Posted by Bud on March 29, 2010 at 16:21:03:
Departing Fox Chicago anchor invests in new career
The next time you see Byron Harlan, he could be sitting across a table from you, discussing annuities, dividends and mutual funds. After 30 years in the broadcast news business � including the last 13 at WFLD-Channel 32 � he�s launching a new career as a financial adviser.
Harlan, 50, signed off Sunday as weekend news anchor at the Fox-owned station � the latest casualty in a purge of familiar faces there, including Nancy Loo, Lauren Cohn and Jack Conaty (as well as about two dozen technicians and other off-air employees to be laid off by July). Harlan�s longtime anchor partner, Nancy Pender, is expected to work solo on weekends for the time being.
While his departure may have surprised viewers, it was a move Harlan has been anticipating for four years. That�s how long he�s been preparing for his entry into the financial services business.
�I was working to stay [at Fox], but I knew there was a possibility that I wouldn�t,� said Harlan, a San Diego native who joined Channel 32 in 1997 from CBS News� NewsPath service, where he�d been a Chicago-based correspondent and fill-in anchor for �Up to the Minute.� �So I�ve been working extremely hard to lay the groundwork for this, and it all kind of came together at once.�
Until he is free to announce the name of the company he�s joining in the Chicago area, Harlan hopes to keep in touch with friends and fans on his Facebook page.
As for leaving behind his three-decade career in broadcast journalism, Harlan says he has no regrets. In fact, as far as he�s concerned, the timing couldn�t be better:
�I think the business is rediscovering itself and finding out how to make changes. In a global sense, we�ve delivered the product in the same way for a relatively long time � a two-anchor format, sports and weather. And that�s changing. So that�s going to mean some growing pains. What the final outcome of that is going to be I don�t know. I can�t even imagine. But I am witnessing the change, and the rate of change is accelerating every year, from what I see. But I�m OK with it, because I had 30 years. Thirty great years. So I feel very lucky � and very excited about what�s next.