Category Archives: Off Camera

Former KTVU Director of Publicity and Public Relations Passes Away

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Former KTVU Director of Publicity and Public Relations Passes Away

Kenny Wardell, Sr., former Director of Publicity and Public Relations at KTVU (Photo credits: Kenny Wardell, Jr. Professional Headshot courtesy of KTVU)

By Kevin Wing

A major Bay Area television and radio publicity and promotions executive has died.

Kenny Wardell, Sr., former Director of Publicity and Public Relations at KTVU in Oakland, has died according to a Facebook post by his son, Kenny Wardell, Jr.

Wardell was 76. He died Sunday.

Wardell worked at KTVU for 10 years. In addition to his Bay Area television career, he also had an illustrious career in Bay Area radio, serving as former assistant program director and public relations director at KFOG. He was also a former air personality and promotion director at KMEL.

Wardell also worked at one time as marketing director at KCBS radio.

In recent years, he was senior managing director at BAM: Bay Area Music Magazine, which he resurrected an online San Francisco-centric music magazine in 2011.

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KTVU Live Truck Set on Fire at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice

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KTVU Live Truck Set on Fire at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice

A KTVU live truck was set on fire Saturday August 3rd in San Francisco outside the Hall of Justice. 

Longtime KTVU photographer Martin Holeton was not injured. He was not in the vehicle at the time of the incident. 

“Somebody set my live van on fire at the Hall of Justice today,” Holeton said on Facebook. “Very upset. Sad to see it go up in flames.”

There have been no arrests. 

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All New Gallery

KHON2 Wake Up 2day Team Welcomes Back Former Reporter as Newest Morning Anchor

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KHON2 Wake Up 2day Team Welcomes Back Former Reporter as Newest Morning Anchor

Sara Mattison/(Courtesy KHON2)

By Pamela Young

The KHON2 Wake Up 2day team welcomes back Sara Mattison, who left television 4 years ago to start a family.

The former reporter now joins Sam Spangler on the morning anchor desk. A graduate of Hawaii Pacific University, Sara started her news career as the weekend assignment editor at KITV4 before taking a (cold) leap into the snows of Bemidji, Minnesota, where she reported for Lakeland Public Television.

Two years later she joined the KPIC team in Roseburg, Oregon and the KVAL newsroom in
Eugene as anchor and multi-media journalist.

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Television Station Control Rooms See Blue During Crowdstrike Outage

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Television Station Control Rooms See Blue During Crowdstrike Outage

The KCRA control room in Sacramento on July 18th when a Crowdstrike tech glitch took systems offline, and left monitors frozen in blue

A global technology outage impacted television newsrooms across the NATAS/SF Norcal region, preventing some stations from airing newscasts Thursday night July 18th.

KITV in Hawaii was not able to air newscasts at 9 and 10pm because the outage impacted all video servers, ENPS and other systems around 7pm. A recorded version of their 6pm newscast was aired instead.

In Reno, KOLO-TV had to cancel the 11pm newscast and had to switch over to Gray Programming. Friday morning newscasts aired in their normal time slots.

NBC Bay Area and Telemundo 48 were not able to air newscasts at all Thursday night. However, they hit the ground running Friday morning. 

In Fresno, KMPH was in their 10pm newscast when systems became non-responsive. Most of the newscast aired as normal until about 10:45pm when video services, graphics, and the teleprompter went down. The impact was felt into the next morning until about 8:30am when the morning news began airing with limited computer systems working.

KRCR in Redding posted about the technical difficulties impacting operations. “Our engineers are aware and are actively working to resolve the issue,” the station wrote on their website.

KCRA News Director Derek Schnell wrote on LinkedIn, “Very proud of all the journalists who persevered the last 24 hours to serve our communities despite a major worldwide tech outage.”

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Hawaii News Now News Director Scott Duff Passes Away After Long Cancer Battle

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Hawaii News Now News Director Scott Duff Passes Away After Long Cancer Battle

Hawaii News Now News Director Scott Duff, died Wednesday July 17 following a year-long battle with cancer. He was 59.

By Annalisa Burgos,  Hawaii News Now

Hawaii News Now is mourning the loss of News Director Scott Duff, who died early Wednesday following a year-long battle with cancer. He was 59.

Those who knew Duff say he was not just a dedicated journalist, but also a coach who cared about people and the community.

“I will remember him as just such a positive person. He just walked in with such a great spirit — no matter the day, no matter what was going on,” said HNN chief investigative journalist Lynn Kawano, who knew Scott when they both worked as journalists in Kansas City more than 20 years ago.“He was always there to try to rally us and get us to work together.”

