KTSM 9 News El Paso made major anchor changes at the start of 2024, affecting evening, morning and weekend newscasts.
KTSM EVENINGS
Many of those anchor charges come from the departure of married anchors Natassia Paloma and Trevor Thompson, who left the station in December 2023.
Paloma left an evening anchor seat open, so chief meteorologist Monica Cortez moves over from the weather center to the newsdesk to join Andy Morgan. Cortez has been with KTSM since 2014.
Luckily, "Studio 9" host Robert Bettes is a certified meteorologist, so he takes over for Cortez on the Chromakey wall. Bettes has already been a chief meteorologist for El Paso TV competitors KDBC CBS 4 and KVIA ABC7 plus KVEO 23 Rio Grande Valley.
MORNINGS AT KTSM
Thompson left an opening in the morning, so weekend anchor Karla Draksler moved to the weekday shift, with new hire Ian Roth joining her. Multi-media journalist Jasmine Perry has been promoted to morning traffic anchor. I have not heard of a replacement for morning weather forecaster Roxy Van Ruiten, who left last October.
WEEKENDS
That means newly hired weekend anchor Oriana Bottaro will take over for Draksler. Bottaro comes from Univision Miami, where she was an associate producer.
UPDATE
KTSM 9 News has also launched a new hour-long 4pm newscast with anchor Stephanie Shields.
