Detroit TV news anchor Evrod Cassimy leaving WDIV for new job in Chicago
WDIV-TV (Channel 4) morning anchor Evrod Cassimy is trading the Motor City for the Windy City.
Cassimy posted on the station’s website Thursday afternoon that he is departing from Detroit’s NBC affiliate, where he co-anchors the 4:30-7 a.m. news with Rhonda Walker. He will become an anchor and reporter at WMAQ, Chicago’s NBC station, the place where he “first fell in love with journalism and storytelling” as an intern.
“After nine years, I have chosen to leave WDIV Local 4 News. I knew this moment would come some day but that doesn’t make this any easier,” he wrote.
His last day on the air will be Nov. 4.
Cassimy, who was born in Michigan but grew up in the Chicago region, said Detroit has become his home.
“I started here when I was 28 years old and now at 38, I have spent some of my most memorable moments in this incredible city," he said.
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The six-time Emmy nominee came to WDIV in 2013. He joined WDIV in August 2013. A graduate of Chicago’s Columbia College, he started his broadcast news career in Grand Junction, Colorado, and also worked in Madison, Wisconsin; Orlando, Florida; Richmond, Virginia, and Denver before landing in Detroit.
Cassimy has been a popular figure both for his anchor gig and his work as a singer and recording artist. In 2018, he launched a record label, Everything Evrod Entertainment, and released his debut album.
In mid-March 2020, Cassimy battled a bout of COVID-19 that he described as “literally the worst two weeks of my life.”
"My limbs felts like they were made of wood I couldn’t bend them. I just laid in bed for days," he said. "(I had) the worst pain you can ever imagine throughout your entire body. ... It almost felt like lead was weighting down each and every part of my body. I couldn't move. I couldn't get out of bed."
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He returned to work in early April of that year.
The husband and father of three children wrote a heartfelt thank you in his online announcement to viewers “for loving me and my family. Thank you for your hand written letters, the gifts for my newborn children, for the sympathy cards through some of the difficult times in my life, for helping support my fundraising efforts for Detroit high school students through my music and for simply saying ‘What up doe?’ when you’d see me in public."
He also thanked his “incredible morning show family” at the station for “making waking up at 2 a.m. so much fun each and every day.”
Cassimy’s goodbye included that he always will call himself a Detroiter.
“You have shown me what that truly means and I hope I will continue to make you proud," he said. "This isn’t goodbye. This is more of a see you next time as we will always be family.”
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic at jhinds@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: WDIV news anchor Evrod Cassimy to leave Detroit for a new TV job
