GOLDEN VALLEY, MN--(Marketwire -08/10/12)- KARE 11 Television, the NBC affiliate for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, announced a new team to lead the weekend newscasts. Dave Schwartz was promoted to the weekend sports reporter/anchor position. Blake McCoy has signed on to join KARE 11 as co-anchor of the weekend newscasts with Rena Sarigianopoulos and meteorologist Jerrid Sebesta.
Dave joined KARE 11 in 2007 as a sports multimedia journalist. Previously he worked for KTAL in Shreveport, LA as a sports anchor/reporter and at KAWE in Bemidji. He has a Master's Degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a Bachelor's degree in economics from Hobart & William Smith Colleges in New York. He begins his new position on August 13.
Blake McCoy has been the weekend anchor and weekday reporter at KTNV-TV in Las Vegas. His field work at KTNV included investigative and political reporting. A cum laude graduate of George Washington University with a double major in journalism and political science, Blake also worked at KBCI in Boise, Idaho as a general assignment reporter with extensive live news reporting and fill-in anchoring experience. Blake will start with the team on September 17.
Rena Sarigianopoulos moved to the weekend anchor/reporter role July 27, 2009. She joined KARE 11 as a morning reporter in 2006 from WITI-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Rena won a national Edward R. Murrow award this year in the hard news category for her profile of homeless teens in the Twin Cities:
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=979197
Jerrid Sebesta joined the weather team in January 2010. He became the weekend meteorologist in July 2011. Born and raised in Montevideo, Minnesota, Jerrid started his career at KDLT in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, before moving to KARE 11's sister-station, KPNX in Phoenix. A University of North Dakota graduate, he is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist designated by the American Meteorological Society.
"Our new team of Rena, Jerrid, Dave, and Blake will continue the KARE 11 tradition of news and information leadership that truly makes a difference in our community," said news director Jane Helmke. "Blake is a smart, exceptional journalist eager to call the Twin Cities his home."
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