WORCESTER—Andy Lacombe’s last day at Spectrum News 1 in Worcester after working for the local cable news station for 24 years is Friday, but he doesn’t plan to say goodbye to the viewers on the air.
“It’s never really been about me for me,” he told the Worcester Guardian on Thursday, “so that’s why I wouldn’t do it.”
Lacombe said he even felt uncomfortable posting news about his new job on social media.
After earning his Master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism at Syracuse University, Lacombe started at what was then called WGMC TV-3 as an assignment desk editor and health sciences reporter in December of 2000.
He later filled the roles of news producer, news and sports anchor, general assignment reporter and assistant news director. For the past three and a half years, he’s been the news director.
He is leaving to become senior news director for Spectrum News 1 in Ohio. He’ll be stationed in Columbus, but also oversee Spectrum News 1 in Cleveland and Cincinnati.
People throughout Central Massachusetts have grown to know Lacombe from not only watching him report the news and sports on TV, but also from the more than 20 years he’s served as public address announcer for Holy Cross men’s and women’s basketball games and for the nine years he taught Broadcast Journalism and Social Media Journalism as an adjunct professor at Assumption University before the pandemic hit.
So Spectrum News 1 sports director Kevin Shea has urged Lacombe to ditch his modesty and bid the viewers goodbye on the air.
“I’m not going to wrestle him in front of the camera,” Shea said, “but I do think he should. You think of how many weekends he worked, how many late nights he worked, how many holidays he worked to put content on the air for people in Central Massachusetts and Worcester. He’s been an institution on TV in Worcester and Central Mass. for almost 25 years so I think he should go on the air to say goodbye to the viewers because so many of them know him or at least know who he is because they’ve watched him for years on TV.”
Lacombe said Shea can be very convincing, but he still doesn’t plan to bid goodbye to the viewers. If he changes his mind, Shea deserves an assist. If Lacombe doesn’t change his mind, viewers can say goodbye to him in person on Saturday when he serves as Holy Cross public address announcer for the last time when the Crusaders host Bucknell at 2 p.m.
Lacombe plans to drive to Columbus on Sunday or Monday and begin his new job on a full-time basis on Tuesday. He was hired in early January and has flown back and forth from Boston to Columbus several times over the past month to familiarize himself with the Ohio operation.
On Thursday, he purposely flew home from Columbus to New York City and then to Worcester Airport so he could land in Worcester one last time. He had to sit through a four-hour layover at LaGuardia Airport, but it was worth it to him.
Lacombe said the opportunity to oversee the news for Spectrum in three top-40 TV markets in the U.S. was too good to pass up.
“My wife and I kind of made a group decision,” he said. “Let’s take a chance, bet on ourselves and go out and take on a new challenge. I’m grateful the company and our leaders who hired me have great confidence in me as a news leader and journalist. So I wanted to go out there and prove their trust to be correct and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Lacombe’s wife, Liz, will remain in Worcester until their house is sold and then join him in Columbus. She will continue to work remotely as a graphic designer for Pearson Education in Boston. The couple don’t have children.
Only Shea, who started at WGMC TV-3 in 1997, and chief photojournalist Shawn Grady, who has been with the company since 1994, have worked for Spectrum News longer than Lacombe has.
Lacombe’s supervisor, Caroline Imler, will assume his responsibilities at Spectrum News 1 temporarily until a more permanent replacement can be found.
Lacombe said it was difficult to tell his co-workers about his departure.
“I’ll miss the reporters that come in when they’re young and they’re eager,” he said, “and they learn and I watch them develop and work hard. A lot of them have gone on to bigger markets and great things.”
Lacombe was not just a boss to his young news staffers, he also officiated weddings as a one-day justice of the peace for two of them. A few years ago, he officiated for Mike Cronin, currently the sports director at WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., and his wife Lauren. Last fall he officiated for Cam Jandrow and his wife Aaryanna last fall. Jandrow took Lacombe’s class at Assumption, then interned at Spectrum before he was hired in production and eventually moved up to anchor-reporter.
“I may be their boss,” Lacombe said, “but we learn a lot from each other and about each other. It’s a small group, but it’s a fun group.”
Hosting Friday Night Football Frenzy with Shea for more than 20 years each high school football season ranks among his best memories.
“That’s probably my favorite assignment year in and year out,” he said, “and I’m very proud of the work we did in local sports as well.”
“We both felt a responsibility to the viewers,” Shea said, “and to try to get as much local content on as we could and to get as many kids on as possible.”
Another highlight was traveling with Shea to Williamsport, Pa., to cover the Jesse Burkett baseball team which advanced all the way to the U.S. championship game in the 2002 Little League World Series.
“That was probably the most fun,” Lacombe said. “We were supposed to be there for two days and we were there for a week.”
Working with his reporters on the somber anniversary each December of the six fallen Worcester firefighters and on the impact of COVID-19 also stand out to him.
Lacombe expected to work at Spectrum for about five years to make earning his master’s degree at Syracuse worthwhile.
“So I had no idea that I’d stay as long as I did,” he said, “even in the industry. That was not part of the plan, but it’s worked out.”
Lacombe grew up in Auburn and captained the basketball and golf teams at Auburn High before earning a political science degree at Providence College. He has learned just about everything about the Worcester area over the past 24 years and now he’s headed to a new region where he’ll have to familiarize himself with new people and places.
“The best part of our job is learning something new every day,” he said, “passing a new test or a deadline or a challenge every day. This seemed like the ultimate challenge for me.”
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
