WBIR journalist Andrew McClung is leaving TV news just over a year after his time at Channel 10 began.
McClung made the announcement over social media on Aug. 8. He said working in TV news over the years took a toll on his personal life. He also shared his wife recently finished pharmacy school and the couple would be moving for her work.
"I truly loved this job. It was everything I had hoped it would be," McClung said in his announcement. "But it was also a job that asks a lot of you. You witness heartbreak that most people never experience. You miss holidays, birthdays and family gatherings. (I haven't had Christmas Day off since 2018.) You pour everything you have into serving your community, and while it's incredibly rewarding, it can also be incredibly draining."
The decision came after a year of personal and professional loss, according to McClung's announcement. TV journalists Bill Williams and Wes Rucker both died within the past year. Williams was 91 and had previously been a WBIR anchor. Rucker, longtime sports reporter at WBIR, died in a car crash at 43.
McClung said he also lost his grandfather. Allen Holman, a Knoxville native, engineer and pilot, died in a plane crash shortly after he and McClung met. McClung said their conversations was one in the last of Holman's life, and meeting his family and hearing about the person Holman touched his life.
In his announcement, McClung said he is looking forward to more personal privacy and more time spent with family.
McClung has been working in TV news since 2017. He started as a sports intern and then a part-time employee at WFRX in Roanoke, Virginia, while he was a student at Emory & Henry University.
After graduating in 2019, McClung started working at WCYB in Bristol, Virgina, where he remained for nearly five years. He then moved to New Bern, North Carolina, to work for WCTI before landing at WBIR in July 2025, according to his LinkedIn.
Multiple WBIR reporters have left the NBC affiliate station over the past several months. Anchors Abby Ham and Heather Waliga left to start their own marketing firm. Lauren Davisannounced she would depart the station and shortly after, Sarah Oppman shared she would be moving on from Channel 10 to a station in Florida.
Afton Pratt covers trending news for The Knoxville News Sentinel and Tennessee. She can be reached at ampratt@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: WBIR reporter leaves TV news, saying it can be 'incredibly draining'
