KARE 11 loses significant bench strength, and great hair, with the departure of weekend anchor Blake McCoy for an NBC correspondent job based in L.A.
"I wasn't planning on leaving KARE 11 or Minnesota," McCoy told me Tuesday. "I have a really good life here and have made amazing friends. Then this opportunity all of a sudden came up, and it's one of those opportunities that doesn't come around often and may not come around again, so I had to jump at it."
McCoy, who has been here three years, said his contract with KARE was coming up, so "I went out to New York to meet with several networks — ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN — that had expressed interest. Had great meetings with all of them. Really hit it off with the folks at NBC. They were so warm, so energetic. They wanted to fly me out the next week to meet all of their executives. So I did a whirlwind two days of meeting everybody. It was one of those things that felt like a perfect match."
McCoy is following the KARE 11 footsteps to the big boys behind Joe Fryer, now NBC News' West Coast correspondent. McCoy's tenure with KARE did not overlap Fryer's, but they see each other when Fryer comes back here to visit family and his former TV colleagues. "He has known since I interviewed," McCoy said. "I could only tell very few people, and he was great enough to coach me though the interview process and offer whatever help he could."
"It's kind of a happy coincidence I'm going to be based in Los Angeles, where he's based; two former KARE alums. He has offered to take me under his wing and help train me, show me the ropes."
"My boss [news director Jane Helmke] told me I am always welcomed back to KARE."
McCoy is going to be missed by his weekend co-anchor, Rena Sarigianopoulos, with whom he has terrific chemistry, and meteorologist Sven Sundgaard, a world traveling buddy.
"I don't think [NBC] is going to be quite as flexible as KARE is on vacations," McCoy said, laughing, when I asked how they would coordinate sunny weather trips now.