KTRK 13 hires Pooja Lodhia from FOX 4 WFTX

KTRK 13 appears to be shaking things up by hiring new reporter Pooja Lodhia from FOX 4 WFTX which covers Fort Myers, Cape Coral and Naples (TV market 62). Why? Well look at the highlight video clips embedded here that WFTX compiled of Lodhia for her last day.

"I've accepted at job reporting for KTRK (ABC) in Houston," Lodhia said on her Facebook page. "I'll be moving closer to my family and getting to experience so many new things."

KTRK is not exactly known as a youthful station in the Houston market. Some of the current on air talent were on the air the day I was born, for example. Lodhia, who arrives with a zany Fox affiliate morning show background, clearly brings in the Generation Y (aka the Millennial Generation) energy to the ABC owned station.

As I watched Lodhia's goodbye clips, I saw her, among other things (click on embedded videos in this post to see these moments and more):
- Say to Harry Potter star Rupert Grint, "I want to get sleazy with Ron Weasley"
- Cage fight another woman
- Shoot her photographer with a fire extinguisher
- Ride an elephant

On her last day, one of the WFTX morning anchors asked Lodhia on air, "Is your [new] news director aware of your extensive martial arts background now?"
The other anchor then answered "Keep those crazy Houstonians at bay." (If that anchor only knew.)

My suspicion is a past channel 13 employee put Lodhia on the radar for his old Houston station. You might remember that former KTRK 13 reporter Patrick Nolan is an anchor at WFTX. To celebrate her Houston departure, Nolan went to the Florida X Factor auditions and got wannabe contestants to sing Lodhia's name (last video embed on this post).

In the video, Nolan then approached Gloria Estefan and asked her to do the same. Estefan replied, "What is that? What does that mean? Are you making me say dirty words in some strange language?"

According to her bio, Lodhia was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and graduated from Emory University in Atlanta with a double major in English and Journalism and a minor in Dance. She went on to work at Eatel News Magazine in Baton Rouge, later landing at Marquette, Michigan NBC affiliate WLUC TV6. Two years later she ended up at WFTX where she has been for the last several years.

Lodhia should be starting at KTRK very soon.









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