Veteran Bay Area TV anchor/reporter, Jim Vargas, now working at KTVU, will be retiring after 41 years in the news industry. His last day is April 29.
Vargas started his career at KJEO in Fresno where he wrote, anchored and reported. He spent two years there before being called up to San Francisco at KGO, (ABC7) Most will recall the respected Vargas' tenure with KGO stalwarts, Van Amburg, Jerry Jensen and Pete Giddings.
He worked 20 years at Channel 7, where he reported Political and Public Affairs , covering the Capitol in Sacramento. He worked at KTVU from 1993-1998, then went to KRON’s Bay TV, then back to KTVU 10 years ago.
Vargas' departure marks the third significant personnel move from the Oakland Fox aff; veteran Political editor, Randy Shandobil, left last November and lead anchor, Dennis Richmond, retired in May, 2008.
*Follow me on Twitter
*Tips/E-mail: Rich.Lieberman@Gmail.com
I worked with Jim for several years in the Sacramento Bureau for KGO. Great reporter and one of the most dedicated reporters I ever worked with. Missed him when he left KGO.
ReplyDeleteJeez,I was in grade school when he started,now I'm on the usual BP,Cholesteral,and all that, that goe's with middle age.
ReplyDeleteHe's a pro. Not one story of Jim ever tossing tomatoes at noisy construction workers.
Jim had a long, successful career and deserves an enjoyable and peaceful retirement. It's too bad the kids over at 2 don't fully realize what an irreplaceable resource he is. You can't Google what Jim knows.
ReplyDeleteI would not consider Jim retiring a 'significant' loss. Come on. I would bet my paycheck if you gave 25 bay area residents a photo of him they would not know who he was and I also bet people would not say he is one of the reasons they watch KTVU.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of him.
ReplyDeleteThird 'significant' loss to include Dennis Richmond in 2008. Um, isn't that a bit of a streatch. That was ages ago, get over it. I don not think these are linked. Why not mention Pat McCormic and dialing for dollars?
ReplyDeleteI know Jim. He cut his teeth and made his bones reporting for the Daily Californian - covering the Third World Strike for ethnic studies, People's Park riots, the Mobilizations Against the Vietnam War, the campus upheavals protesting Nixon's invasion of Cambodia and the "re-constitution" of UC Berkeley, from which we earned our degrees. That's just for starters. He's covered most every major political story and politician in Sacramento and San Francisco areas in the last 4 decades. For those who never heard him, you are deprived - but he wouldn't hold it against you. Jim Vargas is a yeoman who would always get you the story and tell it like it is - with punch.
ReplyDelete