NORTH ATTLEBORO — City native Kelly Bates, whose departure in September because the longtime meteorologist at NBC Channel 10 in Windfall sparked outrage from viewers, has landed at ABC6, the place she beforehand labored.
Bates, 50, a Bishop Feehan graduate, would be the weekend meteorologist and science reporter for the Windfall/New Bedford TV station. Her first shift would be the weekend of June 11.
“I’m again the place I began 22 years in the past. Feels nice to be dwelling, and it really appears like dwelling,” Bates tweeted this week.
The tv station has been working promotions.
“I’m thrilled to be again at ABC6,” Bates mentioned in a video on the station’s web site. “I can’t wait to get on the market and begin bringing you climate stories with a private contact from throughout this stunning place we name dwelling.”
Bates, who lives in Coventry, R.I., left Channel 10 in a contract dispute after 17 years with the station, the place she as soon as interned.
She mentioned she couldn’t work beneath the circumstances proprietor Sinclair proposed.
Bates had moved from full-time to part-time a few decade in the past.
Supporters launched a petition drive in an unsuccessful bid to get her reinstated, with 1000’s of signatures. A number of criticized the station on social media.
Bates beforehand labored at ABC6 for 4 years, employed there as a weekend evening meteorologist in 2000.
“We’re thrilled to have Kelly be a part of the WLNE household and are trying ahead to bringing her acquainted face again into the properties of Southern New Englanders,” WLNE common supervisor Alex Wolf mentioned on the station’s web site.
Bates has obtained two Emmy nominations and been voted greatest feminine meteorologist in Rhode Island by readers of Rhode Island Month-to-month for the previous 9 years.
Bates additionally appeared in “Love Letters” for the Group Gamers at Jenks Auditorium in Pawtucket.
She attended the Falls Faculty and St. Mary-Sacred Coronary heart Faculty in North Attleboro earlier than graduating in 1990 from Bishop Feehan. Bates delivered The Solar Chronicle whereas in seventh grade.
She has mentioned she most enjoys visiting lecture rooms, together with within the Attleboro space, to speak about her job and the climate.