Longtime former Channel 4 anchor Demetria Kalodimos accused her old TV station of age and gender discrimination in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday against the TV station's parent company, Meredith Local Media Group.

The lawsuit described WSMV as creating a "hostile environment" that favored men and younger on-air personalities.

"Channel 4 and Meredith have a culture of discarding women once they reach a certain age, as if women have some expiration date," her attorney Kenny Byrd of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, a national law firm with an office in Nashville, said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Kalodimos "observed and was subjected to age-motivated ridicule, public berating and criticism from Channel 4 management," her lawyers, Byrd and Kelly M. Dermody, allege in the filing.

In an exclusive interview with the Tennessean, Kalodimos said she started bringing gender and age discrimination allegations from her coworkers to station management years ago.

"When problems are happening right under your own nose, if you will, you can’t ignore those. Especially when they’re hurting people — and people that you know and work with," Kalodimos said.

"I felt not only my responsibility as a journalist but as a friend and as a woman and as an employee to make people aware of problems. And there were persistent problems."

Meredith disputed the allegations in an email sent Thursday morning.

"Meredith and WSMV-TV strongly disagree with these allegations," Meredith spokeswoman Kara Kelly said. "We will vigorously defend ourselves against them."

'Demetria forever':Nashville reacts to former News Channel 4 anchor's lawsuit

Kalodimos — a popular anchor at Channel 4 for 33 years — had a contentious split with the station Jan. 1, the day after her latest contract expired.

Kalodimos, 58 at the time, said she got a letter on her desk — "no conversation, no face to face meeting, no thanks."

The station said then that Kalodimos gave "no timely responses" to its offer of a contract extension, but Kalodimos countered there never was a serious offer to keep her at the station.

The lawsuit alleges:

► In July 2015, after Kalodimos approached a producer to talk about her script for that night's newscast, the top producer "falsely, loudly and publicly attacked Ms. Kalodimos' ability to attract viewership."

When Kalodimos approached then-news director Jim Gilchriest about the exchange, "his only response was to march Ms. Kalodimos from his office ... and announce in front of the entire crew that [current main anchor Tracy] Kornet would be replacing Ms. Kalodimos as the main anchor."

► In 2014, after Kalodimos "made clear" to the station manager she had no intention to retire, younger anchor Kornet was hired. In a TV spot, Kornet said "she watched Kalodimos deliver the news 'a million years ago' when she was 17."

► Two former producers told Kalodimos that they were "under pressure from Channel 4 management to 'showcase' Ms. Kornet over Ms. Kalodimos."

► Kalodimos negotiated the title of "senior editor" in her contracts dating back to 1992. But a boss told her the title "was actually 'meaningless' and laughed at the suggestion that she would remain the final arbiter of quality, accuracy and style for her anchor copy during her final years at Channel 4."

► After a newsroom expansion, Kalodimos was moved to a smaller office that wasn't private while younger on-air personalities were provided private work spaces.

► After Kalodimos and Channel 4 parted ways, the station took her name off a submission for a prestigious Edward R. Murrow national journalism award, an award the station eventually won.

► Kalodimos observed that in newsroom staff meetings, "women were spoken over by their colleagues or ignored entirely."

► Kalodimos witnessed that when a female producer took a job with the state, the producer tried to give a two-weeks notice but "she was let go immediately, publicly humiliated and not permitted to retrieve her belongings." A younger male producer who quit months later was allowed to stay for the duration of his two-weeks notice, and "was thrown a send-off party."

► When a woman staffer was rehired after medical leave, she lost her seniority and was given "substantially less pay" while a male employee who came back after a voluntary resignation didn't lose his seniority.

"This case is an example of what happens to experienced female professionals when forced to navigate the gauntlet of sex stereotypes in to the middle of their careers. It is wrong in any workplace and it is wrong here," attorney Dermody said in a statement.

The lawsuit is the latest bump in a rocky road for WSMV in the last couple of years.

In that time, popular personalities Rudy Kalis, morning meteorologist Paul Heggen, reporter Dennis Ferrier, anchor Jennifer Johnson and weathercaster Nancy Van Camp have retired, resigned or been pushed out.

The actor who played Snowbird for 24 years, Steven Good, was laid off last year.

And almost exactly a year ago, Ferrier, Johnson and Van Camp filed an age discrimination lawsuit against Channel 4, a suit that named Kalodimos as a witness.

Her former colleagues alleged in that suit that station managers exposed Kalodimos to "many acts of age-based discrimination and hostility."

Viewership declined in the months after Kalodimos left the station.

WSMV Channel 4 lost between 10 percent and 20 percent of its news viewers in the 12 months ending May 23, according to ratings obtained by The Tennessean.

The station was no longer the solid No. 2 news station behind Channel 5, a ranking that it has had for years, ratings show.

Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or 615-259-8384 or on Twitter @bradschmitt.