Aristea Brady is having a great, if bittersweet, week between winning Saturday's "Dancing with the Twin Cities Celebrities" and Monday's announcement that she's leaving WCCO-TV to return to her beloved Colorado.
Some years the best celebrity dance performance doesn't win this Arthur Murray Charity Fund event, but that wasn't the case in 2014, with Brady's winning samba. There is startribune.com/video of Brady that is sure to be popular with the appreciationofbootednewswomen.blogspot.com site, which features Aristea in more clothes than she wore on the dance floor.
"Aristea worked very hard training and for those [who] saw her commitment, there was little surprise to see her as a victor," read a Monday e-mail from news director Mike Caputa, which also announced Brady's departure. "As you know, Aristea is from the Denver area and her husband [Nathan] has a business opportunity in the area and Aristea is excited about the prospect of being closer to family. Aristea has been a fantastic reporter and anchor for us and we'll miss her contributions. … Her last day at WCCO will be March 8."
Brady came to WCCO-TV in July 2011 after two years as a weekend anchor and reporter at KUSA in Denver.
"You said it best when you said 'bittersweet.' That's exactly the sentiment that I'm feeling," Brady told me Monday. "I'm excited to go home and be with my family — big fat Greek family, kind of like the movie. But I am also sad to leave a second family at WCCO. This is by far my most favorite station where I've ever worked. Not only do we deliver a great product, it has the best caliber of people I've ever been exposed to in journalism. From the leading lady [anchor Amelia Santaniello] and man [anchor Frank Vascellaro] to [sports anchor] Mark Rosen, they set such a precedent of grace and kindness. We really are a family. Twenty-three people from WCCO came to Vail, Colo., for my wedding. They were in as much full-force as my family. I have cried to my husband. I am almost fearing that my next station won't have the same sense of family. When Mark Rosen's mother died, we were all there. When a photographer lost a baby before it was due to be born, WCCO filled the church. … It's going to be a tough place to leave."
WCCO colleagues are bummed, too.
One told me Brady is a good newsroom person. Translation: She plays extremely well with others.
Interestingly enough, before the charity dance event I was at a gathering where there was a fair amount of unexpected Aristea chatter.