Monday, March 16, 2015

Why Erica Kato Got The Axe; Analysis And Opinion; KRON's Ex-WeatherWoman Status Draws Major Buzz In Town

The last few days I've been reaching out to people asking about the firing of KRON's popular weekend weather forecaster, Erica Kato.

As most of you saw and know, the response from people has overwhelmed this site and is the talk of the local TV News industry.

Those who may question the validity and sincerity of that (including me before the firing) should have seen my e-mail. I too was overwhelmed --enough so to ask around and see what I could come up with and furthermore, answer all you who've asked: Why was Erica Kato fired?

Well, good question. I made inquiries. It wasn't about money because Kato's compensation wouldn't break the bank, let alone KRON's meager budget.

It wasn't insubordination --knowledgeable sources who have some familiarity to the matter would only speak on condition that their names not be used. And those who would know said that Kato had a squeaky clean personal file. She was never called into Aaron Pero's (ND at KRON) office for any warnings, personal or professional.

When she was formally let go last Wednesday (without cause), she was told by Pero, according to the sources, "we're moving in a new direction." Only she wasn't told what direction and why. Of course KRON, like any other business, doesn't have to tell an employee why they're being fired but when you're shown the door there's usually a trail or something unique--some incident in the past which you were warned of or were notified by a manager of such an occurrence. Kato, as indicated, had no such warnings. Furthermore, and by all accounts, she was universally liked by colleagues and respected for carrying a heavy workload that demanded her presence in the wee hours of the morning and well into the night.

The people I spoke to --again, all insisting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Kato seemed married to her work. Her popularity may have irked some because she got to the air in a big market fast and didn't have to work her way through the trenches of a Fresno or Dayton. That may be the case; even so Kato was more than adequate on the air. And yes, she's attractive and infinitely watchable. And TV is a visual medium. So there.

Her relationship with others seemed nothing out of the ordinary. When I asked, point blank, about her relationship with Darya Folsom, the weekday air talent whose friend, Mr. Pero was the guy that fired her, nobody said there was a conflict. Well, at least to me but the only way to go there would merely add further speculation to a story, frankly, that makes no sense.

Kato wasn't/isn't a huge local star, but she was certainly a standout talent on a station that could use all the help it could get. You don't usually go out and eliminate someone merely for the sake of eliminating someone unless there was an inside reason or it involved money. Or perhaps Kato was relieved of her duties for someone else's sake. (Draw your own conclusions)

The bullet-proof Pero has been getting some heat because KRON has been under-performing and the new GM has been making waves, so goes the talk. But making a 26 year-old weatherwoman your scapegoat doesn't seem right. Then again, it's KRON, who knows.

For the time being, nobody knows. Well maybe one does and soon enough we'll get to the bottom of it all.

In the meantime, Kato is said to be looking to move forward and figures to land another gig in town or go somewhere else.

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64 comments:

  1. Whether you found her attractive or not, she had poor diction and she moved awkwardly while doing the weather, nerves maybe?

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  2. I have to apologize I found myself preoccupied with her rack. :(

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  3. Her file wasn't squeaky clean. But if they're going based on personnel files, maybe having multiple conflict-of-interest complaints, showing favoritism, multiple Hostile Work Environment lawsuits, a formal investigation into the nature of a relationship, dissolving HR and requiring people to go to the primary cause of complaints to file an HR complaint AND being cited as a primary reason for departure on exit interviews would be a good reason to fire somebody? All of which Pero has on his record.

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    1. Horrible grammar. What did you say?

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    2. PLEASE! Erica was very conservative. If she wanted to turn it up like the weather gals in LA she could have. She was very stylish and classy. She never showed her assets like she could have. Funny you say that as I always thought she toned down her image when she could have done much more. Go to LA, NYC, Chicago. Lot more skin there than Erica.

      Horse face Darya..thats funny. That's just what I call her. And you are right on about Radnich. Their "World According To Gary" is hard to watch. Radnich just babbles and makes no sense most of the time. Arrogant dude. He must be bribing KRON. he even gets his wife and kids in on the action. Time for He and Darya to go if you ask me. The new weather people are horrible and the guy, he is like a high school weather reporter.

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  4. I start watching the news at 4:30 every weekday morning, and the one thing I saw over and over is that Erica would do the traffic and weather UNTIL Folsom showed up on the set. After that James Fetcher would do the weather and Norm Peterson would do the traffic. I figured she was jealous of Erica. If it isn't broke, don't fix it, Pero!!!!

