She's Be Missed ...

ND Suzanne Black Leaving KEYE TV

There is one constant in broadcast journalism. This constant remains in place during the decades of this relatively young profession. That one constant? Change.

It was less than a month ago that I ran into a typically cheery KEYE-TV (CBS) News Director Suzanne Black while enjoying lunch with a former mutual colleague. We talked several minutes about the station’s success in the May “sweeps” and Sinclair Broadcasting, KEYE’s owners as of the first of this year.

Last week, Black announced she was leaving the station.

“I am leaving KEYE. It's a decision I've been weighing for a while,” Black says. “As much as I love it here, it's time devote some attention to my boys. They're only young once and I want to enjoy it.” Black and her husband have two children.

Black says she’s leaving while she’s on top.

“This has been a busy and successful year. We launched a new two-hour morning program, a 5pm newscast, and ended the May book with our 10 p.m. newscast moving into first place for the first time in KEYE history. It has been fun and very rewarding.”

Black came to KEYE seven years ago as assistant news director. Only a year later, she was promoted to the top job in the newsroom when then news director Tim Gardner moved on.

During her time at the station, KEYE had four management groups or owners: CBS, Cerberus Capital Management which eventually signed a local service agreement with the Nexstar Broadcasting Group. September 11, 2011, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced a deal to buy KEYE and its sister Cerberus stations. The station also converted to HDTV during her watch.

As one would expect, each change in ownership and management would result in uncertainty, but Black clung to her journalist values with a commitment to put a quality product on the air every day, changes notwithstanding. She was rewarded with loyalty by many producers, photographers, reporters, and anchors.

“I will miss the people of KEYE tremendously. They are hard-working, loving, passionate people,” Black says. Her last day in the station is this Thursday.

Sinclair posted Black’s job within days if not hours after her announcement.

© Jim McNabb, 2012