SOUTH BEND — Chuck Freeby noted he didn’t start getting emotional about the whole situation until the messages started flooding in.
There were hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.
After 34 years, a local institution for high school sports is no more. WHME-TV, channel 46 locally in South Bend, has decided to eliminate its sports department. WHME has broadcast the high school “Game of the Week” since 1990, covering football and basketball primarily. They had expanded into spring sports the last two years, with its final assignment being the boys track regional at Goshen on May 23.
“I’m truly grateful for 20 years,” Freeby said in a phone interview Thursday with the Tribune. “… I know a lot of people are unhappy right now, and I get that. But I honestly have no right to lash out. At any point in the last 20 years I was there, somebody could’ve come in and said, ‘We’re making a change.’ Monday just happened to be that day.”
Freeby, who’s been the station’s sports director and lead play-by-play voice since 2004, announced the news on social media Wednesday afternoon. Within 24 hours, the Facebook post alone had 758 reactions, 269 comments and 231 shares, most of which sending their support to Freeby and the 46 Sports team.
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The decision to eliminate the sports department came in the last week, according to Freeby. WHME is shifting its programming to air Univision content, which is one of the largest Spanish-speaking American TV networks in the country. Freeby was told last week before the July 4 holiday weekend.
When Freeby returned to work Monday, he and nine others were notified their jobs were being eliminated.
Freeby’s on-air co-host for the last 16 months, Angelo Di Carlo, took to Facebook Wednesday to express his feelings on the matter.
“I’m forever proud to be a part of the historic 46 Game of the Week (even if for a short time),” Di Carlo wrote. “What a run that program had for nearly 35 years, serving Michiana in the highest of levels with such an incredible professional broadcast. … I continue to believe giving local Michiana student athletes a major spotlight is very important! I’d love the opportunity to continue to make that happen but also understand I may have to be open to other possibilities.”
Freeby understands it was a business decision and holds no ill will to WHME’s owners, Family Broadcasting Corporation.
“The company was great to me, and they let me have what was the best job in South Bend sportscasting,” Freeby said. “They also let me augment that with the things I was still able to do at WNDU. When you look at what I was allowed to do as a sportscaster for the last 20 years, which is basically work for two stations – I picked the games we were at Friday nights, and then host a pregame show for Notre Dame football on the NBC affiliate. I’m not sure I could’ve been treated any better.”
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Freeby, 59, now becomes a free agent. Prior to his time at WHME, he had stints at WNDU-TV in South Bend, The Elkhart Truth and WTRC radio in Elkhart. In total, Freeby has spent 40 years as a journalist in the South Bend area.
“People who may not be believers may scoff, but I’m really putting my trust in God that He’s going to guide me to what I’m supposed to do next,” Freeby said. “… I have to, first, sit back and absorb this – this is the first time I’ve ever lost a job. As I talk to people and see what’s out there, I’ll ask God to guide me to make the right choice.”