Update March 9, 2009: Lisa Kulbida now has a Times Union blog, called La Vida Kulbida.
“From your television screen to your computer screen, Lydia Kulbida writes about media and more. The former anchor is now juggling grad school, freelancing for WAMC, starting a business, raising a family and it’s all in one blog.”
The Daily Gazette also reported on March 5 that Kulbida will be doing free-lance work for WAMC.
Dec. 14, 2008 Update: In a recent blog entry, Ed Dague takes a closer look at Lydia Kulbida’s firing and the way WNYT’s owner’s operate.
Original Post From Dec. 10, 2008
The Daily Gazette is reporting today that WNYT will not being renewing its contract with news anchor, Lydia Kulbida. My reaction is the same as Bill Lambdin’s.
Lambdin noted Kulbida has won popularity surveys conducted by other media organizations.
“From that standpoint, it’s quite puzzling she would be the person chosen to be dropped,” Lambdin said. “Anybody of the air staff who were dropped would be extremely unfortunate; we believe all our co-workers are doing their jobs well. Some of the people here are wondering. The thought process is elusive.”
Its understandable that all news organizations have to lay off people as fewer people are getting their news from television and newspapers, but why drop Kulbida?
Kulbida was a reader of my former blog and often sent me comments via e-mail which I always appreciated.
I am sorry to see her leave WNYT.
16 Comments
December 10, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I totally agree. We are shocked and dismayed by NewsChannel 13’s decision to let Lydia go. She is a class act who knows her stuff and does a lot in the community above and beyond. She is frequently voted #1 news anchor in the capital region! We’ve always been channel 13 devotees, but with Lydia unceremoniosly axed, we will get our news elsewhere. I bet many other viewers will follow suit, and NewsChannel 13 will lose its #1 newscast status. This decision will backfire on them big-time. No offense to Bill Lambdin, but isn’t it time to take his NYC Marathon ‘86 ski cap and drive off into the sunset? You would NEVER see a woman that huge on the air! Such a double standard (ditto for gray hair – allowable for men only). Between Jim Kambrich and Lydia, it should have been Kambrich to go. What does he do in the community? What, just because Lydia’s husband is a doctor? This was a baaaaaaaddddd decision. Bah humbug.
December 11, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Totally sad. Since Dague retired, she was the #1 anchor in the Metroland poll every year, I believe.
December 11, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I am extremely disappointed by channel 13’s decision. Lydia Kulbida is an intelligent, engaging and highly competent newscaster. I will certainly get my news elsewhere.
December 11, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Lydia Kulbida is a first rate news person. She is concise, analytical and compassionate. She is a very positive and visible community member, which has only served to raise WNYT’s positive image. I can only hope that she will continue in the Albany Market. I am certain that if she were to continue in the Albany area, her popularity would pull market share to her new “home” and demonstrate the monumental stupidity of the WNYTs’ “business decision”. I certainly would watch her newscasts should she stay in the area.
December 13, 2008 at 12:17 am
This decision makes no sense to me. Lydia is a consumate professional and had brought a great deal of credibility to WNYT. I’m wondering what kind of criteria was used to determine that WNYT would be better off without her. Certainly it wasn’t based on viewer input. Everyone I talk with is absolutely shocked at this move. For years I watched CBS6 (never 10 – just never clicked) but became a real devoted fan of WNYT when Lydia arrived. I don’t get it, and I believe the station will lose viewers to other stations now that LK is no longer there. I sure hope another local station picks her up, and a whole slew of local viewers with her. She is probably the best of all local anchors. And WNYT’s webpage still sings her praises. You might want to update that webpage, WNYT management.
December 15, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I have read some of the hateful things that people have written about Mrs. Kulbida on the Times Union’s blog and canot believe how fickle people are. The comment, “She doesn’t need to work becasue her husband is a successful Doctor.” annoyed me the most. I have had the priviledge of meeitn Mrs. Kulbida and many people who have worked with her. She has class, ethics and a true belief in something bigger thatn herself. She will be missed on TV.
December 15, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Kulbida’s married to a doctor. She’s got plenty of money. Won’t miss her for a minute. She’ll just get another Darcy Wells gig at some sort of PEF, wearing the last multi-thousand-dollar fashions to spin for her country club pals.
December 16, 2008 at 8:40 am
I don’t see what Lydia Kulbida’s husband’s profession, her wealth and her clothing have to do with the issue of whether or not her firing was a justifiable or wise decision on the part of WNYT.
December 17, 2008 at 12:27 am
Kathy and medium,
There are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans who either lost their jobs in the past few months and are really suffering.
Lydia Kulbida and her affluent lifestyle is not one of those people. So she’s without a gig. She’s got in-house medical coverage, a nice nest egg, a very cozy and large abode, plenty of vehicular transportation, and banking offshore. Hard to feel sorry for a six-figure type who’s out of work, especially when that six-figure type is joined at the pre-nup by a seven-figure type with a lucrative private practice.
