Changing Channels: Lafayette Meteorologist Gets Emmy Nomination

Our latest edition of the Changing Channels series starts not with the latest moving and shaking in the Lafayette TV market (though we'll get to that in just a little bit). Instead, we start with one of the market's stalwarts receiving a major recognition for his work on air.

Perillo Nominated for Emmy Award

Rob Perillo has won a ton of awards in his career for his work as a meteorologist. Now, the Sun Coast branch of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is giving Perillo the biggest award nod of his 33-year on-air career.

Earlier this week, the Sun Coast NATAS Chapter announced Perillo is one of four weathercasters nominated for Best Weathercast. Perillo's coverage of Hurricane Delta earned him that nomination.

Perillo was humble in accepting that nomination.

Perillo started his TV career at KLFY in 1988, working under Dick Faurot before assuming the chief meteorologist position there in 1993.

In 2004, he changed channels and began working at KATC. He has been TV-3's chief meteorologist since then.

Speaking of Emmys . . .

Former KATC Reporter lands in Waco.

Breanna Molloy won two Emmy Awards in 2017 for a series of reports she did while at KATC on water contamination.

After going off air for a few years, Breanna is back on screen at KXXV in Waco, Texas, as the station's new morning anchor.

Molloy worked at KATC from 2016 to 2017. In addition racking up a host of Associated Press and Louisiana Association of Broadcasters awards (and those two Emmys), Molloy covered the Louisiana trade delegation that traveled to Cuba and the Alton Sterling Shooting.

From Lafayette, she moved to Cincinnati's WCPO-TV, where she won three more Emmys and two Edward R. Murrow Awards. After that, she moved to Dallas, where she took a photojournalist position at WFAA.

Since leaving Lafayette, Molloy has become a mother. She and her husband Tom are the proud parents of a one-year-old boy.

Former Lafayette Anchor Takes State Job

Less than one year after leaving Lafayette to take a job in New Orleans, Chris Welty is out of the television business.

The Lafayette High and UL graduate left WGNO-TV after 11 months at the station. His last day on air was October 8. The following Monday, Welty began his new gig as a public information officer for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

Welty's second stint on Lafayette television ended last October when he departed KATC for the WGNO job. Welty is one of the few people to have worked in all three of Lafayette TV's news departments. He started his career behind the scenes at KLFY before jumping to KATC. He briefly got out of the business for a communications position at UL. He later returned to journalism as an anchor and, later, news director KADN/KLAF before returning to KATC.

Welty is the second Lafayette broadcaster to leave the airwaves for a communications job in the last couple of months.

Tracy Wirtz Leaves Airwaves

In case you missed it, Tracy Wirtz left KLFY in August to take the public affairs manager for Cox Communications and their South Louisiana district. Wirtz spent the previous three years at Channel 10. In all, Wirtz had more than 30 years of experience in radio and television, including a 13-year run as the anchor of Good Morning Acadiana on KATC.

To read more about Wirtz's new career endeavor, read Bernadette Lee's write-up about it by clicking here.

Morning Anchor Leaves KADN/KLAF

Joining Welty and Wirtz in the public relations field is KLAF/KADN morning anchor Carter Simoneaux.

Simoneaux signed off from Channel 15 for the final time on August 27.

This week, we learned Simoneaux is staying in Lafayette. He's the new creative director for Love of People. That organization works to improve the community through volunteerism, clothing and baby supply drives and donations, its community garden, and its Blue Mondays Mission, which raises money to help pay for local musicians' medical expenses.

Former Lafayette Meteorologist Lands Weather Channel Gig

Former KADN/KLAF meteorologist Scott Pilié has had an eventful 2021.

In May, he left WGNO-TV in New Orleans to take a position with Restore the Mississippi Delta and the Environmental Defense Fund. Pilié's break from television proved to be a short one. His dream job came calling, luring him back into the business.

Pilié is leaving Louisiana to join the Weather Channel as a meteorologist and producer.

Pilié says he won't be on air just yet, but Lafayette viewers will see him on their TVs in the future.

Pilié is not the first Lafayette forecaster to reach the Weather Channel. Former KLFY chief meteorologist Sarah Libby worked there in the mid 2000s.

Blast from the Past
From Sunday, April 24, 1988, this is KLFY's Eyewitness News with Kris Pedelty and a young Chuck Huebner.