WABC/7 anchor Ken Rosato fired for offensive comment: Report

Ken Rosato, the veteran morning news anchor for WABC/7, has been dropped by the station over what a published report called an offensive comment made over a "hot" — or live — mic.

According to the New York Post's Page Six, which first reported the firing over the weekend, Rosato's comment did not go out on Ch. 7's air, but was picked up by the microphone and heard by others in the studio. He was fired immediately afterward "for cause," and the station announced his termination internally on Friday, according to the report. On Monday, the Post, citing a source, reported that Rosato had directed a sexual expletive at his co-anchor Shirleen Allicot.

One of local TV news' most familiar figures over a two-decade run, particularly from the early morning editions of "Eyewitness News," which he had co-anchored since the mid-aughts, Rosato, 56, had also been a prominent figure on Long Island radio in the '90s when he was a news director and anchor at WBLI who went by the name Ken Rhodes. 

Rosato joined Ch. 7 as a freelance reporter in 2003, then was named co-anchor of the early morning and noon newscasts in 2007. Before Ch. 7, he was briefly at WNYW/5, and was an anchor for Miami's WFOR/4 from 1998 to 2002. After leaving West Babylon-based WBLI/106.1 FM in 1996, Rosato was briefly anchor and news director for Melville-based WLNY/55.

When the New Rochelle native was working as an anchor in Miami, he also became an ordained priest in the Catholic Apostolic Church in North America. The church's website describes it as a "Catholic community" unaffiliated with the Vatican, "committed to living the Gospel of Jesus and sacramental justice to all regardless of gender identity, marital status, or sexual orientation, and we are committed to fighting for social justice to end racial disparities."

Rosato couldn't be reached for comment Monday. A person reached at his home referred calls to Rosato's spokesman, Todd Shapiro, who declined to comment. A station spokesperson did not respond to an email.