Fox's tenure is ending next month — 26 years later — after the station declined to renew his contract, a move that instantly prompted an outcry from Fox fans statewide, according to Kathleen Ramunni at farmingtonpatch.com.
Internet sites such as Twitter and Facebook were flooded with messages criticizing the decision and calling on WTNH bosses to rethink the move.
"Twenty-six years is a long time," he said Wednesday afternoon shortly after learning of his boss's decision. "It's going to take some time to sink in."
Almost immediately after news leaked of the firing, fans began to mobilize, starting a "Keep Geoff Fox on Channel 8" Facebook page. And WTNH's Facebook page is filled with messages criticizing the decision and imploring the station to reconsider.
The firing is a sign of the times, another journalism professor said.
"Everyone who works in traditional television news and whose salaries skyrocketed in the go-go days of the 1980s and 1990s should be concerned as stations across the country recalibrate their budgets to reflect diminishing audiences and advertising revenues," said Rich Hanley, Graduate Journalism director at Quinnipiac University.
"The concept of the evening news team of superstar anchors, weather forecasters and sports announcers is lodged in a period whose time has past," Hanley said.
On his own blog, called “My Permanent Record,” Fox wrote that he plans to work through the end of his contract, and that General Manager Mark Higgins has assured him he’ll be allowed to do that, adding, “That’s unusual in TV and so I’m grateful.”
He may not stay in Connecticut, Fox hinted on his website, http://www.geofffox.com/.
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