A familiar face is returning to Houston TV. Former KIAH 39 MMJ Mayra Moreno is coming back to the Bayou City as an anchor/reporter at KTRK abc13.
"Years ago when I embarked on my journey to become a journalist, I always envisioned myself working for the station I grew up watching in Houston," Moreno posted on Facebook.
She leaves KENS 5 San Antonio where she has been since 2011. Moreno was hired as a reporter for the now TEGNA station, eventually being promoted to Saturday morning anchor.
Moreno started in TV at KRGV in the Rio Grande Valley.
The new KTRK anchor was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and raised in Houston. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston with a double major in Journalism and Spanish.
"After spending 4 years in San Antonio with KENS 5 CBS it is bittersweet," she added. "To all my loyal viewers over the years I thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to bring you the news and stories that impacted the community. I feel blessed to be given an opportunity to return home, accomplish a long-time goal and continue to do what I love."
As I wrote years ago for her switch from KIAH to KENS, I worked with Moreno in the last days of KIAH 39s news department.
Dear San Antonio,Years ago when I embarked on my journey to become a journalist...I always envisioned myself working...
Posted by Mayra Moreno on Thursday, August 27, 2015
Waterlogged KTRK abc13 viewers tuned in Halloween morning to find a TV trick or treat - a surprise new anchor.
That's right, new face Mayra Moreno, who I first blogged about last August, has come back home from KENS 5 San Antonio and made her official channel 13 weekend morning anchor chair debut.
Previously Moreno was an MMJ at KIAH 39 before NewsFix.
Apparently the bad street flooding played a trick on co-anchor Chauncy Glover and stalled his car, so Moreno started the Saturday morning broadcast by herself.
It was rumored that KTRK was looking for a new weekend morning anchor and Moreno would be that person when hired.
So now we know the truth.
That means longtime weekend morning anchor Elissa Rivas will not wake up viewers anymore on the weekend as she has been doing since 2003 (if I remember that start date correctly).
Apparently Rivas will be a reporter from now on as I have not heard if she will move on to anchor another show.
UPDATE
Since I posted this, I was reminded that Elissa Rivas has been filling for the expectant Rebecca Spera on afternoon traffic.
I'm back at working today after being MIA for a bit dealing with a personal matter but I am alive and well thanks to God.
A week ago I was able to receive a marvelous award. I was honored to be one of Houston's top 30 influential women. It as an amazing evening being among 29 other women who are paving the way in their field, breaking glass ceilings and have influence!
Feeling blessed, nos vemos on tv at 4pm and 6:30pm per usual!"
We're now on the lookout for reporter Alex Bozarjian, who has not been on-air since the spring.
Mayra Moreno has received much support from the media community after defending herself from an ABC13 KTRK Houston viewer, who posted on X about why she was pronouncing "Hispanic sounding names with a Hispanic accent?"
Moreno responded: "Spanish is my first language and I’m pronouncing it how it’s supposed to be pronounced in Spanish. I’m not trying to teach you Spanish and what do you mean by Hispanic sounding names? They are Hispanic names."
Spanish is my first language and I’m pronouncing it how it’s supposed to be pronounced in Spanish. I’m not trying to teach you Spanish 🤣 and what do you mean by Hispanic sounding names? They are Hispanic names. https://t.co/ETiWHasnuK
"From the beginning of my career in a small Rio Grande Valley market, which was 95% Latino and from where all my family hails, I was questioned about the way I used a Spanish pronunciation of my name, correctly and accurately rolling the rrrr’s in both my first and last names: Minerva Pérez...sacrosanct where I come from.
My nickname as a kid was Minnie, Minnie Mouse and Mini Skirt. Would viewers take me seriously if I used nicknames? I was supposed to come across as a serious Journalist.