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  5. She was fired because she was promoting her fashion and places where to buy the fashion she was wearing on her blog.
    They did not feel it was appropiate for news talent to be promoting herself on a blog and the advertisers who do not advertise on the station.
    It was all about money.

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    1. That's a bunch of bullshit from KRON. Jacqueline Bennett also had a blog while working for KRON. Her blog had her with professional head shots, profile shots, etc. Jacqueline was also featuring dog products on her blog not endorsed by KRON. In fact KRON's website even linked Jacqueline's blog too. KRON is just feeding the public with some bullshit excuses to justify Erica's firing.

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  6. Darya Folsom called in sick this morning. Rumor has it that viewers are none too happy with her after finding out that she likely had something to do with this. Whether or not that is true, we can all agree that those types of questions will come up when you have unusually high influence because you sleep with the news director

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    1. That means we can probably confirm that all the incoherent non sensical hate messages are coming from Ms Folsom, or the news director she is sleeping with

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    2. Shouldn't that be a reason for both the news director and the anchor to be fired. Stuff like that is usually banned in employee handbooks at lots of companies.

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    3. At least Darya don't have fashion competition .

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  7. Perhaps the budget was tight and Darya (or somebody else) wanted more money. The easiest way to free-up funds at KRON, as in many places, is to let somebody go. You then balance the budget by dividing up their salary among others (including managers). Even a KRONvict could eventually figure that out.

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  8. I've always enjoyed her reports, and am sad that she's no longer on KRON. Hopefully she does end up somewhere better

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  9. I had just Friended her not two weeks ago. Half of the KRON Newsroom one day sent me en masse requests. I meant to send more back. Oh well,you KRON people I remember who asked. Memory like a trap. She might return. No use burning bridges is my advice to her that I never take for myself. Story of my life...

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  10. I really liked having a local young Cal Grad on the air. I found her pleasant and more in touch with a demographic that you do not see much on the air. Hopefully she can stay in the Bay Area.

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  11. Erica Kato had a big file of creating a hostile work environment with other co-workers. I won't bring other names into the conversation, but let's say she has a pattern of being catty, insecure and jealous.

    Her fashion blog was also a huge conflict of interest.

    Simply put, Erica Kato dug her own grave.

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    1. How is a free blog a conflict of interest?

      It is so obvious that management is throwing a bunch of shit at the wall to take attention away from the fact that they mishandled her firing. Say what you want KRON management, but you ruined what brought you the ratings you had

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    2. Darya Darya Darya... Stop looking in the mirror and projecting it on others

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  12. Where does Radnich (he of the thick neck) fit in all of this?

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  13. This has Darya written all over it. Someone pretty, attractive, and capable taking most of the attention away from the anchor who won't stop posing or keep her mouth shut.

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    1. Jackie Bennett was much better looking! She left also.

      Sounds like Darya doesn't want any more hens in the hen house.

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  14. Dug her own grave? KRON has a Sports Director who is paid $240,000 a year that never attended a single one of the three Giants World Series games at home over five years!
    How much more ad money flushed down the drain? He instead went on air and said "nobody's watching,here's soccer highlights" ! They might have watched if he was at the game hanging over a railing excited over the home team.
    KRON wonders where the moneys goes?
    One last- Jason Applebaum has a face for radio,he's stiff as a board and boring. KRON's sports department is one big loss leader.
    But,he's no threat to take no.1's job. Why he was hired!

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    1. Applebaum started out as a sports producer, FYI. When KRON went "VJ" in the early 2000s, he was one of many former behind-the-scenes people (Maureen Kelly, Hazq Madune, Stanley Roberts, Jeff Bush) who were handed cameras and turned into instant journalists (cough-cough).

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  15. I am betting next week that the reason management will give is because Erica didn't recycle her coffee cup this one time 3 years ago.

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  16. Pero can't pull the trigger(fire) on any on-air person without the approval of the GM.

    She managed to piss off the front office and make them look stupid.

    The blog probably stirred up the other hens and then they ALL wanted to start fashion blogs. It's a lemonade stand for Kato, but to the sales weasels she is "off the reservation". They lost control of her.

    Erica and her agent should have seen this little conflict and acted months ago.

    Does she even have an agent???

    I guess not.



