Hollie Strano Has Sued WKYC Claiming That She Was Wrongfully Dismissed

The WKYC personality Hollie Strano was a fixture of the network for some time, and often one of its most vulnerable voices. In 2024, though, she was fired by the station, and a lawsuit filed that same year claims that she was let go unfairly.

As Hollie continues to argue her case in court, many who remember Hollie from her time on WKYC are wondering whether there's anything to her case, and more to the point, whether we know anything about why she was fired. Here's what we know.

According to the lawsuit, the stated reason for Hollie's firing was that she tagged the soft drink company Poppi in a social media post, which was against company policy. The post read, “Fall in love with taking care of yourself! Coca-Cola you’re out, Poppi you are in!" and Strano claims that she did not actually tag the company in the post, according to Cleveland.com.

She further states that it was confirmed with her in April of 2024 that “mentioning third parties, brands, or services did not violate WKYC and Tegna’s social media policy unless the brand, product, or service was tagged in the post.”

Hollie further argues that she was not in violation of WKYC's policy posting "about a brand, product, or service in exchange for anything of value."

Although the social media post was the reason she was given for being fired, Hollie believes that it was merely a pretext for the station to do something they had been wanting to do for some time.

Hollie had been known for being open about her experiences with anxiety and depression during her more than 20 years with the network, but believes she was let go after she began discussing her experiences with addiction following an accident on Thanksgiving night of 2023.

Several days after the crash, she pleaded guilty to one count of driving while under the influence. Although she had previously received praise in performance reviews for being open about her mental health struggles, things changed after the accident, which received plenty of local news coverage. Her pay was cut by 35 percent, even as her contract was extended in February and July of 2024.

Her attempts to discuss her struggles with alcohol on the show were not met with the same openness as her decision to discuss anxiety and depression.

WKYC General Manager Micki Byrnes reportedly told Hollie “to stop publicly speaking about her experience with addiction recovery and instructed her to only speak about the weather."

After being let go in July of 2024, Hollie has now announced via X that she will be doing the weather in a new location. She will now be doing the weather for Mix 94.1 in the Cleveland area, which means that while she will no longer be on TV, she will still be doing the weather. We don't yet know whether she plans to get personal the way she did on the air.