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Published on Tuesday, 22 February 2011 08:12
WGN-TV's midday news anchor Allison Payne has been off the air for weeks -- this most recent time due to her having sore vocal chords and a doctor telling her to stay home to rest them. Over the last few years, she has been off the air a great deal due to what she claimed are mini-strokes, a blood disorder, dependency problems, depression and various other issues. On her
personal blog this week, she states she will be out even longer now.
According to her blog, she was all ready to return and her vocal chords were doing much better, but her mini-strokes returned as well. She writes that doctors told her she was having "some kind of stroke-related episode." Payne claims she is now out indefinitely, writing: "Bottom line, I won't be returning to work until this latest health crisis is resolved."
In her blog, she also confirms what Time Out Chicago media writer Robert Feder
wrote about one week ago, that Allison Payne had been doing a series of mock newscasts with station staffers just to see if she could handle being back on the air. Obviously, her health could not handle it.
Allison Payne asked that her blog readers "keep me in your prayers." Adding "I will keep in touch with you through this site."
This is just the latest in an incredibly long list of bizarre twists and turns in the career of WGN-TV's Payne. Between years of highly embarrassing incidents on the air and long absences off the air, many are openly asking why Tribune-owned WGN is continuing to even have Payne as an employee, or at the very least, asking why her anchor seat is remaining open for her.
