After offering contract buyout offers to all full-time non-managerial staff who work in the station’s newsroom for the station, website, or website development who are 55 years or older and whose tenure with the station would add up to 65, Hubbard News 103.5 WTOP Washington VP/General Manager Joel Oxley shared with staffers that eight station veterans have accepted the buyouts and will be departing the station at the end of the year.
In the memo Oxley writes, “It is with the most mixed emotions I have had in my time here that I am letting you know the following people are taking the Voluntary Separation Program offer. 1 am very happy for all of them that this is a good thing in their lives, but will miss them all both personally and professionally. I can’t begin to thank all of them enough for their tremendous contributions. They have been a bedrock of our success at WTOP. Thanks again to this entire group for making TOP such a great news product. They will all be working with us until the end of December. We’ll get something on the calendar soon to raise a toast to all of them!
Taking the buyout offers to depart the station are:
- Morning Anchor Bruce Alan. Alan joined WTOP in 1990 after previously co-hosting mornings at 980 WWRC.
- Midday Anchor Debra Feinstein. Feinstein has served as an anchor and reporter with WTOP since 1990 after serving as a writer for USA Today and helping to launch USA Today Radio.
- Weekend/fill-in Anchor Sarah Jacobs. Jacobs joined WTOP in 2017 after a stint as anchor and Baltimore Bureau Chief for “All News 99.1” WNEW. She has also worked for NBC News Radio and spent twelve years co-hosting mornings at Hot AC “Mix 106.5” WWMX Baltimore.
- Senior Sports Director Dave Johnson. Johnson anchors morning sportscasts for the station, where he has worked from 1989 to 1992 and again since 1995. Johnson is also the radio play-by-play voice of the NBA’s Washington Wizards since 1994 and did play-by-play for MLS’ DC United from their debut in 1996 until last season.
- Morning Anchor Joan Jones. Jones joined WTOP in 2013 from Wall Street Journal Radio Network. She has also worked at multiple Philadelphia stations including morning co-host at AC “B101” WBEB and stints at WPEN, WPHT, and WWDB.
- Senior Digital Editor Colleen Kelleher. Kelleher had been with WTOP since 1996 serving first as a news writer before moving to digital in 2001. She has previously worked at CNN and USA Today.
- Reporter Kristi King. King has been with WTOP since 1990.
- Digital Editor Rick Massimo. Massimo joined WTOP in 2012 after serving as a writer and editor for the Providence Journal for seventeen years.
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com