I just got an anonymous e-mail that reads: “Chris Curtis, NBC 29’s newest weatherman has been let go. Rumors are flying and there are lots of unhappy people in that newsroom right now.”
I have no idea if this is true, but since his name has disappeared from their website (before, after), it certainly seems that he’s no longer with them. Can anybody confirm or clarify? NBC 29 employees who want to toss in their $0.02 but also value their anonymity are welcome to contact me privately.
8:00pm Update: I’ve now talked with several folks at NBC 29, all anonymously, who have explained what’s going. It seems that there are not, in fact, many unhappy people in the newsroom, save for those weatherfolk who have to work the Christmas hours that Curtis would have worked. I’m told that Curtis has been arrested twice for public indecency and lewd exposure, in February and October of this year. Apparently this happened while he was at WCIA-TV, in Champaign, IL. (Though multiple sources tell me this, I can’t confirm this independently.)
This is a problem for NBC 29 because of their “morals clause,” which requires on-air staff to maintain a solid public image — Curtis signed it without disclosing his arrests. Note that he has not been convicted of anything. I don’t know Illinois law, but in Virginia just taking a leak in the woods is enough to be arrested on these charges. Curtis has a court date in a month’s time.
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