After leaving the Valley, and moving to the mid-size market of San Antonio and away from family and friends, the catty comments started coming. Some of my colleagues, especially, laughed and sniped behind my back. I knew it and I ignored it. My news director brought me in and said 'perhaps you should consider the way you say your name.' I ignored him. I refused to homogenize my name and identity for the sake of my job and instead stayed true to my heritage. It was the decade of the Hispanics, after all.
Several markets later, and arriving in the 2nd largest TV Market in the country of Los Angeles, the hate or bullying heated up. It was there, the biggest Latino market next to Mexico City that the hate mail started arriving. 'You’re too Latina,' one cowardly and anonymous person wrote. Another suggested I should 'go back to México!' As Anchor Jen openly told the author of her egregious email and her viewers, 'you don’t know me.' Little did my haters know I am a 4th generation Texan, whose family goes back hundreds of years…before Tejas was taken by the Texians. The common Tejano saying goes, 'the border crossed us.' We still own part of a major land grant.
Consistently, some colleagues in all the TV markets where I worked, friends, I wrongly thought, generated some of this bullying. In one market, one co-anchor with an air of much superiority, turned to me and pointedly asked, 'Why do you say your name that way?' A not-so-kind, icy query. Another one would encounter me in the hallway and loudly mimic me, 'Minerrrrrva Pérrrrrez.' I laughed as his insulting words. Another one said the way I pronounced my name “jarred the ear.” Jarred the ear? This, while they all went out of their way to correctly pronounce Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They went crazy with French names. Latino names? Not so much.
Conversely, I also received a lot of praise from Latinos in every community in which I worked. They loved that I represented them proudly in what they considered a not-so-welcoming “white world.” To see me on TV was to see themselves."
A few years later in 2015, Perez published more about her career in 'I GOTTA STORY: My 30 Years in TV News' that spanned from the RGV to KTLA 5 Los Angeles. One of my favorite stories is how Perez is sampled in the U2 Desire (Hollywood Remix) from her LA TV time!
Former KIAH 39 MMJ/reporter Mayra Moreno is heading west down I-10 to KENS 5 in San Antonio. I'm told she will be a reporter/fill-in anchor at the Belo owned station.
The Houston native was one of the first multi-media journalists at KIAH 39 later moving on to be a NewsFix Predator. She started with the CW station in October 2009.
According to her bio, Moreno graduated from the University of Houston and went on to work for a local radio station in Houston covering political and social issues affecting the Hispanic community. She was also a correspondent and Spanish host for Houston's monthly aviation show Houston Airports Today.
She then spent two years working in South Texas as a reporter and associate producer for KRGV-TV before moving back to Houston.
Her last day at KIAH will be October 7th.
I worked with Mayra at KIAH. She was very hard working and always pleasant to be around.
Now KENS 5 and San Antonio might be an adjustment for Moreno. Just this week two transgender individuals in a convenience store parking had a fistfight next to a KENS live truck. Is this considered a 'hot mess' like all of those entertainment bloggers like to say?
Mayra Moreno is adding 4pm and 6:30pm abc13 KTRK anchor duties to her schedule, in addition to current 3pm newscast, according to her personal website.
Familiar faces are hitting the airwaves of KIAH 39 again.
Former 39 News reporter/anchor Marci Izard has been filling in for the vacationing Mia Gradney on Eye Opener duties.
As you might have read here before, Eye Opener is the newish KIAH 39 morning show produced by Tribune out of Chicago with Houston news breaks. It is expected this show will eventually go national to other Tribune stations.
It seems strange in this NewsFix world, but actual people once delivered your news at KIAH 39.
Mayra Moreno
Izard is not the only former 39 talent returning to public view. Last week Mayra Moreno also did some fill-in time in the AM. Both reporters stayed at the CW station after it launched its television news revolution. Both were great to work with.
Eye Opener, by the way, airs every weekday morning from 6 to 8am.
"This is just one example of the kind of messages I receive sometimes (I’ve been outspoken about these messages before and other #LatinosInTV who are their authentic self have shared the same type of racist messages).
This was all because I sign off with #BuenasNoches … two-word phrase that reflects who I am and how I connect with my community.
