A few weeks ago, we reported that Gan Matthews was “resigning” from News 9 after turning down a demotion to the weekend beat. Gan’s departure hit the local TV news community hard. He was a veteran reporter, well liked by his peers and had great name recognition for a beat reporter. If he was deemed to be expendable by News 9 management, who or what was next?

In response to his forced resignation, Gan’s friends and colleagues have created a Goodbye Gan Matthews Facebook Group. It’s filled with a bunch of farewells, memories of the good old days and even sad letters from current and former local media folks. For some reason, though, there are no posts from wizards, dwarfs or any of the other creatures Gan encountered from his travels in Middle Earth.

Anyway, in addition to creating the Facebook Group, some of Gan’s colleagues have planned a “Goodbye Gathering.” It will take place this Saturday night at Nonna’s in Bricktown. If past media going away parties serve as any indication, the party should be fun.

My response:

First it was Mason Dunn and now Gan Matthews.Both were very well respected people from KWTV. I’m beginning to think that the people making the changes should be replaced and not the on air people. I don’t blame Gan for quitting. Can’t imagine him being happy with week-ends. Hopefully Gan and Mason both will find better employment elsewhere.

Hmm. It will be weird not seeing him on anymore, but I won't be sad to see him go. His on camera performance isn't entirely strong. Though he is getting up there. He usually tells a story by stumbling through a bunch of words and not really being clean and crisp which today's media wants. Either way, it was a long time coming as he was approaching retirement age regardless.

Unfortunately, they aren't exactly replacing the proper on camera personalities yet. Majority of their weekday anchor team should be shown the door.