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Jason Nicholas soon will be leaving WEWS Channel 5 to become the chief meteorologist at WOIO Channel 19.
(WEWS)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Jason Nicholas, a meteorologist at WEWS Channel 5 since June 2006, will be moving to rival Cleveland station WOIO Channel 19 as chief meteorologist. The move was confirmed Tuesday, May 10, by WEWS vice president and general manager Steve Weinstein and sources at Channel 19.
"We made an offer to keep him because he has been here for 10 years," Weinstein said. "But it was his decision to take an offer from a competing station. And we wish him the best of luck."
Nicholas, also the host of Channel 5's "Academic Challenge," is expected to replace Jeff Tanchak as chief meteorologist at Channel 19 in about six months. But highly placed sources at Channel 19 say that Tanchak will remain at the station.
Weinstein would not discuss specifics regarding Nicholas' departure, but his last day at the station is expected to be at the end of the month. Episodes of "Academic Challenge" have been taped and will air through June.
No start date at Channel 19 has been announced, but sources say that Nicholas has a standard six-month non-compete clause in his soon-to-expire Channel 5 contract. His first day on the air at Channel 19 probably will be in early December.
Mark Johnson has been the chief meteorologist at Channel 5 since 2003.
Nicholas is a weather forecaster for the weekday noon and weekend evening newscasts at Channel 5, the ABC affiliate station owned by the E.W. Scripps Co. He also has been on the station's morning newscasts.
Born in Hinckley, Nicholas attended Medina High School, Ohio University and Mississippi State University. Before joining Channel 5, he worked at such TV stations as KRQE in Albuquerque, New Mexico; WCHS in Charleston, West Virginia; and WSAZ in Huntington, West Virginia.
Before moving to Cleveland in January 2003, Tanchak spent seven years as a meteorologist at WOTV in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Born in Buffalo, New York, he earned his degree in meteorology from the State University of New York at Brockport.
Tanchak's first on-air job was at R-NEWS in Rochester, New York. He then moved to WSAW in Wausau, Wisconsin.
WOIO and WUAB Channel 43 are owned by Raycom Media.