On Monday, January 14th, an administrator of the official Facebook page for WKRG-TV posted a message on the page welcoming Peter Albrecht to the news department of the station after he was rehired by the station recently. According to the professional Facebook page for Peter Albrecht, he was hired for the positions of investigative reporter and news presenter for the station's 5:00 p.m. newscast.
Peter Albrecht was originally employed by WKRG-TV from 1990 to 2000. His primary jobs during his original tenure were presenting news and sports reports for the station's weekend newscasts (from 1990 to 1996) and presenting news reports for the station's 5:00 p.m. newscasts from Monday through Friday (from 1996 to 2000). After he ended his original tenure at WKRG-TV, he joined WPMI-TV in the position of news presenter for the station's local evening newscasts. His first newscast for WPMI-TV was broadcast nearly four months after his last newscast for WKRG-TV (his last newscast for WKRG-TV was broadcast on Friday, May 24th, 2000; his first newscast for WPMI-TV was broadcast on Monday, September 18th, 2000).
According to news articles published by the Mobile Press-Register in 2000, Peter Albrecht ended his first tenure at WKRG-TV so he and a family could move to Saint Paul, Minnesota (his birthplace) and so he could consult his new employers at the local TV station WFTC-TV on how to start a TV news operation for the station (both WPMI-TV and WFTC-TV were owned by Clear Channel Communications at the time). Shortly after Peter Albrecht did his first broadcast for WPMI-TV, the Mobile Press-Register reported about Joe Goleniowski, the vice president and general manager of WKRG-TV at the time, accusing Peter Albrecht of violating his agreement with WKRG-TV of not broadcasting for a competitor in local TV news within six months of ending his employment with WKRG-TV. According to the Mobile Press-Register, Sharon Maloney, the general manager of WPMI-TV at the time, believed her station honored the contract Peter Albrecht had with WKRG-TV since Peter Albrecht first informed the management of WKRG-TV of his intent to end his employment there on Friday, March 17th, six months before his first broadcast for WPMI-TV, before he was asked by the management to keep working for the station through the May ratings period ("sweeps") to be conducted by the Nielsen Company before he finally ended his original tenure.
Peter Albrecht continued to present news for WPMI-TV's local newscasts until Friday, March 9th, 2007, when he was fired along with Drexel Gilbert, who usually presented news along with him for the station's 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. from Monday through Friday, and Kim McCrea, a news reporter who usually presented news along with him for the station's 5:00 p.m. newscasts from Monday through Friday (Drexel Gilbert was a news presenter for WKRG-TV also). According to a report the Mobile Press-Register published days later (on Tuesday, March 13th), Peter Albrecht learned of his termination from a meeting with Bob Franklin, the general manager of the station at the time, that took place after the end of the local 6:00 p.m. newscast the station produced in which he and Drexel Gilbert did their jobs for the last time (they all learned of their terminations in separate meetings with the general manager. Kim McCrea learned of her termination between the local 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. newscasts). According to Peter Albrecht in the report, Bob Franklin told him the station was "going in a different direction". According to Bob Franklin in the report, his reasoning for firing Peter Albrecht, Drexel Gilbert, and Kim McCrea was the result of his "need" to increase the average number of viewers and listeners for the station's local newscasts, specifically persons surveyed by the Nielsen Company, and improve upon the station's ranking of last place (from the ratings period of November 2006) among local TV stations with news operations based on its average ratings and audience shares for local newscasts. Bob Franklin also expressed his thanks and gratitude for having worked with Peter Albrecht, Drexel Gilbert, and Kim McCrea, wished them the best in the future, and said they were very talented people.
Before Peter Albrecht was rehired by WKRG-TV, he was the director of marketing and economic development for Mobile County since 2007. He was also the president of the board of directors for the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame since 2012.
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