No sooner does one former KXAS/Channel 5 personality pop up on another station than rumors – that seem pretty solid, given who's reporting them – about a current NBC 5 personality are starting to circulate.
According to local TV blogger Ed Bark, Tammy Dombeck – the popular, longtime morning traffic reporter on NBC 5 – is not long for the station, and could be leaving as early as this week. On his Uncle Barky's Bytes blog, Bark, citing “sources close to the situation,” says that Dombeck, who has been with NBC 5 for 12 years, is already being courted by another station in the market.
What’s next is all speculation, but the timing of Dombeck’s potential impending departure is strongly coincidental with Brendan Higgins’ first day on the job at rival KTVT/Channel 11. Higgins, who left NBC 5 more than two years ago after they couldn’t agree on contract terms, made his CBS 11 debut Monday morning as part of an anchor team that includes new arrival Adrienne Bankert.
Dombeck and Higgins were on the same morning team for several years at NBC 5, but as Bark points out, standard non-compete clauses in broadcasters’ contracts make it unlikely that Dombeck could show up at another station inside of six months. Another former member of the NBC 5 team who worked with Dombeck, Rebecca Miller, currently does weather for KDAF/Channel 33 but is not part of the morning crew. Channel 33’s Eye Opener’s ratings could use a strong (very strong) shot in the arm, but if the station were to pick up Dombeck, it would have to promote her heavily to make viewers aware that she’s around (or for that matter, that the show is around).
Spokespeople for WFAA/Channel 8 and at CBS 11 gave Bark standard no-comment lines. Dombeck has not yet responded to a DFW.com request for comment.
The least likely landing place for Dombeck (if she is indeed looking for someplace to land) is KDFW/Channel 4, which has been having a ratings tussle with NBC 5 for early-morning supremacy (once the other channels go national at 7 a.m., Fox 4’s Good Day rules the next two hours in the local ratings). Good Day has more stability than any of the other morning shows, with Lauren Przybyl in the co-anchor slot for two years and the rest of the team in place longer.
Dombeck is a graduate of the University of North Texas who grew up in White Settlement and lives in the Fort Worth area. Here's a recent station promo featuring her.