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    1. Jacqueline Bennett had a blog that she made money off of, and she shopped around dog products for sale. She had the same on-air position as Erica. Jacqueline's agent is Mark Danon, Aaron Pero's best friend and also news anchor at KRON. Jacqueline left the station on her own accord, and they even gave her a party. So if KRON is now using the fact that Erica took some pictures of some of her outfits as a reason, then they are REALLY reaching.

      Aaron, please stop.

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  17. Kato blew it in 2 places.

    She started to connect to the younger female demo via the social media. Sales was cut out.

    And she got clobbered a "Newsroom Politics 101" in a drive-buy backstabbing.

    The blog really is nothing special, thousands of women her age are fashion bloggers.
    Looks like she relied on searches of her name to get clicks. I don't think she was actively promoting the blog on KRONs air.

    But when her blog starts getting MORE clicks than some of KRONs own webpages, well then the sales people start asking questions.

    Conflict of interest??
    Nice try, but she is weather...and that is sponsored. Who cares if she is biased towards weather systems. However if Lane Bryant is sponsoring weather, and Erica is pushing Forever 21 on the side some sales weasel will get all burned up over lost commission.

    She was young, pretty and unprotected. The heard let the lions pick her off...for the good of the entire heard.

    Nobody said nature was fair, or pretty.

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  18. The more you read about KRON, the more it sounds like a really stupid mess over there. Somebody just fire this Pero lunatic and get somebody with a brain in charge.

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  19. I would think that if her blog was a problem with sales, reasonable bosses would bring it up with the employee, tell her their problem with it and give her a choice to either take it down or resign. Seems like these media companies create a lot of unneeded drama for themselves which Rich is quick to expose. Does the environment do it to the people or do people like this create the environment? Or both.

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  20. I know nothing about the KRON/KGO sharing arrangements, beyond what I've read in speculation, here.

    But, could it be that the two stations may begin a merging effort by using weather casters? KGO has a gazillion of them?



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  21. The "silence" here is only the calm before the storm.

    At some point in the future, we are sure to learn about legal action resulting from whatever went down here... at least in the eyes of Ms. Kato.

    Firings of young, attractive women with no performance issues shouts "harassment" and "discrimination."

    Was someone with power or connections offended or, worse, spurned?

    Keep us posted, Rich.

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    1. If Ms. Kato needs a good labor law attorney please call David Lowe in SF. One of the best!

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  22. Who is the skinny replacement on KRON mornings?

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    1. her name is Michelle Apon. No idea where she came from but she was splitting evening weather with Vanessa after Jacqueline left. Then as soon as Erica disappeared, she started doing the weather in her place (the minute I saw that I knew Erica was in trouble). She's cute, and competent enough, but she's no Erica (nor does she have Erica's fashion sense).She's nowhere near as polished either. People can hate on Erica's performance in front of the camera, but I remember seeing her first broadcast where she looked like a deer in the headlights, and she's come a LONG way from then. She's definitely more poised and professional than Darya or Gary (who, of course, get the majority of screen time cackling at each other's inane comments).

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  23. Rich, have you noticed that KRON has been following KTVU's old playbook (pre-Fox) and labeling EVERYTHING "Breaking News" these days? A story leads their 11pm cast that happened at one in the afternoon--BREAKING NEWS! An accident on 580 at 5pm rush hour, and at 11 it's BREAKING NEWS. Pathetic.

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    1. Also, using "StromTracker" graphics when "DrizzleTracker" would be accurate reporting.

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  24. I hate Gary what a piece of crap loved Erica also loved Roberta Gonzales(different channel)I actually enjoy darya too but I figured there was a prob between her and Erica but its why I watched kron

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  25. At least she can sleep till Noon now.

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  26. If your eyes weren't locked onto to her breasts and deafening you, she wasn't terribly good. Poor verbal presentation. No mystery here.

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  27. Are you people serious? You're really asking WHY she was fired? She was a robot...clearly not at ease on camera....bottom line? She was terrible...certainly not close to being good enough for a major market. She belongs in Eureka or Medford or...you get the idea...Stevie Wonder could see it....not sure why some of you can't...#clueless

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    1. Lol! I'm glad I'm not the only one who's befuddled by the hand-wringing over the Kato firing. I don't like it when anyone talks to me like I'm 4 years old, but yet there she was...

