KOMO had been pushing the Sinclair mandates to early in the morning (the locals know the Seattle area audience). Mary Nam (I screwed up her name above - way to make a good first impression) appeared in the Washington Post for resisting earlier Sinclair's edicts.
Even without the Sinclair plugs, Phillips just rubs me the wrong way with his story introductions. I have no idea what other viewers think. (My wife think he looks like Eddie Munster but that's neither here nor there.)
Welcome to news in the rest of the country (outside of Seattle and a select few other markets)! Though Preston never caught on in Phoenix, certainly his style of newsreading fits here well. And your wife has a point -- I always thought he looked slightly odd