TV news notes: KGW adds new staffers, and a longtime Portland anchor is returning -- though not to TV (2024)

Portlanders who tune in to watch local news on TV will have recently seen meteorologists and reporters working from home, in-studio personnel keeping their social distance, and other changes. In addition, some new faces have been appearing on KGW-TV, the local NBC affiliate.

Early risers may have seen Bryant Clerkley, a general assignment reporter with the KGW morning news team. Christelle Koumoué is a part-time reporter who has been working weekends, and will also be doing some weather reports. Galen Ettlin has been co-anchoring the 4 p.m. newscast, and helping co-anchor “The Good Stuff,” the KGW show that has been airing weeknights at 7 p.m., filling the time slot formerly held by “Tonight With Cassidy.”

Greg Retsinas, KGW news director, says that “Tonight With Cassidy” is on hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic, as host Cassidy Quinn has been creating content for the KGW YouTube channel and other platforms. Given that “Tonight With Cassidy” was focused on entertainment, and coverage of where to go and what to do – areas that have been dramatically impacted by the pandemic – it made sense to put the show on pause, Retsinas says.

“The Good Stuff,” which has been anchored by Ettlin and Ashley Korslien, features stories that, as Retsinas says, “make us happy, cheer us up, and make us smile.”

This weekend, Retsinas says, Ettlin will begin anchor duties for the Saturday and Sunday morning newscasts on KGW.

“All three of them were hired in late February,” Retsinas says of Clerkley, Koumoué and Ettlin. “We liked them before the pandemic. They all joined us during the lockdown,” which, he says, has presented “an odd situation,” considering the trio all were faced with moving to a new town, a new newsroom, and a new organization, and they “had to join it virtually, and not get to meet their coworkers.”

For Ettlin, at least, working for KGW represents a return to his home town. Ettlin grew up in Southeast Portland’s Mt. Tabor neighborhood, attended Franklin High School, and graduated from the University of Oregon. He has worked as a TV reporter in College Station, Texas, as an anchor in Kennewick, Washington, and an anchor for WCAX, in Burlington, Vermont.

Clerkley, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, worked as a reporter for WKRG in Pensacola, Florida, before joining KGW. He has also worked for KSPN2 News on the island of Saipan, and WGEM, in Quincy, Illinois.

Koumoué is from the Ivory Coast in West Africa, and has lived in Tokyo, Paris and around the U.S. She was a reporter in Coos Bay and was a fill-in anchor and reporter at KVAL in Eugene prior to joining KGW.

Retsinas says that Koumoué replaced Vanessa Paz, who also worked part-time at KGW and left in January for a job in San Diego. Ettlin fills what Retsinas says was a long-standing opening for an anchor. Former KGW reporter Lindsay Nadrich joined the KOIN-TV news team in May.

“It’s been an interesting time,” Retsinas says. “We like to bring new content and new faces, even with this pandemic.”

In other news: Former KGW morning co-anchor Russ Lewis, who left in 2016 to join KHOU in Houston, is coming back to the Portland area. But not to work in local TV news. In an email, Lewis says that he and his wife, Sally Ramirez, who has been executive news director at KHOU, “always knew we’d come back to Oregon. Houston’s been good to us, but we feel like now is the perfect time to make the move. My contract is up this summer, and our youngest daughter graduated high school” recently. “This fall, both of our girls will be college students in Oregon. We already have a Duck, and soon, we’ll have a Beaver, too.”

Lewis joined KGW in 1999, and Ramirez also worked for the station, as assistant news director. The two are staying at KHOU through August, Lewis writes, and hope to be back in the Portland area by Labor Day.

“We agreed to stay here for a few months longer because of the COVID situation, and hurricane season,” Lewis writes. “We’re two of only about a dozen people still coming into the newsroom each day, so we wanted to give our GM (general manager) plenty of notice.”

Once back in the home they built in West Linn, Lewis writes, “I’ll be taking a more active role in my family’s business. My dad has developed property for 50 years (30 in Oregon) and I’ve been involved for the last 15 or so. In recent years, it’s really become a passion. I look forward to working alongside my dad to learn as much as I can from him.”

Though Lewis is retiring from the news business, Ramirez won’t be, he writes. “As anyone who’s worked with Sally can tell you, she has journalism in her blood. She is committed and passionate and the hardest-working person I’ve ever known. She feels so badly about leaving during a pandemic AND hurricane season that she resigned, and then offered to stay another three months to lead her staff through the most dangerous stretch of storm season. That’s the type of person she is. So, she’ll probably stay in Houston a bit longer than me. Yes, she will stay in the news business. Sally gets lots of unsolicited calls and opportunities. Once the right fit comes along, she’ll be ready to conquer the next challenge.”

-- Kristi Turnquist

kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist

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