Recent and upcoming departures from Portland local TV news include KATU’s Lincoln Graves (2024)

Portland-area viewers of local TV newscasts may have already noticed that some familiar faces have departed or are preparing to leave. For example, Sept. 30 was the last day on air at KPTV-TV for meteorologist Brian MacMillan. At KATU-TV, longtime reporter and anchor Lincoln Graves has said he will be leaving the Portland station at the end of October. Morgan Romero, a reporter at KGW-TV, recently returned to KTVB-TV in Boise, Idaho. And KGW-TV’s Dan Haggerty and Cristin Severance earlier announced that they’ll be leaving the Portland NBC affiliate this month to join WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina.

MacMillan, who worked at the Portland Fox affiliate KPTV for 12 years, will do the weather reports on the morning show at KCPQ, another Fox affiliate, in Seattle.

During MacMillan’s last day on air at KPTV, Mark Nelsen, chief meteorologist at the station, came on during MacMillan’s forecast to present a small cake with a candle in it, and pay tribute to the person he called his “best weather buddy.”

MacMillan said, “This is an amazing place to work,” adding that it was the “best job I’ve ever had.” MacMillan thanked viewers for tuning in, and said it was “an honor and a privilege” to have been part of “this amazing community.”

Morgan Romero announced on Twitter that she would be leaving KGW in October, to return to Boise and rejoin KTVB-TV, the station she left to join KGW, in February 2019. Both KGW and KTVB are owned by the Tegna media company.

Lincoln Graves, the KATU reporter and anchor, will also be moving to a station owned by the same company that owns KATU, the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Graves has announced that, after 10 years with KATU, he will be heading to KUTV-TV, located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Though Graves joined KATU from a station in Boise, Graves is originally from Salt Lake City, as his KATU bio says, and he earned a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Utah.

In a recent segment of KATU’s “AM Northwest,” Graves spoke with host Helen Raptis about his decision to return to Salt Lake City. He’ll be working at the station “I grew up watching,” and where he interned many years ago, Graves said.

Joining in the departures are Dan Haggerty and Cristin Severance, who announced in July that they would be leaving Portland’s KGW to join WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina. The two, who are married, joined KGW in 2018.

On his Facebook page, Haggerty wrote of the impending move that his “time in Portland will soon come to an end. I love this city, its people, and KGW...but our distance from family has become too much to bear.”

On her Twitter account, Severance also wrote that WRAL’s location is nearer to family. “As amazing as the opportunities were, it still wasn’t an easy decision to leave KGW,” Severance wrote. “We loved our time here and everything we got to do. But the pull to be closer to family became too strong to ignore. When these opportunities came up we knew it was meant to be. We will always treasure our time here and ALWAYS be rooting for KGW and Portland from afar. We’re here until mid-October.”

More of our coverage:

KGW’s Dan Haggerty and Cristin Severance announce they’re leaving the Portland station this fall

-- Kristi Turnquist

kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist