Longtime WBZ reporter Kim Tunnicliffe laid off

Kim Tunnicliffe, well-known reporter who worked for WBZ NewsRadio 1030 for 26 years, says she was let go recently due to “corporate budget cuts.”

The veteran storyteller broke the news herself in a post on X Monday evening. 

Tunnicliffe got her start in the industry after studying broadcast journalism at Emerson College. She graduated in 1988 and was hired at WSAR in Somerset a year later. After a decade there, Tunnicliffe had a brief stint at WPRO in Providence, R.I. before joining the team at WBZ, according to her LinkedIn page.

During her time at WBZ she covered everything from politics to sports, interviewing a range of famous figures that included Hillary Clinton and Tom Brady. But, as she recently told The Boston Globe, the stories that she will remember most are the ones where she sat down with everyday people. 

“I just love the camaraderie. Like people invite me into their homes, and [they say] ‘Here, sit down, have coffee, look at this photo album.’ They feel like they know me. And that just really amazes me, even after 26 years,” she told the paper. 

The news that she was being laid off was a shock, she said. Her last day working at the station was back on March 22. 

“I don’t want to say anything negative because I love my ‘BZ family,” she told the Globe. “But I am a little disappointed at the way it happened and the way it went down. It was very impersonal. And it just, it just kind of disappointed me.”

The Globe‘s efforts to reach WBZ and station owner iHeartMedia Inc. were unsuccessful as of Tuesday afternoon.

Tunnicliffe thanked all of her interview subjects, especially those who let her into their homes and treated her like family, in a follow-up social media post. She is taking her time deciding what she will pursue next. 

Tunnicliffe is an avid photographer, who regularly posts photos from her travels on Facebook. She is considering various opportunities related to photography and travel, according to the Globe.

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