My Single Mom Life

WFLA announced back in April that veteran news reporter Bill Ratliff would be retiring in June, next Friday will be his last day at WFLA channel 8 NBC.
Taking over as the only news desk reporter, will be the horribly annoying and goofy, Gayle Guyardo.
They used to have 2 reporters at the news desk every morning, Ratliff and Guyardo, but once he leaves, she will be at the desk for both the morning and noon news broadcasts by herself.
Weather reporter Jennifer Hill, and traffic reporter Alicia Roberts, will be doing both of these broadcasts with her, they will still be doing the weather and traffic, but Guyardo will be doing the news alone.
I won't be watching.

When we first moved here 12 years ago this month, channel 8 is the news station that we started watching and have been watching ever since.
For years now, I have been hoping that Gayle would be the reporter to leave when the rumors would start about a reporter leaving or being let go.
Nope, it's never her.
Back in March, they let go of sports anchor Dave Reynolds (and 52 other employees!) who was a very enjoyable sports anchor, and I don't even like sports!
In May 2008, they let go of weather reporter Mace Michaels, another reporter cut for economic reasons.
Michaels was only 9 months into a 3-year contract with WFLA when they decided to break the contract and cut him.
The station's news director was quoted as saying, "This is just about money; it's not about Mace."
At least there wasn't a non-compete clause in his contract, he was free to work for another station, and he's now doing the weather in Iowa for KGAN CBS 2.

But WFLA has this totally screwed up thinking when it comes to cutting the budget.
They know that they have to let people go in order to face these hard economic times, but they are also in a very competitive market for the morning news time slot.
There are quite a few really good morning news programs in the Tampa Bay area, so cutting the veteran news reporters, sports, and weather reporters, because they get paid more, may just be the stupidest thing they could have ever done.
The viewers like Bill Ratliff, we don't like Gayle Guyardo, and it's pretty evident from reading the few comments on the article about Ratliff retiring.
People said things like;
*Good luck Bill and thanks! I only wish it had been Gayle, Jennifer & Alicia!
*Will really miss Bill in the early a.m., doubt I will keep watching those silly women-too much fluff.
*I agree with MaryAnn from Pinellas -doubt I will keep watching those silly women PERIOD.
*Now that Bill is going, I'd like to see more of Alicia and less Gayle.
*Just to say that when you you let Bill walk out the door for last time, that's when I stop watching WFLA. the girls are to much. Gail is the one that need to go.
*I realize I don't know you personally but, geez, you will be missed. The women are too silly to put up with without you.
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I cannot stand Gayle Guyardo, I really can't stand her.
At least she's somewhat more entertaining when she's 3 sheets to the wind shitfaced at the Gasparilla parade.
That's a youtube video of an audio recording of how drunk she was, live and on air.
She claims she had the flu and was on medication.
Oh sweetie, there's not a single rational human being on the planet who believes that line of bullshit.

Those comments that said the girls are silly, are correct, and Gayle is the silliest of all.
She's not a good reporter, she's always stumbling over her words, she giggles a lot during the news, she giggles during serious news stories.
She comes off as a bubbly airhead, and it's very distracting to try and pay attention to the news story when the reporter has this giant and stupid looking grin on her face, and she's laughing between every single story.
Then you put the 3 women together and oh my, it's like a group of young teenage girls having a sleepover, getting dressed in mommy's pearls, and pretending to be news reporters and then laughing at how silly they look and sound in the mirror.
It's just awful.
This morning, Gayle wasn't there, but Alicia and Jennifer kept up the silliness without her.
At the end of the broadcast, Alicia pulls out a couple of swim float tubes, and starts waving them around and in front of Bill Ratliff's face, and she and Hill are laughing like a couple of idiots.
They are always laughing, always giggling about something, and always saying some really stupid joke, it's annoying.
I watch the news to get the news, not to see a group of grown women who are supposed to deliver that news, act like teenagers and goofing off from 5-7am 5 days a week.

Yes, when Bill Ratliff is gone, I will be too.
I'll probably jump around and check out Fox 13's Good Day morning show, then ABC Action News's morning show, I'll give the Daily Buzz another try, and now that the DTV switch has gone through, I have a bunch of other station choices too, but nope, I will not be watching channel 8 WFLA anymore after Bill Ratliff leaves.
Gayle Guyardo makes me want to punch puppies.

I also wanted to say that Gayle must have some sort of ace in the hole, if you know what I mean, in order to not only keep her job, but be promoted to being the only reporter at the news desk for both the morning and noon broadcasts.
Media General has got to know that she is a terrible reporter, she fumbles her words, laughs way too much, makes inappropriate comments to her co-workers on air, and is really kind of just plain stupid.
And after what happened at Gasparilla last year, totally wasted on live television, so wasted that they had to cut to the parade way more than they usually do instead of showing Bill and Gayle in the booth because she was visibly drunk, slumping in her chair, hanging on Bill, and looking like she was going to pass out at any second.
Yes, Gasparilla is a good time, there are beer vendors everywhere along the parade route, people get drunk during the parade, but Bill and Gayle were on duty, they were working, they were being broadcast live during the entire parade, she should not have gotten drunk, heck, she should not have even had 1 single beer!

All of her bad behavior and shitty job as a reporter, makes a lot of people in the Tampa Bay area wonder who at Media General is protecting her job, and why.