WPMI vice president and general manager Bob Dunn, who joined the Mobile NBC-affiliate last spring, died suddenly late Tuesday afternoon.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened with Bob’s passing,” Michael DiPasquale, vice president of operations for Newport Television, which owns WPMI, said in a statement.  “Bob was a valuable member of the Newport Television family but more importantly he was a wonderful person, an absolute gentleman and a great family man.”

A native of Alabama, Dunn worked as a sales executive for Clear Channel, and later Newport Television, before joining WPMI in 2011.

The cause of death has not been released and WPMI has yet to report on Dunn’s passing.

The Newport Television-owned stations in Syracuse, Harrisburg, and Albany have been pulled from Verizon FiOS as the company was unable to reach a new retrans agreement with the cable provider before yesterday’s midnight deadline.

According to Newport executive Michael DiPasquale, the company has been “working diligently to reach a resolution in this matter.”

Newport’s previous retrans agreement with Verizon expired at 11:59 p.m. last night, leaving FiOS customers without WSYR in Syracuse, WXXA in Albany, and WHP in Harrisburg. Read more