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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

KIAH 39 loses two reporters; familiar faces fill in

There are some departures and new arrivals to report at KIAH 39.

Most recently it has been announced that reporter Leticia Juarez is leaving Houston for Hollywood! Is she leaving to find love on a reality TV show? No, she's sticking with the TV reporter career and moving on to KABC 7 in LA. Juarez has been in Houston for several years. She started her Texas career at KHOU 11 and later moved to 39.

She received national attention after being proposed to on air this year by her boyfriend Mark Annas. Someone told me at the time that exposure could help her career. No joke. It doesn't get much better than one of the top stations in TV market #2.

If the proposal actually helped Juarez make that big of a career jump, then there are a lot of single local reporters around the nation looking for a potential spouse with a ring and a live camera. If they are married, then they are booking studio/satellite time and looking to renew their vows.

The California native will return to her home state after her last 39 report September 22.

Some older news is that 39 reporter Jason Volentine departed the station last Friday. He took a weekend anchor/general assignment reporter job recently at WXMI Fox 17 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He's already going to have a friend in the WXMI newsroom. You might remember that former 39 reporter Hailey Frances is the main anchor of that station. Good thing Volentine already knows someone because Frances can teach him how to stay warm during the winter. He might actually prefer Michigan's eight degrees to 100+ degree temps in Houston's summer months though. Plus Ted Nugent is from there.

Volentine's move could be called a family affair since Tribune Company owns both WXMI and KIAH.

So who is replacing these two? We already know the answer to that. If you have turned on 39 in the past few nights you have seen reporting by former KPRC 2 sports anchor Steve Mark and former Fox 26 sports anchor Matt Sampsell. CONTACT: Leave me a Houston or Texas media news tip | COMMENT: Click to leave your thoughts on this post here