David Payne jumps from KFOR to KWTV

[T.L. Hughes 752]

David Payne will be joining Oklahoma City's CBS affiliate KWTV, after a 19-year run at rival NBC affiliate KFOR-TV. Payne announced the news of his new contract with KWTV on Friday (December 14) on his KFOR Facebook and Twitter accounts, which have since been taken down.

 

Payne, who was last seen on KFOR and co-owned independent station KAUT-TV (both owned by Local TV, LLC) on November 30, primarily served as the station's weekday morning meteorologist, but also served as an occasional fill-in for chief meteorologist Mike Morgan at times and also worked as one of the station's stormchasers (most notably during the tornado outbreak that spawned an F5 tornado that tracked through the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City and other parts of central Oklahoma on May 3, 1999).

 

Payne will join KWTV on January 7 (at the same time that Robin Marsh will change anchor shifts from weekday mornings to the 4 p.m. newscasts), with Payne providing weather forecasts for the 4 and 5 p.m. newscasts, in addition to performing storm chasing duties during severe weather coverage. Current chief meteorologist Gary England will remain on the 6 and 10 p.m. weeknight newscasts, which Payne will assume as well whenever England (age 73, as of this writing) decides to retire from the station. Chase Thomason has replaced Payne as meteorologist for the 5-7 a.m. edition of KFOR's weekday morning newscast and the 7-9 a.m. Rise and Shine newscast on KAUT (Thomason already served as meteorologist for the 4 a.m. hour of the morning newscast).

 

Payne joins an already large staff of on-camera meteorologists at KWTV: besides England, the station's other meteorologists include Jed Castles (weekday mornings), Nick Bender (weekend evenings and part-time weekdays at noon), Matt Mahler (weekend mornings), Michael Armstrong and Lacey Swope (both fill-ins).