KSHB reporter Chris Hernandez will officially sign off from the NBC station tonight, according to a story by The Pitch’s Charles Ferruzza to join the Unicorn Theatre as its new marketing director.

Bottom Line Communications first reported in July that Hernandez would be leaving the NBC affiliate after eight years.

“I wasn’t really looking to leave TV news,” Hernandez told Ferruzza, “but the idea of making a complete career change had certainly crossed my mind. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay in TV news for my entire professional career.”

Ferruzza noted that by gaining Hernandez as an employee means losing a member of the Unicorn Theatre board of directors. Paul Monteil, a Hallmark employee, will have to step down from the board; he’s Hernandez’s partner and the connection would have created a conflict of interest.

A Shawnee native and University of Kansas journalism graduate, Hernandez worked at WDAF Channel 4 for most of the 1990s before taking jobs at Cleveland’s WEWS and, later, Chicago’s WBBM-TV. He returned to Kansas City for the job at KSHB in 2004.