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BREAKING NEWS: Randy Price Out at WHDH/Boston: "I'm Hardly Retiring."

Randy Price, main anchor at WHDH/Boston, and a local news legend in Boston and beyond, has told friends and co-workers that he's left Channel 7 after reaching a "mutual agreement" with HDH owner Ed Ansin, according to a breaking news post this afternoon on the Boston Globe's website, Boston.com.

According to the Globe:  "Price, who had a contract with WHDH until 2012, said he had a meeting Thursday with Ansin, who owns WHDH and sister station WLVI-TV (Channel 56), about his future at WHDH. 'He's a guy I have been loyal to and dedicated to for a dozen years. When he says to me we need to move in different directions, I respect that,' said Price, who helped WHDH dominate the 11 p.m. news in ratings in the last decade. In the past year, the station has slipped to third place at 11 in total viewers and key demographics. WBZ-TV Channel 4 has been leading at 11 p.m. in both."

Price told the Globe he's leaving HDH, but not done with his career, "I'm hardly retiring," he told the paper's Johnny Diaz from Kittery, Maine, where Price lives with his partner, Mark Steffen.  The couple were married on the Massachusetts Statehouse steps in 2007.  As Diaz reports, "Price was also popular for his work off-camera. He has been an advocate for animal rights and gay issues and has emceed and headlined local events such as the annual Men's Event fund-raiser for Fenway Community Health Center."

The Globe also quotes another Boston legend, Natalie Jacobson, the longtime WCVB anchor who retired in 2007:  "I don't know what the future holds for people like us,'' said Jacobson.  "It's a tough hole for everybody. Money is short and news is 24/7. People who run these operations aren't making the money they made before."

Inside the HDH Newsplex, reaction among co-workers to Price's unceremonious departure was described as stunned and distraught.