NEWS9 Tonight anchor Natalie Pasquarella will embark on a new journey after accepting a promotion. The station announced last month that Pasquarella, who has been at the station since 2004, was being promoted within Cox Television, the parent company of WTOV9, to sister station WSOC-TV in Charlotte.

Pasquarella, a Steubenville native, signed off for the last time on Thursday -- but not before saying a fond farewell to her hometown.

“These past three and a half years have been amazing; it has just been my dream to work at NEWS9 and ever since I was a little girl and it came true,“ said Pasquarella on her last day at NEWS9.

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A Final Message From Natalie Pasquarella To Her Viewers

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When Pasquarella moves to North Carolina next week, she won’t just be dealing with a climate change, but also a schedule change. Instead of working from 3 p.m. to 12 a.m., she’ll be working 3 a.m. to 1 p.m. so she can anchor the station's morning and noon newscasts in the country’s 25th-largest television news market.

Co-anchor Eric Minor offered words of encouragement to his friend and colleague during her final broadcast. He went on to say, “Natalie, you will always be a part of what we have done here at NEWS9.”

At the conclusion of Thursday’s newscast, the station showed a live picture of the newsroom where some of Pasquarella’s co-workers, family and friends gathered to watch her final sign-off.

WTOV9 announced last week that weekend anchor Jackie Cain, a West Virginia University graduate, would take over Pasquarella’s position starting Monday.