There's a change in the weather coming at KIMT-TV
Mar. 26—ROCHESTER — KIMT-TV News 3 Chief Meteorologist Aaron White will make his final Rochester forecasts on Friday before moving to Columbus, Ohio.
KIMT-TV, which is a CBS affiliate based in Mason City, Iowa, has operated a Rochester news bureau and broadcast studio at 1751 U.S. Highway 52 North since 2017.
White's move comes just ahead of a move by KIMT owner, Los Angeles-based Allen Media Group, to transition to use Weather Channel meteorologists for its weekend newscasts instead of local staff. Station employees were notified on Tuesday that the Weather Channel personnel will take over the 10 pm. Saturday and Sunday forecasting duties starting April 5.
His departure is not directly part of the coming weekend changes. However, January leaks of Allen Media's possible plan to replace all of local meteorologists with remote Weather Channel forecasters and the surrounding uncertainty inspired White to step up his job search.
He was told by management in January that the proposed plan could mean that he and the other three on his weather team would be given a date in the future and their jobs would end two weeks later. In the wake of negative public feedback, Allen Media backed off of that plan , but few details of what would happen instead were provided to staff.
"I've loved the last four and a half years here. Rochester is a great city, so it's kind of hard to leave. It's also exciting to look forward to something new," said White. "I had started applying a little bit here and there before the news leaked in January. That news was kind of the catalyst, the kick in the butt, that got me moving on my job search."
KIMT News Director Dan Clouse said Sara Knox will take over White's role of forecasting the local weather on the Monday through Friday evening newscasts. Hunter Donahoe will continue to do the same on the morning broadcasts and weekend meteorologist Travis Clark-Smith will help fill the gap left by White's departure.
"There's no timetable to replace Aaron at this point," said Clouse. "And there are no immediate plans to make any other changes with the Storm Team 3 meteorologists."
One change that was made in the wake of the national uproar spurred by the January leak of Allen Media's plans was "hubbing" the KIMT newscast with two other Allen stations — KWWL-TV in Waterloo, Iowa and WREX-TV in Rockford, Ill. That means the stations share national news, which can be shown during their evening broadcasts. Local viewers started seeing that in action in late January.
In reference to the new "hubbing," Clouse pointed out that using the national news clips are not required by Allen Media. KIMT can still produce an all-local newscast, if there is breaking news or threatening weather, like last week's snowstorm.
"If there's a storm brewing here locally, we're gonna cover it. If a semi goes off an overpass and hits cars, we're gonna cover it," he said.
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