I say it with pride at the end of my newscast. It’s small, but it’s meaningful to me. A simple way to share a piece of myself with the people I serve every night.
I’m proud of who I am. Proud to be a reflection of my parents who are hardworking, bilingual, and full of corazón.
Growing up I faced lots of racism and made fun of because I had an accent and it took me a long time not to feel ashamed of my roots.
So no, I’m not going to stop saying it. And I’m definitely not going to apologize for being bilingual, bicultural, and unapologetically me.
Buenas Noches, Houston."
In late 2024, the ABC13 Houston KTRK evening anchor received support from the media community when she defended herself against criticism from a viewer regarding her pronunciation of Spanish names during newscasts.
Chauncy Glover and Mayra Moreno to anchor new 3pm newscast on abc13 KTRK starting Sept. 10th 2018
This morning, abc13 KTRK announced it is debuting its new Eyewitness News at 3pm, Monday, September 10th.
In all my years of blogging, I don't think a Houston TV station has ever announced a new weekday newscast on a Sunday morning.
Nor can I think of any company making a major announcement on a Sunday morning, but what do I know about marketing, I am just a dunderpate who writes on a free blogger.com account.
I guess it all makes more sense being that KTRK is moving its weekend morning news anchors, Chauncy Glover and Mayra Moreno, to that new show.
This means that Glover and Moreno will team back up with former weekend morning meteorologist Elita Loresca who moved to weekdays a while ago.
Today channel 13 viewers have been asking me if I knew about this. The answer is yes.
There have been tons of rumors about this show going back a decade or more.
Back when The Wayne Brady Show followed by the The Tony Danza Show failed to endure in the ratings. Once KTRK found the winning combo of the syndicated shows Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Inside Edition, rumors of a possible 3pm newscast seemed to fade until more recently.
I never blogged about this new 3pm show because I kept hearing all kinds of changing information about it. If I would have published at different points, the info would have been outdated the next week.
I've heard differing accounts of anchors, meteorologists and reporters who were all going to be allegedly working the show. I've heard the station was considering bringing former Houston talent back to the Bayou City to work it. I've heard people from other Houston stations were seen inside KTRK.
But none of that matters now, we know the eventual outcome today.
Here are a few things I am not totally sure about after today's announcement. For one, is the new newscast 30 minutes or an hour? I've also heard talk about it having more of a feature feel than other newscasts.
Guess we'll see on 9/10/2018 when the show hits the air.
What I can guess is that news director Wendy Granato has high hopes for the Glover and Moreno anchor team. Considering the attention, that especially Glover has been receiving, are we seeing the future main anchors move up through the Eyewitness News ranks? The 3pm today, the 6pm and 10pm news in the future?
So who will be sliding into the now empty weekend morning news chairs?
We learned from today's newscast video, the self-proclaimed "Dallas team" of reporters Erica Simon and Steven Romo.
Collin Myers will remain as the weekend morning meteorologist.
Chauncy Glover's family, friends, and television co-workers celebrated and remembered him at his funeral service Saturday in Athens, Alabama, at the Lindsay Lane Baptist Church.
Glover, 39, former ABC13 Houston KTRK anchor and current CBS Los Angeles stations KCBS 2- KCAL 9 co-anchor, died in early November. No cause of death has been released. CBS Los Angeles live-streamed Glover's funeral service for the world to see.
Moreno and Lawson participated in the service, giving emotional remembrances of the former television anchor that let the rest of us know the person he was off camera.
Moreno celebrated Glover for their special bond as an anchor team:
"For eight years, Chauncy and I sat side by side delivering the news, but he was so much more than a co-worker. He was a friend, my confidant, my partner in crime. We were, as many would say, two peas in a pod. When you saw us on TV, we had our little routine. We had matching outfits and matching energy. And boy, did people think we were married. So to this day, if you Google his name, the top search is are Chauncy Glover and Mayra Moreno still married.
