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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

New York TV reporter reacts to KPRC 2 news clip

WPIX 11 reporter Mario Diaz comments on 1989 KPRC 2 newscast video


Last month I posted some Classic Houston TV news clips. One of those videos was of a 1989 KPRC 2 newscast. That clip sure caught the attention of mikemcguff.com reader and WPIX 11 reporter Mario Diaz (not the Director of the City of Houston Department of Aviation, although I hope he is a reader too).

Here is how Diaz remembered it in his email to me:

I'm based in New York City as a reporter / fill-in anchor for WPIX-TV. However, I spent several years of my youth living in Lake Jackson. This said, I grew up on Houston television. To this day, I have many fond memories of my time spent there.

I wanted to shoot you a note of appreciation for the old clips recently showcased on the blog. The one link from 5/89 generated much curiosity --- since I left the Houston area two weeks later when my parents were relocated to Las Vegas. Now, what makes that link even more personal is that Brazoswood High School was mentioned in the newscast regarding an undercover cop at the school and the arrest of 20+ students. Well, I was a junior at Brazoswood when it all went down. I remember it well since Lake Jackson was quaint and these arrests occurred at the height of 21 Jump Street's fame. We were all stunned at the students who got arrested and how it happened.

Well, I was on the train in NYC yesterday and I about fell over when I watched the link. I've shared that story with my wife in the past, so she was blown away in watching it yesterday.

Diaz tells me he still makes it back to Houston for both work and pleasure. While an anchor in Tampa, Diaz was one of the first journalists at the Astrodome to cover the New Orleans evacuees fleeing Katrina's aftermath.

As Texas TV staffers get ready to submit to the Lone Star EMMY Chapter, Diaz just celebrated a win at the New York Emmy Awards. Congrats!


As for Ken Kalthoff, the reporter forever frozen in time in the video embedded above, I found him at KXAS in Dallas-Fort Worth as a reporter.

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