As we mentioned in our first half hour we are celebrating a birthday today.
This mornings newscast is turning eight years old marking 8 years on 8.
You might be wondering what happened to the previous anchors that came before us, well we looked them up.
Pro 8 News Today premiered on September 4th, 2001. The top story that morning had Tony Sanchez lacing up for the Governor’s race.
It was one day after the MDA Telethon and exactly one week before 9-11.
Before his current job as Webb County Commissioner, Jerry Garza helped create the show and was the first morning anchorman in Laredo. Jerry Garza, former co-anchor, "We had the infrastructure in place already to be able to disseminate info. to the public because it was important and nobody else was on the air, no other local tv station was on the air except us and so we were probably one of the main reasons we were able to get our info. out in such an early timely manner.”
Alongside Garza was Selina Hernandez who's now a freelance reporter at the CBS affiliate in Dallas. Steve Lyerly was a co-anchor in 2003. He’s now a reporter in Charlotte, North Carolina where he also hosts a radio show. Christina Medina left the show in 2004 after waking up 8 Country. She’s now reporting the news in Kansas City, Missouri.
And after all of that "Coverage You Can Count On", Jenny Suniga is now *on-air* in Flint, Michigan.
Former co-anchor Larry Sanchez left the station in 2006 to work for Webb County as the public information officer and remembers being part of your morning routine. Larry Sanchez, former co-anchor, "That’s the first thing they do in the morning. They want to see what’s happened overnight. They want to see what the weather is going to be like so we gave them the weather and they kind of looked to us for guidance as to how to plan their day."
Ann Hutyra started sleeping in back in the fall of 2007 and has been covering the news at night ever since.
"You sleep at odd times, not like normal a normal person and I think Joey, when Joey and I worked together on the morning show I think we could polish off several pots of coffee every morning because we definitely needed the caffeine to stay awake and to be excited and energetic for the show each morning."
Now in our eighth year with mojo flowing the future is looking bright. Pro 8 News Today continues to be the only local morning newscast in our area.