After only a year and a half, WBZ CBS 4 has ousted news director Gary LaPlante from his role at the station.
In August 2014, Gary was a “solid journalist with a proven track record of outstanding news coverage and compelling storytelling” according to station general manager Mark Lund. "He has been instrumental in the development of differentiated content as well as ratings growth in his previous news leadership roles, and I am confident he will have even greater success working with our outstanding WBZ-TV News team" he said at the time.
How quick things change.
WBZ has long suffered in the news ratings game, but one must wonder when the blame will be placed on the top management at the station. To date, it has been consistently placed on news directors, other news management, and talent.
A multi-award winning journalist with more than 15 years of news leadership and journalism experience, Gary joined WBZ News from WFXT FOX 25 where he was Assistant News Director for three years. He had replaced Sarah Dunlap who left the station to join WLS ABC 7 in Chicago as assistant news director in July 2014. Sarah was filling in as acting news director while a search was conducted to permanently fill the position John Verrilli left after he was terminated in March 2014.
Before FOX 25, Gary was news director at WXXA-TV’s “Fox 23 News” in Albany, NY, and was assistant news director at WTEN ABC 10 in Albany prior to that.
He was also worked as an Executive Producer at WFSB-TV’s “Channel 3 Eyewitness News” in Hartford, CT; and at WHDH NBC 7 where he started as a news producer and was promoted to Senior Producer supervising all newscasts.
Gary began his career as a news producer in Providence, RI first at WPRI-TV and later at WLNE-TV.
A native of Cumberland, RI, Gary is a graduate of Ithaca College where he earned a Bachelor's degree in communications.
WBZ assistant news director Johnny Green will take over in the interim. Johnny joined the station in June 2015 from WCAU NBC 10 in Philadelphia, PA where he had been an executive producer for two years.
Prior to that, Johnny spent almost 3 years as the nightside and special projects executive producer at Cox Media's WPXI-TV NBC 11 in Pittsburgh, PA. He's also been an executive producer at Sinclair's WPDE-TV ABC 15 in Myrtle Beach, SC.
Johnny has also worked as a news producer at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC; WSOC-TV in Charlotte, NC; WCNC-TV also in Charlotte; and got his start at WCTI-TV in New Bern, NC.
A native of Bennettsville, SC, Johnny is a 1999 graduate of North Carolina Central University.
