KGNS' Suniga & Rittiman team up to offer Laredo professional delivery of the morning news

 

Make note of some pretty nice changes at KGNS' Pro 8 News. Jennie Suniga and Brandon Rittiman have teamed up most mornings for news breaks that are vastly improved over that of the last morning news team. Suniga and Rittiman have brought dignity and professionalism to the morning news. Nothing clownish or amateurish about these two, but we urge them to find news newer than last night's. That would be, well, news! It's not news if you heard it the day before on the afternoon news, the 6 o'clock news, and once more on the 10 p.m. news.

Suniga, a graduate of Texas State University , was “discovered” by a Laredo couple who frequented Morton's in San Antonio where Suniga worked. They encouraged her to apply for a reporting job at KGNS.

Rittiman, a graduate of Arizona State University , has been at KGNS for the last four months.

Welcome to sports anchor Joe Camarlinghi, though as fans of Mireya Villarreal we believe she could have been la mera mera on her own. The affable Edinburg native does a great job. Camarlinghi comes to KGNS by way of Reno, Nevada where he had been a news producer.

The unflappable Marissa D. Rubin, originally of Illinois , came to Laredo by way of Canada , reportedly with a U-Haul in tandem.

Local talent Rebecca Medellin is a graduate of Yale. She leaves the teaching profession to become a news reporter.

Ray Gomez, KGNS' former executive producer, has become the station's news director. His wife, Diana Fuentes, is the editor of the Laredo Morning Times.

Border Media Partners advises that the merger with Amigo Broadcasting was finalized the last week of December 2004. The entire line-up goes like this: KBDR-FM, XGTS-FM, KNEX-FM, KQUR-FM, XNLT-AM, KLNT-AM. They need to own a newspaper.

No doubt you've seen the blue Becky Soto bumper stickers on cars all over town. If you drive past Mando Villarreal's gun store on Zapata Highway , you can see the beginnings of Lady Justice on a backdrop of Becky Soto's colors. We don't know Becky, but we can tell she's planning on giving someone in South Laredo a run for their money.

What a significant makeover for the Laredo Morning Times. The paper has the look, heft, and content of a metro paper. It looks like good ideas are no longer being turned away at the door, and we can't help but think that editor Fuentes had a hand in the big changes.