Big names to sign off in WBZ cuts

Lobel, Kulhawik, and Wahle to leave

Television sportscasting legend Bob Lobel is leaving WBZ-TV (Channel 4) as part of a workforce reduction announced earlier this week at the station.

Veteran entertainment reporter Joyce Kulhawik and newsman Scott Wahle will be leaving, too, said Ro Dooley Webster, a station spokeswoman, in an interview early this morning. She declined to discuss specifics of their departures.

She did, however, say that she doesn't expect any other high-profile talent to leave.

The station, like other media outlets across the country, is facing increasing pressure to cut costs as it grapples with declining ad revenues and viewership. On Monday, the station announced plans to reduce its overall workforce of 220 by 10 percent.

Lobel joined the station in 1979 as a weekend sports newscaster and moved to the weeknight position two years later, ac cording to a biography posted on the station's website. On Sunday nights, he also hosts "Sports Final," a weekly roundup. The show's guests once included Bobby Orr, Ted Williams, and Larry Bird, interviewed together for the very first time.

Kulhawik, whose reporting career at the station began in 1981, has secured many an interview with top Hollywood stars as they market their movies.

A former English teacher at Brookline High School and a cancer survivor, Kulhawik has been deeply involved with the American Cancer Society.

Wahle, who has been with the station since 1989, is currently a reporter and anchor of the station's 9 p.m. newscast on sister station WSBK-TV (Channel 38).

Neither Lobel, Kulhawik, nor Wahle could be reached for comment. The dates of their last on-air appearances have not yet been decided, Webster said.