In & Out

While my time off blogging we had a few surprises join and leave us... here's the list

Checkey Beckford is one of the newest members at CBS 13 News. She comes from the ABC affiliate in Champaign, IL

Nick Janes also comes from the ABC affiliate in IL, he now serves as a reporter for Good Day Sacramento and CBS 13 morning/ noon newscast.

Julie Watts, former weekend morning meteorologist was laid off in December after KCRA made cuts by eliminating their staff. Byron Miranda was replaced and currently fills-in.

Now in HD

CBS 13 News debuted in High Definition in October 2008 along with new CG graphics and with a new backdrop. The graphics slightly remind me of KPIX. They also added a new feature to the newsroom that streched along the back wall which brings color to the newsroom on air.

Sarah Gardner Returns...

Sarah Gardner is back anchoring! This time at CBS 13 News, from 5-7 a.m. with Ron Hyde (former KCRA employee) and the news at noon with Nick Toma. According to a local source Gardner is only temporarily anchoring until Lisa Gonzales returns back from maternity leave which should be sometime this spring. After a year off TV, one of Sacramento's best Journalist is back on air.

Bye, Bye For Now...

After working nearly 10 years at CBS 13, Dennis Shanahan has decided to step down from his current position. His last day will be in July when his contract ends, he decided not to renew it and is ready for something different or possibly in another shop. I will try to feature Shanahan in the July interview of the month.

Update's

First up--- The layoffs at several CBS stations not only has affected former employee's but have cause issues in the programming side. The Sports Show which aired every weekend at 11pm- 11:30pm has now be incorperated with the 10pm newscast and is only hosted by Arran Anderson who has been with the station since 2006. Andrew Luria who reported for the show is now anchoring the weekend editions of Good Day Sacramento in the mornings and reporting for the weekday 10pm show three days a week. The Sports show can be seen around 10:45ish pm.


Candice Stanton is now taking a break from TV. She was a freelance reporter who worked for FOX40 News 2 days a week. No word what she's doing but she has come along way. She's been freelancing with FOX40 since November 2007. Candice also used to work as the morning reporter for KCRA 3 in the early 2000's she was also known as Candice Jones before she got married.


FOX40 News made a few changes to their 10pm news format. There are more sports and weather cut-ins which means a dab of more on-air time for Jim and Kristina.


John Lobertini who was a Sacramento Correspondent for CBS 5 in San Francisco, was sadly one of the people who got laid off from the CBS stations nationwide. Now the CBS 5 Live Truck is heading back home after a few years in Sacramento. He is expected to be in the market soon, and he also used to work for CBS 13 in Sacramento before joining CBS 5 in 1999.


KCRA has a new annoucer for the intro of their newscast, she has more of an accent. Personally I perferred the other annoucer. Also their backdrop has changed as where it used to be yellow-greenish with the mountains and parts of downtown Sacramento to just a plain blue 3 backdrop towards the left of the studio from the viewers side.


Eileen Javora, is now appearing only on the Morning newscast shows. Dirk Verdoorn and Julie Watts are now handling the noon newscast from the KCRA 3 Experience at Arden Mall.


And lastley, Kristin Marshall, joined KCRA from WBAL-TV NBC 11 in Baltimore, Maryland in February 2008, she is now doing traffic after Adrienne left her beat to report and anchor.

Local Station Enters for a Heniz 57 Commercial Ad

About a year ago the CBS 13 production crew entered for contest for the Heniz 57 commercial...Unforuently Hinez did not pick their idea but it was nice to see a local station enter for a national contest, I must say its very creative.

CBS 13 News Reporter Quits

CBS 13 News Reporter Bridget Cannata has quit in the middle of her contract Tuesday Oct. 30th. Bridget joined the station in July 2006 from a TV station in Oklahoma. According to the news director Steve Charlier, says she has decided to spend more time with her family in San Francisco. She will most likely get a reporting job at one of the bay area stations as obvious. We'll keep you noted on what she does next!

Diana's back!

Diana Penna returned back to work July 2007 after having a baby boy in March. Now shes back from maternaity leave and doing Health reports for the morning and noon shows. Great to have you back Diana!