Bob Phillips will be jaunting with his wife, Kelli, this season on Texas Country Reporter

Bob Phillips and his wife, Kelli, will be a team on Texas Country Reporter when the show returns this month for its 43rd season.
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
For the first time in its long and winding 43-year history, Texas Country Reporter will have a co-host when it returns on the weekend of Sept. 12-13 with new episodes.

But mainstay Bob Phillips hasn’t gone too far afield. His wife, Kelli Phillips, formerly a news anchor with KDFM-TV in Beaumont, will be joining him on whatever roads lie ahead.

“This is the biggest change our show has ever made,” Bob Phillips says in a publicity release. “People tell me almost daily that I must have the best job in the world and I’m sure I do. This change makes it that much better.”

Kelli Phillips says she was a fan of Texas Country Reporter “long before Bob and I even knew one another and I’ve always admired the storytelling.”

After 12 years with KDFM, she left the station in May to spend more time with her husband -- both off and on the road.

Texas Country Reporter originated on Dallas-based KDFW-TV (now known as Fox4) in 1972. It was called 4 Country Reporter until moving to Dallas-based WFAA-TV in 1986 and becoming 8 Country Reporter. The program eventually went into syndication as Texas Country Reporter and airs in all 19 of the state’s TV markets.

Phillips, 64, has produced more than 2,200 episodes of the program, which can be seen in D-FW on TXA21 (Saturdays at 6:30 p.m.) and is repeated in various time slots on CBS11.

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