as he continues on this new journey.

Justin Farmer to leave WFAA

Uncle Barkey reports that half of WFAA’s (Channel 8 ) newly joined morning anchor team will be heading back home to Atlanta.

“Hometown girl” Cynthia Izaguirre returns to the city that raised her on the same day Justin Farmer decides to go home home again, too.

Except that Belo8 wasn’t planning on his surprise departure from the station’s increasingly important early morning Daybreak. The announcement came just a few hours after Farmer and Izaguirre had teamed for the first time on Friday’s program. They were supposed to be teammates for years to come.

“This isn’t about leaving WFAA,” Farmer said in an email sent early Monday morning. “This has been a great ride on many fronts. This is about going home to WSB in Atlanta. I learned to shoot and edit in that place. I was born and raised in Atlanta. My family and I thought long and hard about this decision and make it with conviction. With that said, I am glad to have a number of months left at WFAA. This place is all class and Cynthia and I have a lot of work to do.”