EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Kelly Bates, the recently departed NBC 10 meteorologist, is asking her legion of supporters not to take their frustrations out on her former newsroom.
Bates said in a Facebook post Thursday night that she’s had her disagreements with management, but many people at NBC 10 have stood by her.
“I’d respectfully ask that if you are motivated to advocate for me, please be kind to the newsroom staff of WJAR,” she wrote. “I appreciate all of you, and I can’t express how much your devotion to me has rocked my world.”
According to people in the newsroom, the virtiol has been especially tough for the meteorologists who remain at NBC 10.
Christina Erne posted one particularly vicious private message she received earlier in the week.
“YOU REALLY NEED TO PERK DOWN YOUR INNOCENT ‘DOROTHY GALE’ LOOK! NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY, OR THINK OR ACT, YOU WILL NEVER BE BETTER .... THAN KELLY BATES!” the person wrote.
“PSA: I have no tolerance for cruelty and rudeness,” Erne said. “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all. If you say one comment that doesn’t have to do with my forecasting, my job for the past two and a half years in southern New England, you’re blocked. No ifs ands or buts.”
Bates, 49, announced her departure after 17 years from the Cranston-based NBC affiliate in a Twitter post this week. She said she could not work under the terms that the Sinclair-owned station had offered.
Sources said the offer was similar to contracts she’d signed in the past, with a modest pay increase, but other opportunities — like overtime and fill-in hours when other people were off — had dried up, making the situation financially untenable. The station refused to budge from its all-or-nothing offer, IBEW Local 1228, the union representing many of the workers there, said. Bates had been moved to part-time about 10 years ago.
The post gathered hundreds of comments and thousands of reactions.
The fact that you have taken the high road is not lost,” one fan wrote. “Best wishes for much continued success.”
NBC 10 is the historic ratings leader in the Providence market, which includes Rhode Island and parts of southeastern Massachusetts.
“We thank Kelly for her dedication to WJAR and her commitment to keeping our viewers informed with critical weather updates throughout the years,” the station’s general manager Vic Vetters said. “We wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors.”
The Bates departure has laid bare some of the frustrations at NBC 10, with 10 current and former workers there describing low morale and stagnant pay — especially among the young staffers who go out into the field to actually report the stories.
One high-profile person who recently departed, Lindsay Iadeluca, tried to clear the air about the Bates situation in a Facebook post. Iadeluca, a Rhode Island native, hosted the morning show after a stint as a field reporter, and became well known for her messages against body-shaming.
Bates had said in a Twitter posting that “49 year old round woman, it’s safe to say my television career is done.” But, she said in response to an aghast follower, “nothing was said about my weight,” and she didn’t get comments directly about that anymore.
Iadeluca said her departure, too, had nothing to do with body image issues.
“I left news on my own. Period. I wanted a different life for myself. It’s not because of my weight… (but thanks as always for circling back to that cause clearly it has to be that superficial),” she wrote, using a laughing-face emoji.