Studio 31 Media Archive's video: KFDA - Walt Howard s Last Day 5 6 10pm 1 13 2022

After 41 years with the CBS affiliate in Amarillo, KFDA mainstay Walt Howard has officially retired. This is his very last day of shows, starting with the 5pm newscast all the way until 10pm. Also included is the special presentation they aired in place of their normal 6:30pm newscast, "Walt Howard: Journalism Icon", which was hosted by the guy who took over for him, Greg Kerr. Kerr was most recently with KLST in San Angelo, and KFDM in Beaumont before that. KFDA is a Gray-owned CBS affiliate in Amarillo, Texas. I really liked Walt Howard as an anchor, and used to like KFDA's product (but that's another story for a different time; they're just so dry these days). It is rare to see an anchor at the same station in the same timeslot for so long, and even rarer in such a small market, but Walt Howard did it in Amarillo, and is the longest-running anchor in the city's history. Walt Howard has had many co-anchors over the years, including Robin Marsh, Kari King (probably his longest-running one), Amanda Goodman, Stacy Sakai, Madison Alewel, and Cassie Stafford. Stafford left in the past couple of months and Sakai, who served there in the early 2010s, returned to take over for her, probably to provide some stability and a familiar alongside the new guy. For now, "Doppler" Dave Oliver, who has been around for about as long as Walt, remains as chief meteorologist and is definitely the last of the "old guard" there, although I believe he is probably looking to retire soon. He has had health issues in the past couple of years and they hired away former KFDX chief meteorologist Kevin Selle recently, who seems to be an obvious replacement for Doppler whenever he retires. Back to the list of former co-anchors mentioned: for someone who has been around for as long as Walt has and who has had the pleasure of working with and influencing several young journalists, and certainly anchoring with a few of them, it would have been nice if they had at least made a mention of all of them, or had them record messages for him. Alewel worked with him as co-anchor for three years and has praised him many times on social media, but they couldn't have her record some parting words for Walt? How about Cassie, who literally just left? Instead we hear from four people only: his wife, Terry, Kari King, "Doppler" Dave, and retired Amarillo College president Dr. Paul Matney. Who are all great people to speak with and it's nice they agreed to do this for Walt, but it would have been nice to hear from Robin, Amanda, Madison, Cassie. Not to mention, they're all hardly mentioned at all! It's like they didn't exist! I believe all are seen briefly in photos here in there for a couple of seconds though, which is something? The documentary was fairly well produced and I do like the use of archival footage, most of which I have never seen before, so KFDA must have a big archive still (as opposed to pulling stuff off of YouTube), which is increasingly rare these days, and it's a waste if they don't plan to digitize it or donate it to someone who will. I wish they spoke with more people but they did good with who they got. Overall, I feel like they tried to do a great job sending Walt off and they did a fairly good job, but it could have been better. I say this as someone who has always admired his work and has generally liked KFDA for my news there. Anchored by Walt Howard, Stacy Sakai, chief meteorologist "Doppler" Dave Oliver (I think from home at 5 and 6 and in the studio at 10), and sports at 10 from sports director Larissa Liska. Includes reports from Earl Stoudemire, Hannah Franklin, Isabel Rosales (CNN Newsource), Sydnee Batzlaff, and one from an unidentified reporter. Two reports from CBS News were removed due to copyright. Graphics are one of the Gray packages that has been in place since 2019, music is CBS Local from Stephen Arnold Music, and Sean King is voiceover (though he seems to be relegated to opens only and they appear to use what I call the "Spotvoice Special", several of their talents across the whole station in different promos with no rhyme or reason whatsoever). Commercials were edited out, station promos were left in. ©2022 Gray Media Group and KFDA-TV, no copyright infringement intended. For educational and historical purposes only. We do not profit off of this video. news open, news close, open, close, tease, topical, promo, promotion, sponsor bump, legal id, ident, sting, bump, logo, farewell, retirement, final newscast, documentary