A look back at a big year for local TV news stations
2021 has brought a lot of changes to the local news front, with anchors moving to new networks, retiring, tackling new challenges and more. Let’s take a look back at some of the biggest moves in local TV news over the past year:
January: 2021 started off with a bang with the announcement that fourtime Emmy Award-winning journalist Marlei Martinez would be joining WESH Channel 2 News as a reporter.
February: WFTV Meteorologist Brian Shields returned to WFTV after a year away, surprising Jamie Holmes, Nancy Alvarez, Kassandra Crimi and Deneige Broom with an unannounced appearance revealing his return live on air.
March: Meteorologist Cam Tran joined WESH-Channel 2’s First Alert Weather Team in March providing weather updates at noon and 4 p.m. weekdays.
April: Sanika Dange became a new co-anchor for WESH-Channel 2 News Sunrise on weekdays after anchoring weekends for WESH 2 News on sister station CW18/ WKCF since January of 2018.
May: Former WOFL Fox 35 chief meteorologist Glenn Richards, who had been reporting on the weather in Central Florida for nearly 30 years, retired at the age of 55.
June: Chantelle Navarro joined the WFTV Eyewitness News team as a general assignment reporter in June, coming to Central Florida from WTXL in Tallahassee.
July: Christian Bruey joined WFTV Channel 9 Eyewitness News This Morning after being with the station for more than a decade as a sports anchor/ reporter and the co-host of “Football Friday Night.”
August: Former WESH-Channel 2 meteorologist Marty Stebbins, who retired in 2005, died at 81 years old on Aug. 4.
September: Two-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and former Lakeland resident Luana Muñoz joined
WESH-Channel 2 as a weekend news anchor in September.
October: Anika Hope joined WESH-Channel 2 News as a reporter in October 2021 after working as a multimedia journalist for WINK News, the CBS affiliate covering Southwest Florida.
November: Award-winning WFTV morning news anchor Nancy Alvarez retired, moving to a new role as the senior vice president of Community Relations and Equity Impact at Heart of Florida United Way.
December: Kim Holderness, former News 6 reporter and her husband, Penn, have been confirmed to be contestants on Season 33 of “The Amazing Race,” which will be broadcast next year. While working at News 6, she went by the name Kim Dean.