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USC Grad Is Newest Multimedia Journalist for Univisión 21 in Fresno

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USC Grad Is Newest Multimedia Journalist for Univisión 21 in Fresno

Multimedia journalist in Fresno, California, for Univisión 21

Originally from the Dominican Republic, Nicole Santos is a recent journalism bachelor’s graduate from the University of Southern California.

From 2023-2024, while studying, she interned at Telemundo 52 and NBC 4 in Los Angeles.

She has become the newest multimedia journalist in Fresno, California, for Univisión 21. She officially joined the team on June 10th.  

Focusing on news and community stories, she hopes to be able to inform them and serve them accurately.  

You can follow her on Instagram: nic.kys

If you have a story you’d like to see in ‘Off Camera‘ please send us an email to offcamera@emmysf.tv

KITV In Honolulu Hiring Brenden Nakamine as News Director

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KITV In Honolulu Hiring Brenden Nakamine as News Director

Brenden Nakamine taking on the News Director role at KITV in Honolulu (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brenden-nakamine-32889944/)

By Pamela Young

A familiar face in the Bay Area is getting ready to take the helm of the newsroom at KITV in Honolulu. Former KRON Assistant ND Brenden Nakamine has been named the new News Director. 

After graduating from Cal State Northridge, Nakamine cut his news teeth at KGTV San Diego as a Senior Producer, and KTNV Las Vegas as EP. After 2 years at KRON he moved to WHAS Louisville, Kentucky as Assistant News Director. Nakamine will start at Allen Media’s KITV at the end of July.

Reporter/anchor Rick Quan is saying aloha to KITV for the second time. The veteran newsman started his broadcast career in Arkansas before joining KITV in 1980.

Seven years later he crossed the pond to anchor sports at KPIX. The Bay Area kept Rick busy with sports and community stories for 3 decades before
he returned home for another stint at KITV. This time he is leaving the set to pursue his true passion: documentaries about Asian-Americans.

A Wide Aperture of Award Winners at the 53rd Annual Northern California Area Emmy® Awards Gala

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A Wide Aperture of Award Winners at the 53rd Annual Northern California Area Emmy® Awards Gala

Photographer Mike Moya took a very wide shot of all the Emmy® recipients in San Francisco on June 15th, 2024

Photographer Mike Moya was able to capture the wide shot everyone wanted to be in after the 53rd Annual Emmy® Gala in San Francisco. 

362 Emmy® statues were handed out to 260 individuals.

A total of 1,106 entries were received, 913 English and 193 Spanish in 77 English Categories and 27 Spanish Categories. Nomina ons were announced on May 14th with 235 English and 56 Spanish entries.

For a full list of all the winners, click HERE. 

KSEE24 Fresno Anchor Announces Retirement After 42 Years on the Desk

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KSEE24 Fresno Anchor Announces Retirement After 42 Years on the Desk

KSEE24 Anchor Stefani Booroojian

KSEE24 news anchor Stefani Booroojian announced her retirement from the Fresno NBC station on her Facebook page.

Booroojian has anchored at the station for over 42 years.

According to the station’s website, Stefani has award-winning experience, having earned four Emmy’s® and a number of Associated Press awards. She has enjoyed more than 40 years at the station and is proud of having participated in BuddyCheck 24 breast cancer-awareness stories and events since 1996. She has travelled to Armenia numerous times to bring back stories of local doctors’ medical missions with The Valley’s Armenia specials. Her education stories promote teachers’ and students’ characters and accomplishments.

Celebrated Bay Area Chef Narsai David Has Died at the Age of 87

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Celebrated Bay Area Chef Narsai David Has Died at the Age of 87

By Kevin Wing

Celebrated Bay Area Chef Narsai David, who was a regular weekly fixture during the early years of KTVU’s “Mornings On 2” throughout the 1990s, has died at the age of 87.

David’s passing was announced on KCBS Radio, where he had been the station’s Food and Wine Editor since the 1980s.

Born to Assyrian parents in South Bend, Indiana, David grew up in Turlock, in the San Joaquin Valley. There, he developed a passion for food from his mother, who taught him how to can peaches. By 1970, he had opened his own restaurant, Narsai’s Restaurant in Kensington, near Berkeley.

Narsai’s Restaurant became a destination for a budding culture of people who now call themselves “foodies” and David became an originator of farm-table cuisine. He fed rock royalty such as the Rolling Stones, and actual royalty from the United Kingdom. That led to a Bay Area TV show, newspaper columns and, eventually, a show on KCBS Radio in San Francisco beginning in the 1980s.

In 1991, David began appearing on the then-new “Mornings On 2” on Oakland’s KTVU, appearing each week in the Jack London Square studios, providing TV viewers with recipes and cooking tips. His segments were immensely popular. David would appear on the morning show throughout the rest of the decade.

During his culinary and media career, David became one of the Bay Area’s most recognizable and well-known chefs.