Rusty Gatenby is no longer with KSTP-TV, after more than 30 years.

KSTP-TV news director Lindsay Radford confirmed to me Monday that Gatenby was no longer with the station but declined to answer my questions, citing this as a personnel matter.

In November when I broke the story about anchor Brad Sattin and meteorologist Patrick Hammer being given six months to find other jobs, Gatenby, the traffic and entertainment reporter, was on solid ground.

It is believed that he had one of the highest Q Scores — "a measurement of the familiarity and appeal of a brand, company, celebrity or television show used in the United States," according to Wikipedia — of all Twin Cities traffic reporters.

So all I know for sure is that something happened, because I am fairly confident that there was no intention to dump Gatenby in November when big changes were being made to "5 Eyewitness News Morning" show.

When the February sweeps started and he was not on the morning show, sources told me they thought Gatenby was dealing with a sick family member. I started asking questions about Gatenby's whereabouts after a Jan. 30 e-mail from reader "Annie in Minnesota" who wrote: "Just found your article on him. I was sick for a few days and didn't watch TV and when I started again, the weatherman who worked with him had been replaced and Rusty was not there. Because I have GATENBY in my family tree his name is easy to remember, but my intermittent problems are getting in the way of remembering the name of the weatherman. Now it seems that maybe Rusty has ben replaced, too? Can you tell me where each of them went?"

At Mark Albert's going-away party, following his August announcement that he was leaving KSTP, I hung with Gatenby and his very young, but computer savvy, date.

Rusty was chortling about how in, I believe it was, 2012 he had gotten into trouble at KSTP (I even think he told me what happened but I didn't retain the info) and that it had escaped my attention. That kind of taunting should surely inspire me to see what I can find out about this rascal's exit.

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.