KARE 11 loses significant bench strength, and great hair, with the departure of weekend anchor Blake McCoy for an NBC correspondent job based in L.A.
"I wasn't planning on leaving KARE 11 or Minnesota," McCoy told me Tuesday. "I have a really good life here and have made amazing friends. Then this opportunity all of a sudden came up, and it's one of those opportunities that doesn't come around often and may not come around again, so I had to jump at it."
McCoy, who has been here three years, said his contract with KARE was coming up, so "I went out to New York to meet with several networks — ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN — that had expressed interest. Had great meetings with all of them. Really hit it off with the folks at NBC. They were so warm, so energetic. They wanted to fly me out the next week to meet all of their executives. So I did a whirlwind two days of meeting everybody. It was one of those things that felt like a perfect match."
McCoy is following the KARE 11 footsteps to the big boys behind Joe Fryer, now NBC News' West Coast correspondent. McCoy's tenure with KARE did not overlap Fryer's, but they see each other when Fryer comes back here to visit family and his former TV colleagues. "He has known since I interviewed," McCoy said. "I could only tell very few people, and he was great enough to coach me though the interview process and offer whatever help he could."
"It's kind of a happy coincidence I'm going to be based in Los Angeles, where he's based; two former KARE alums. He has offered to take me under his wing and help train me, show me the ropes."
"My boss [news director Jane Helmke] told me I am always welcomed back to KARE."
McCoy is going to be missed by his weekend co-anchor, Rena Sarigianopoulos, with whom he has terrific chemistry, and meteorologist Sven Sundgaard, a world traveling buddy.
"I don't think [NBC] is going to be quite as flexible as KARE is on vacations," McCoy said, laughing, when I asked how they would coordinate sunny weather trips now.
"It's going to be a little bit more challenging, but the good thing is Sven's boyfriend, Robert, is from Los Angeles, so I have a feeling they will be out quite a bit."
The move puts McCoy in the same state as his mom, Vanessa Peterson, who kindly provided me a hysterical quote in May when her boy's hair was recognized by a website evaluating "Local Newsmen with the Best Hair by State."
There's a chance McCoy might not get to fly in to see his mom all that much, because those network jobs keep correspondents hopping and there is no guarantee he'll remain in L.A. Laughing, McCoy said, "That's part of the excitement, isn't it? Or so I'm told."
When McCoy gets tired of being worked to death, I could see him being a main anchor anywhere.
An allium affront?
Hot talk in Philly, according to some National Association of Black Journalists members with whom I was hanging, is that former WCCO-TV GM Brien Kennedy may try to raid his old station of others besides meteorologist Lauren Casey.
The Philly-based conventioneers, one of whom expressed great approval of station changes made by Kennedy, claim he is itchy to hire his immediate past news director, WCCO's Mike Caputa. That's the same information I received in a July 22 e-mail from a guy who said he's from the Philly area. Caputa ignored my July tweet asking whether he was going somewhere.
I would say "no," which is what I have been told by two WCCO sources. Seldom can you dynamite out of here someone with deep Minnesota roots like Caputa, who's probably not going anywhere if he can help it.
As for Casey, she apparently knows her stuff even though her voice doesn't help her convey information in an authoritative manner. The Philly NABJers wonder whether she will be jarred by what a very hard news market Philly is. One NABJer found WCCO-TV surprisingly cuddly.
I assume any 'CCOers rejoining Kennedy know this means no more onions at lunch. I am told Kennedy strongly discouraged sales staffers, and perhaps others, from walking around with afternoon onion breath. Someone at Kennedy's office laughed out loud about me seeking a comment from him Wednesday about that and the chatter.
C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.
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