Happy to leave, happier to be coming back.
Alan Gionet, who co-anchored the CBS4 Weekend News with Kathy Walsh for four years until 1998, is on his way back to local TV screens after a seven-
year absence.
Sometime around the first of the year, Gionet and Walsh will be reunited as the weekend team on KCNC-Channel 4. He also will work as a reporter three nights a week.
Gionet is a big deal at his current TV home, anchoring and acting as managing editor for the top news station in Jacksonville, Fla.
Coming back, he said, was a matter of family. It was about his wife, Kim DeVigil, a Colorado native and a one-time flack for
Coors. “She had never lived outside of Colorado. Things were going pretty well, then she began to miss family.” She decided, and Gionet agreed, that they needed to get back to paradise.
Gionet and Channel 4 news execs started talking about his return a year and a half ago. “They made me an offer, but I decided to stay (in Florida).” A month ago, he called them back and said, “I would love to talk.”
He’s especially happy to be reunited with his on-air partner Walsh. “I’ve always said anchor teams are like arranged marriages. She’s a great person to work with, spend time with. She’s like a magnet in that newsroom.”
Their most recent “reunion” made Gionet smile. “I was there over the weekend. I called her, said, ‘Kathy, I’m here. How about I buy you a meal?’ She takes me to Las Delicias. The bill came to $7. You gotta love someone like that.”
Around the dial
“Monday Night Football” is 35 years old this year and in its last season on ABC before going to ESPN. The first telecast? New York Jets-Cleveland Browns in 1970 with Keith Jackson, Don Meredith and Howard Cosell in the booth. Bryant Gumbel takes a look at “MNF” and how it changed TV sports on “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” (7 p.m. Tuesday, HBO) … KJCD 104.3-FM out with its annual holiday CD, “Smooth Jazz Volume 5,” featuring Grover Washington Jr., Sade, Nelson Rangell and others. A benefit for Habitat for Humanity, the 20-track CD is available at Twist and Shout and Tattered Cover … The numbers are in, and whopping: Last week’s 24-hour on-air marathon by Dom Testa and Jane London at KIMN 100.3-FM raised $351,312 for Food Bank of the Rockies … Talk-
show host Jay Marvin simulcasting his show to fill in for syndicated yakker Jerry Springer. He will take local and national calls all week (7-10 a.m., KKZN 760-AM) … Quotable: “I’m not a person who worries about ratings a lot. I worry about doing my job well.” – Alan Gionet.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
