Dana King; up close and personal with the KPIX anchor; Wednesday media pulse

Dana King has been at KPIX, (CBS5)  since 1997. She co-anchors the CBS 5 Eyewitness News at 6 pm, 10 pm (on The CW 44 Cable 12) and 11pm.  She has won numerous Emmys and was the first Bay Area broadcast journalist at ground zero on September 13, 2001.

Oh, surprise: King just turned 50, (but looks about 39) and can out talk me, which should qualify her for another Emmy. Yes, she looks great, is hysterically funny, and is working on a  Master's Degree in Fine Art  from San Francisco's Academy of Art University.

I asked King a few questions.

Dana: you have become a fixture at KPIX. How does that feel?

Hmmm… It feels like I’m getting old. I’m now the one who says things like, “why, when I was a reporter, we blah, blah, blah”. This June marks my 13th year on the air at KPIX and my 17th with CBS. I still have a passion for news though some days are better than others …

There's a lot of buyouts at CBS5, and other stations too. How's morale over there? Is the state of the business the worst you've ever seen?

Morale is as good as can be expected in this economic climate. We have lost some very talented reporters due to cut backs and buyouts. Those of us still here are here to win. There are no divas at KPIX and right now we are pulling for one another. This is a time of transition and we accept the challenge. We have to accept it if we want to continue telling stories for a living. The only thing changing now is the “how” of telling those stories, not the “what”. When I first got in the business, we wrote our scripts with typewriters. The era of “a” and “b” roll meant film not video and every crew consisted of at least three people. Now we send our scripts in to the newsroom via cell phone and an interview can be conducted on Skype. Where am I going with this? The state of THE BUSINESS is always in a state of flux and could very well be “ the worst you’ve ever seen” if one is so inclined to be curmudgeonly (see first question).

You are considered both "attractive" and "very good", (which I agree); how much does physical appearance still play a part in TV news? (for better or worse)

Television is a visual medium. You can be as pretty as a picture and dumb as a post and work somewhere … just not San Francisco. The viewers here are sophisticated and smart and they don’t suffer fools, pretty or otherwise. Pass me the Spackle please.

You were once married to a NFL football player. And you subsequently had a divorce. Are you still "single" or is that none of my damn business?

It’s complicated.

I say you and Bastida are quite underrated as a Bay Area news team.

You got me there Rich. Who am I to argue? Seriously though, Ken and I have worked together for nearly nine years. We met for the first time when we co-anchored on September 11, 2001 (we worked opposite shifts prior to that day). We have covered the worst and the best news. We share an office we call the “dorm room” and there’s no one I trust more to watch my back on the air than him. Our whole crew here, on camera and off, is truly amazing. I am quite fortunate to work with them one and all. And viewers have chosen to award us with their loyalty, rating book after rating book. So, I don’t know… maybe could help us out a little on this underrated thingy?

Other than me, who is the one person in your life that you'd like to sit down and have lunch with?

Michelangelo …I’m getting my Master’s in Classical Sculpture and have a few questions …

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