Still on air, still in court

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/24/2000

WOWK-TV Charleston, W. Va., anchor Tom McGee returned to the air last week following his two-week suspension, but the station plans to continue its lawsuit against him. The station has attacked McGee's work ethic and attitude (B & C, April 17).

WOWK-TV attorney Niall Paul said the station simply was "faced with a strange situation" of the market's highest-paid newsman not performing as his contract mandates. It has nothing to do, he said, with any trends toward stations' cracking down on well-compensated anchors.

Paul also dismissed McGee's claim that the station wants to dump him in preparation for a sale. "Normally, an employer would fire an employee" over the allegations against McGee, he said, "but here they don't want to."

McGee said that he was hoping to "perform adequately on the air" but it would be difficult given the "trashy and silly stuff" he'd heard lately. He returned after his suspension, he said, on advice of his attorney.