So I’ll worry about the young kid that Stevie Babs canned. Or I’ll worry about so many of my fellow Americans who lack medical insurance and, without a job, have to decide whether to spend their dwindling George Washingtons on food, fuel, or medical needs.
Question is, why are you so worried about somebody like Kulbida with so many financial and medical resources at her ready disposal? A little bit of star worshiping perhaps?
December 17, 2008 at 3:37 pm
So what, you still have not answered my question. You have made many comments about Lydia Kulbida without substantiating them. If you can’t back up what you are saying, your future comments will not be published.
December 17, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Hey So what,
Or should I call you “With all due respect” since you’re peddling the same vile insinuations under that moniker at Ed Dague’s blog.
Can you back up anything you wrote? No, because you just assumed it all, and we all know what happens when you assume if you’ve seen that classic episode of “The Odd Couple.”
I happen to know Lydia and her husband, and there’s no star-worshipping in this post. I met them because I just happen to have gone through the same difficult situation of caring for a sick, elderly parent at home for a few more years than they did. The story she did on what her mother-in-law went through completely ignored her own difficulties of trying to raise children while helping to care for someone with Alzheimer’s. It is the most insidious disease I know, and they did it for three years on their own at home, and then she took her mother-in-law to the nursing home practically daily for the next year he survived.
They are down to earth, compassionate people who make nowhere near the outlandish figures you’ve come up with. All you have to do is google average salaries for their profession in New York State and no that. I see Lydia drive a clunker and shop at Marshall’s … you don’t get more every day than that.
There are things you wrote about I don’t know, so again, can you tell me how you know who held their insurance, the existence of a pre-nup or off-shore accounts? I hear crickets chirping …
I think instead of calling you “So what” or “With all due respect” I’ll call you by your real name, “Internet Troll.” And here is how we should all deal with you:
An internet troll is someone who posts offensive, controversial, or divisive material on an Internet community. Trolls are an unfortunately common occurrence on many communities across the Internet, and there are various steps which can be taken to combat them. If you are currently struggling with an Internet troll, the best thing to do is to walk away, since trolls feed on attention, and they will usually disappear if they are ignored.
Goodbye!
December 31, 2008 at 10:58 am
Employment decisions should be based on qualifications and quality of work. The public’s personal opinions on private matters that they know nothing about, speak only about the smallness of those opinionated ones, and nothing about the person that they feel the need to belittle. Lydia is the utmost professional, performing her job with credibility and integrity. She will be missed.
February 6, 2009 at 11:12 am
lydia brought an air of class and intelligent reporting with a confidence i don’t see on any local news program. she is a supreme professional. i hope that someone saw her and gives her a network break like chris jansing got.
February 18, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I can’t tell you how much I miss Lidya. All this crap about her wealth or position means absolute squat! I saw her as an individual, an on-air personality that meant a lot to me as a viewer and news junkie. Her parsonalty when broadcasting the news each night would draw me into her stories and I enjoyed that. WNYT’s decision to not
renew her contract is insanity. The one who actually made that decision should be fired themselves. They have no grasp of the rel world. It had to be something personal. In my opinion Lydia was the Tom Brokaw of the Capital Region and I for one will miss her tremendously! As a result of her firing WNYT can count on having at least three less viewers. Why do some businesses have to be lead by fools?
February 19, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Some of you are, to put it simply, sheer idiots. Most of us are not expressing sympathy for her for fear she’ll end up destitute. What her husband does has nothing to do with the unfair loss of her job And, btw, do the male anchors’ wives work? Would that justify their firing? “Your husband works” used to be the line women got when they were passed over for promotions and jobs in general 20 or more years ago. Today we call that sexist and illegal, since men are never evaluated the same way.
We’re expressing remorse for the Capital District’s loss of a first-rate news anchor. If you don’t like her then you probably didn’t watch her anyway. It doesn’t impact you. WNYT has made a lot of changes over the last few years (e.g., meteorologists have morphed into “web winner” reporters – probably to justify their salaries) and I can only guess her firing also had financial origins.
June 22, 2009 at 3:43 pm
“Hubbard Broadcasting is known for its outspoken support of conservative politicians and the Republican Party of Minnesota” (Wikipedia, 6/22/09). Could it be that in these days of ‘keep the people dumb’ and non-news corporate media consolidation (so the people will vote the rich owner’s way — are you listening Rush Lumbaugh/Glenn Beck/Bill O’Reilly listeners?) Lydia was “not Republican/conservative enough” and was let go for political reasons in the waning days of the Bush-Cheney sadministration? Democracy needs an Intelligent, Informed citizenry to survive and potentially thrive: three things rich, conservatives do not want in order to have their way with the American people.