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  28. She was probably flashing her boobs around too much. I mean, look at the picture Rich posted. If a woman does this in the work place, especially if she's in the media, it's not going to win her friends in management. My suggestion is that Erica should wear less revealing outfits and try to act a little more professional instead of behaving like a bimbo. She is giving hard working women in the media a bad name.

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    1. My thoughts exactly! She should dress more conservatively like that horse face Darya Folsom.

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  29. Damn, sad to see KRON let her go. We should start a petition to get KRON to bring her back. No way I want to wake up to that fat George traffic guy or some old lady posing in front of the camera.

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  30. Here is the petition to bring back Erica. I won't be watching KRON anymore

    https://www.change.org/p/kron-4-bring-back-erica-kato?recruiter=253376731&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=mob-xs-no_src-no_msg

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    1. There are 102 signatures as I read this. Is this getting sent to Media General corporate offices in Virginia?

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  31. Everyone bitching about how terrible Erica was in front of the camera should really look at her replacement, or at most of the other on-air "talent" there. She more than held her own. And her delivery was much better than that of fembot Jacqueline Bennett, who also wore tight clothes to show off her big cans and practically got a going away party on air when she left while Erica got the shaft. And don't even get me started on Darya's constant chest-thrusting on camera, not to mention her abrasive on-air persona or muffed lines. OK, Erica has fantastic boobs, knows it, and liked to show it a little. Can you blame here for doing so, or us for enjoying it? But look at some of the weather girls on the independents in a bigger market like LA. Most of them dress like complete sluts compared to Erica's (mostly) modest outfits. And at least she had some fashion sense, unlike this new girl. Blazer jackets and bedazzled sweaters? WTF...

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  32. Bring back Erica. I liked her she was professional and did not over dressed like other weather persons like the one on Channel 11.

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  33. Erica Kato dressed professional not like other weather persons as like the one on Channel 11.

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  34. KRON never keeps anybody long..it's the entry level news station....they did the same thing to Liza Fernandez and Jacqueline Bennett. If you take a weather person job there just know you'll be out in a year and a half.

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  35. Erica was the reason I watched the early morning news. Sure, she's gorgeous, but that's neither here nor there -- she was(/is) a total professional. I hope she finds a local spot soon; I'm waiting to see what channel I'll watch next.

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  36. I think Darya is jealous. Erica made her think she would need another round of plastic surgery to keep up and Gary, the self proclaimed number 1 sportscaster in the Bay Area probably made some passes at her and was DENIED.

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  37. Erika is fine as HELL!! AND she is a professional!! Good luck keeping the ratings up!!

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  38. Bottom line we loved Erica and she brought people to Kron4...there lost.
    Wish her all the luck

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  39. Erica kato was the only reason I watched kron, I was stunned and pissed off when I found out they let her go, I still am, they made a big mistake letting her go, no one there can hold a candle to Erica,kron is less of a show without her beauty and skill,and you know I hate that corporate term were moving in a new direction, that's such bullshit spoken by fake people everyone at kron are fools for doing what they did. I miss you erica

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  40. I agree with the last comment.Erica was a winner, beautiful, smart, and humble.I'm pissed, she was definately the main reason I watched krons weather.Its to bad they coudn't recognize a budding talent. I wish her all the best, I know she will not have a problem getting another gig.She will breathe life into any struggling network, or be a star among other stars.Goodluck Erica I cant wait to see you again!

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  41. I was wondering what happened to Erica. She was great for the show and the only reason I watched KRON TV News. Good luck trying to find a replacement. KRON dropped another Black weather reporter named Marcia, back in the early 70's.The last time I saw her she was a principal of a high school, which was her Plan B. I hope Erica has a Plan B. She was working for and with jealous people.

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  42. I heard Erica Kato on KLLC Alice Radio this morning doing the traffic and weather. They said she will be there through this Thursday.

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  43. as horrible as it seems, she lost the rack war. I saw it coming.

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  44. I used to watch Erica all the time. Pleasant lady. I knew she was in trouble because Darya started thrusting her chest out more and more when she was in the same shot as Erica! I hope Erica lands on her feet somewhere local. Waiting to see her again.

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  45. Darya is the Reason she was let go...

    Ole Hating Ass Horseface Darya...

    Must be nice to be old as dirt...

    And still have a gig in which viewers don't view you... For you nor your slumping News Channel...

    Team...!!!

    Ktvu...!!!

    Team...!!!

    Gasia...!!!

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