Dee Griffin out at WPTY/WLMT

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Mediaverse Memphis is reporting that Dee Griffin has left WPTY/WLMT (

). Mediaverse reported that Today would be her last day, but she is nowhere to be seen or mentioned on WPTY's 5 PM newscast airing now, and her bio has already been removed from their webpage. Jeff Beimfohr is solo anchoring now, with Cameron Harper on vacation (and no indication that he is leaving).

 

No word as of this moment why she left, but certainly wouldn't be surprising if it was a management decision and not of her own choice given their history of the last year booting or demoting several staff members both on-air and off. It has long been rumored that WPTY was looking to bring in former WMC anchor Donna Davis after she was laid off but no reason to believe that is working toward a reality, yet.

 

Sadly its makes for yet another longtime Memphis anchor that won't be getting a proper on-air goodbye in the last 10 years. Steve Dawson, Claudia Barr and Jim Jaggers at WHBQ, Donna Davis at WMC, and Pam McKelvy at WREG all were out for different reasons, but it was nothing more than there as normal one day, and gone the next - never to be seen or heard about again (on their original/former station, at least).

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Mediaverse has more on Dee Griffin's exit tonight, including information from her that it was her decision to leave, and not a station decision, which is certainly good to hear. She says she wants to spend more time with her husband who works in the school system in Boston - she just married recently - so she will be headed there. Doesn't mention whether she will pursue a job in the Boston market.

 

That said, its too bad she decided to leave so suddenly, and especially while Cameron Harper is on vacation and out of town, preventing the goodbye she honestly deserved to have. Perhaps she just wanted to leave as privately as possible and Cameron and others had known of her plans.

 

Link: http://mediaverse-memphis.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-dee-griffin-peterson-exit.html

 

The door certainly looks wide open for Donna Davis, if she wants to return to TV at all, especially considering WPTY/WLMT. Mediaverse reported as a side note tonight that their chief photographer was fired a couple of weeks ago as yet another big exit at the station in the last year.