First exit of New Year: NBC5 reporter Omar Villafranca (updated)
01/04/14 12:48 PM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC5, which logged the last reporter departure of 2013, now has the first of the New Year.
Omar Villafranca, who joined the Fort Worth-based station in January 2008, will remain in North Texas, though. He’s moving over to CBS News, Villafranca tweeted, to become the Dallas-based correspondent for the network’s Newspath. Villafranca’s turf also will include the Southwest region.
“The official announcement should come from CBS next week,” Villafranca said in an email reply to unclebarky.com. “As far as my parting thoughts, it’s been a great six years at NBC5. I’d like to thank (vice president of news) Susan Tully for hiring me, and everyone else for putting up with me. I was lucky to work with so many great managers, editors, reporters, producers and photojournalists. Especially the photojournalists.”
The Texas Christian University grad previously spent three years as an anchor/reporter at CBS affiliate KOTV-TV in Tulsa, OK. He primarily worked the night shift at NBC5 and filed his last report for the station during the Friday, Jan. 3rd 10 p.m. newscast.
NBC5 lost reporter Keaton Fox in late December. He’s returned to Oklahoma City and now is a weekend anchor and weekday reporter for Fox affiliate KOKH-TV.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net