What happened to Steve Mark, their excellent weekend sports anchor? I see he was replaced by Ken Norton's (former world heavyweight champ) son. They also seemed to have hired another weekend weather anchor. You can really get dizzy if you follow that door. That has to be the most unstable station in a top ten market.
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KPRC Revolving Anchor Door
- Thread starter adguy
- Start date
In particular, their early morning newscast continues to be a mess. On some days, it ranks #4 behind 13, 11, and 26. Anchors Owen Conflenti and Lauren Freeman have absolutely no chemistry. When weekend anchor Courtney Zavala subs for Lauren, you can really tell a big difference on the set. Traffic gal Jennifer Reyna, an import from L.A. TV, seems like a misfit for the role. Promoting Anthony Yanez from weekend weather to early morning weather was a good move. Previous weatherman Byron Miranda was a disaster.
And the holiday cheer continues: Steve Mark, a fixture on Houston television since 1984, said Friday he will leave KPRC (Channel 2), his employer since 1997, on Dec. 31 after his contract was not renewed.
Mark said Skip Valet, Channel 2's news director, told him he "wanted to change the look of the position."
"There's no acrimony," Mark said. "They just want to make as many changes as they can and change the look of the station. That's part of the business."
Mark came to Houston in 1984 and worked with KHOU (Channel 11) until 1988, when he joined KRIV (Channel 26). He spent almost a decade at Channel 2 doing primarily sports reports but some news reporting as well.
Mark's replacement will be named later, but Channel 2 has hired Winston Dutchin from KMIR, the NBC affiliate in Palm Springs, Calif., as executive sports producer and as a backup reporter and anchor. Dutchin began work last week and will anchor tonight's sportscasts while Mark and sports director Randy McIlvoy take vacation days.
Valet said he will work with McIlvoy and Dutchin to rework the look of Channel 2's sportscasts, perhaps airing more features outside the traditional sports block.
"We're going to get serious about sports," Valet said. "Houston is a big league town when it comes to sports. You also have seen our commitment to high schools, and we also believe in giving coverage to the college teams."
Mark said Skip Valet, Channel 2's news director, told him he "wanted to change the look of the position."
"There's no acrimony," Mark said. "They just want to make as many changes as they can and change the look of the station. That's part of the business."
Mark came to Houston in 1984 and worked with KHOU (Channel 11) until 1988, when he joined KRIV (Channel 26). He spent almost a decade at Channel 2 doing primarily sports reports but some news reporting as well.
Mark's replacement will be named later, but Channel 2 has hired Winston Dutchin from KMIR, the NBC affiliate in Palm Springs, Calif., as executive sports producer and as a backup reporter and anchor. Dutchin began work last week and will anchor tonight's sportscasts while Mark and sports director Randy McIlvoy take vacation days.
Valet said he will work with McIlvoy and Dutchin to rework the look of Channel 2's sportscasts, perhaps airing more features outside the traditional sports block.
"We're going to get serious about sports," Valet said. "Houston is a big league town when it comes to sports. You also have seen our commitment to high schools, and we also believe in giving coverage to the college teams."
Well, I can see that the more changes Ch 2 makes, the more they'll remain the same. Steve Mark is an excellent sports "journalist". He learned quite a bit from Mark Berman, the undisputed king of Texas sports journalists, and I believe was KPRC's best sports anchor/reporter. The new reporters and anchors obviously have a lot to learn about the market, but professionally they will have a difficult time ever getting to Mark's level. This new New Director Skip Valet sounds like one of these guys that makes changes for the sake of making changes. Most of KPRC's past and current problems originated behind the scenes in the ND's and senior producers' offices. Houston seems to be the playground for neophite station managers that have no problem coming in, shaking up these stations, uprooting great people and ultimately dumbing down the quality of their stations. Channel 26 has never recovered from the numerous blunders their GM made since he came in after replacing a legend (Jerry Marcus) who built that station to prominance by the end of the 90's. It's amazing that Ch 13 has avoided the same blunders considering they are another corp owned station with decisions eminating from California or NY. Belo (CH 11) is Texas based and thus you see KHOU and their other Texas stations always stable with little turnover.
KPRC Revolving Door/Two More Gone
Today's Houston Chronicle reports that two more KPRC/Local2 staffers are gone: reporter Kris Gutierrez who is going to FOX News and weekend weatherman Jason Brewer. Brewer has only been with the station for less than a year and is another in a long list of weathercasters that have come and gone from the station during the past several years.
Today's Houston Chronicle reports that two more KPRC/Local2 staffers are gone: reporter Kris Gutierrez who is going to FOX News and weekend weatherman Jason Brewer. Brewer has only been with the station for less than a year and is another in a long list of weathercasters that have come and gone from the station during the past several years.
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