KTVU Channel 2 Won't Replace Ross McGowan -- Longtime News Interviewer's Duties Will Fall Upon Existing Staff
For those who grew up in the Bay Area, Ross McGowan has been like the caretaker at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining: He is the morning interviewer. He has always been the morning interviewer. He will always be the morning interviewer.
Until Oct. 2, of course. Then he's retired. And in a sign of the economically troubled times in the media world, he won't be replaced. His a.m. interviewing duties will fall upon Morning on 2's existing staff.
"Well, you know, I don't think you can replace a guy like Ross," Channel 2 General Manager Tim McVay told SF Weekly. When asked if he was looking to bring in another interviewer for the morning news shows, he replied, "That's not our current thinking. We're real proud and confident in the team that we have. And we've got a good, strong group of experienced professionals."
Also, McGowan's work week had been cut back to three days this year anyway -- so the news team's anchors and other personnel aren't exactly inexperienced when it comes to conducting the interviews that were McGowan's specialty. Whether it's correspondents doing their own camerawork and editing or news anchors doing interviews, everyone in the TV news world is learning to do more with less.
Incidentally, McGowan had only been a fixture at Channel 2 since 1993, but has been on Bay Area airwaves since 1978. Most notably, he'd hosted People are Talking on KPIX with Ann Fraser for what seemed like eons.
Your humble narrator's own mother once attended that show in order to help with a live commercial -- remember those? -- for a children's theater group. Of course all anyone would remember from that day were the guests who talked about their artificial penises.
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