I have known Sunny Leigh since she was at KVOO. I don't know her super well, and we've only met in-person two or three times, none of which were planned. I do, however, consider her a friend. She is not the only person I know at KOKI and KTUL, and she has not told me anything she hasn't shared publicly. Since she's posted this publicly to Facebook and has said an attorney has reviewed her statement, I feel it's okay to post this here. If you want to cross-reference it, this is her public Facebook profile:
Sunny Leigh.
"Many of you have reached out, wondering what happened at Fox 23. Before I put everything out here, please remember not to attack my former coworkers. None of this is their fault, and many of them are frightened about the changes and unsure of what’s happening next. And they have very good reason to be.
As you know,
Mark Bradshaw and I believe that we were terminated from KTUL in November 2023 because of our age. Between the two properties (KTUL and KOKH) they let go three of their four oldest anchors. The anchors who remained were all under the age of 41. Mark and I also believe that those in charge knew that they would be merging the two stations long before they told us. We were asked to sign new contracts and believe that they knew at the time that a merger was coming. Having us sign those contracts anyway, we feel was fraudulent. It meant that Mark and I could not pursue other opportunities to give ourselves some sort of runway before we were let go.
In October 2024, I secured employment with Fox 23, which was owned by Imagicomm at the time. Just a few months after I was hired, Rincon purchased our station. Rincon works very closely with Sinclair, the President of the company is a former Sinclair employee. As you can imagine, people in our building were leery of what would happen next, as rumors swirled about Rincon…many accused them of being a “shell company“ for Sinclair. I was worried as well, since Mark and I had an ongoing lawsuit against Sinclair. Despite this, our ratings grew at Fox 23, and I was given a new role as full-time weekend morning anchor, and reporter for Mondays and Tuesdays. I was also given 2 new segments; a cooking piece with the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma and a really wonderful new segment called “Wild OK” where my bosses asked me to lean heavily into my biology degree to educate our viewers on animals, plants, space, and other science-y topics. I started this new segment a month ago. Only one episode had the chance to run.
This past Thursday, my bosses asked me to come into the station where they told me they were being forced to “terminate” my employment. They had no answers as to why, they said no one from Rincon would respond to their email requests or their phone calls. And despite my positive reviews, my stellar ratings, and a brand new segment, I was being let go. The words from both of my bosses were, “We don’t know what’s going on, but this is NOT your fault. You did nothing wrong.” I asked them if it was possible that the directive came from Sinclair, was it possible that Sinclair was buying the station and made that directive? My bosses said they didn’t know, and I believe them. I think this came as a surprise to everyone. I called my attorney before I even left the parking lot.
It was announced four days later that Sinclair was indeed taking over operations at Fox 23. Our attorney Steve Peters and I believe that I was fired out of retaliation and retribution for our lawsuit. We will now be considering more legal avenues.
I don’t know how any of this will play out, and I know that we are taking on a giant. But I believe in my heart of hearts that if you never stand up and punch a bully in the mouth, they will continue to bully those with less power and a smaller voice. I refuse to be that person."
rbr.com
thedesk.net
