WISH-TV hires city native as weekend meteorologist

Eboni Deon, who grew up in Indianapolis before heading south to build a career in television weather reporting, is returning to her hometown.

Deon, a North Central High School graduate, will join WISH-TV Channel 8 on Saturday as a meteorologist for its 6 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. weekend newscasts, WISH News Director Steve Bray announced Tuesday.

Deon

“I’m thrilled to be moving back to my home state and going to work for the station I grew up watching,” Deon said in a written statement.  “I look forward to being part of a team with a weather coverage reputation like WISH-TV.”

After studying meteorology at Jackson State University, Deon worked for the National Weather Network in Jackson, Mississippi, where she provided weather broadcasts for TV stations in Atlanta, Denver, Miami, and New Orleans.

Deon worked as a meteorologist for the Weather Channel while she completed her master's degree in geosciences at Mississippi State University. After graduating, she anchored the Weather Channel’s “Weekend Outlook” and worked as a meteorologist for CNN International.

She spent about three years at ABC-TV affiliate WFTV Channel 9 and sister station WRDQ-TV in Orlando, Florida, before joining Al Jazeera America in New York City in 2013.

Deon will help replace Pamela Gardner, who departed WISH in late November to take a job with WBZ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Boston.

Gardner, also an Indianapolis native, served as the weekend meteorologist and filled in during the weekday morning newscast as well. More recently, she handled weekday morning traffic reports after Julie Patterson left the station in September.

On Oct. 1, WISH announced plans to add four extra hours of newscasts every weekday beginning Jan. 1, going from five to nine hours.

In August, CBS officials decided to change their local affiliation from WISH to WTTV-TV Channel 4. That change will take place Jan. 1