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May-Lily Lee
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Kevin Clay
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Tara Morgan
The longtime host of Virginia Currents, May-Lily Lee, was fired; Kevin Clay, founder of GayRVA, organized his own exit strategy; and Tara Morgan, a WWBT/NBC12 general assignment reporter, packed her bags for Columbus, Ohio.
As reported in this space by Chris Dovi in October, Lee lost her longtime gig as the telegenic face and intelligent voice of the broadcast magazine Virginia Currents, ostensibly because of her work with "direct competitor" Virginia Public Radio, even though correspondence around Lee's departure suggested that she initially had been granted permission to do the work.
"I heard from so many concerned viewers — it was unbelievable how many — who said my work had been meaningful to them over the years," Lee writes in an email. "And I'm very grateful for that."
She now hosts Virginia Conversations, a weekly statewide call-in talk show, for Virginia Public Radio. Richmonders can hear it Friday mornings at 9 a.m. on 92.5 FM.
Lee writes that she has other media and broadcast projects in the works: "I'll continue being a storyteller — it's my passion!"
Less dramatic was the departure of Kevin Clay, founder of GayRVA, who sold that property to RVA Magazine in February 2012. In September, he became communications coordinator for Equality Virginia, the statewide organization that advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Virginians.
"When I founded GayRVA in March 2009 as a small blog, I never knew it would take off," he says. The endeavor blossomed into a small business. Now he's on the other side of the media coin. "I definitely want to make reporters' lives as easy as possible," he says, adding that he won't rule out future entrepreneurial ventures.
Richmond's TV reporters, especially its anchors, have tended to become part of the city's cultural furniture. That's changing.
Tara Morgan, a longtime general assignment reporter for NBC12, left in June 2012 for ABC affiliate WSYX in Columbus, Ohio. She'd been here since 2002, and her Richmond tenure was the longest of her previous TV stints.
"In this business, sometimes, for your career, you have to move on," Morgan says.
She still receives Facebook messages from Richmond viewers who miss her presence. "It's very heartwarming to know that people want to know where I am now," she says.