Over the years we bonded because we grew together as a team. We started weekend mornings getting to the station at three in the morning. And boy, was that so rough. We would say this is temporary. One day we'll go Monday through Friday, which we did. And we launched the station's first 3:00 newscast in the city. And that was just the beginning. On days when he was low on energy, he was like, boo! I'm gonna need you to carry this newscast today. And I was like, I got you. On days when I was low, I said, boo. It's been a week. He already knew what to do. We cared about our product. And everything that people saw on screen was real. We knew how to roll with the punches at work, with breaking news or last minute changes. We could finish each other's sentences. And if my hair was off, he would fix it. If his forehead was shiny, I would tell him.
One time, a button from his suit popped out and he was like, Myra, I'm gonna need your help, girl. And there I was, trying to figure out how am I going to get his suit together, y'all. I had a safety pin and getting him together during a commercial break, trying to count down the time. He was mind blown, y'all. I told him, baby, I'm a Mexi-CAN.
When he left for L.A. it was bittersweet. I wanted him to get that dream job, that big time TV market. But I also knew that meant breaking up the team. I joked with him saying, you're going to miss this Mexi-CAN. And sure enough, he did. And it felt so much recently when I would get a message from him simply saying I miss you, or texting a picture of us from back in the day and I would simply text him, I miss you too, boo! Since I heard about Chauncy's passing, his laughter, his smile, and his bright, joyful spirit have been on my mind constantly. Those memories, the way he could light up a room with a single joke or just a kind word, are all the things that I'm going to hold close to my heart. I take comfort in knowing that he is now at peace, embraced by God's love. I trust that he's in a place where laughter never fades and joy never ends. Until we meet again."
Here is a portion of how Lawson remembered Glover joining ABC13 KTRK:
"He was such an amazing man. He taught us how to live life to the fullest and love people to the deepest. Chauncy was born to enrich the lives of others. He made us all feel like his best friend. And as I listen to everybody else talk clearly, he learned it right here. We come to you from a city now in grief. Houston is mourning the loss of Chauncy Glover. I'm a Houstonian. I've worked at the station longer than Chauncey's been alive, if you do the math on that. Um, but I have to tell you, I've never seen so many people in such grief so devastated by the loss of a single person, including so many who never met him in person but felt like they knew him because we all saw Chauncey on screen, was just like Chauncey in person. He adopted Houston and we adopted him.
I was so blessed to get a chance to meet him on the first day, thanks to our former president and general manager, Wendy Granato. Wendy. Stand up, if you would. Just so we can see you. Wendy came to me and said, I'm interviewing this guy. We really want him to come here. He's got a lot of other offers. So close the deal for me. Melanie and I thought, close the deal, but it wasn't hard. We got a chance to sit down and talk for almost an hour, and by the time he left, we were already family. I have to thank Wendy for being so smart.
That was Chauncey's M.O. He was the new kid, but suddenly he knew more about the station than any of us. Within weeks, he knew everybody in town from the mayor, half of the Congress people to barbers and bus drivers. Right. That was Chauncey. He saw everyone as the same, and everyone was part of his family."
It was a beautiful day celebrating our wonderful friend & colleague.
I often get asked about updates concerning the whereabouts of ABC13 Houston KTRK anchor Mayra Moreno and we just had a recent sighting of the missing anchor!
Moreno, with other Houston media honorees, took home a Top 30 Influential Women of Houston Award Friday night.
"I’ve been a little MIA lately, but last night was worth stepping back out for!
So grateful to be recognized as one of the 30 Influential Women of Houston at such a beautiful gala. Thanks to @top30women for this huge honor.
It was an unforgettable evening celebrating incredible women making an impact in our city. Feeling grateful, inspired, and ready to get back to work soon!"
The now pregnant ABC13 Houston KTRK evening anchor used a meme audio with the caption "I have a secret to tell you..." and hashtags #momTobe #Blessed #GodsGift #GoddidIt #MomInTheMaking #IVFWarrior #Finally #BigBlessing
