After almost three decades, one of Baltimore’s top TV news anchors is moving dayside.
WJZ anchorwoman Denise Koch is leaving the 11 p.m. news later this month to focus more of her attention on reporting, as first reported by The Sun’s David Zurawik. Koch reportedly sent out a memo to colleagues last night saying she’s shifting away from the late shift now that her daughters are set to graduate from college. She’ll still be a regular face in the early evenings when she anchors the 4:30 and 6 p.m. newscasts.
An excerpt from her memo to co-workers: “I’m moving off the night shift and for the first time EVER working days. I’ll see the sun rise and the sun set! I will still be anchoring the afternoon shows and this will also give me the opportunity to report. Those who’ve known me for a long while know my real love is working in the field. So, starting soon I’ll actually see some of you for the first time in a long time! And….good-bye midnight drive home!”
In a disclaimer toward the beginning of her note, Koch wrote, “(No, I’m not retiring. Love my job.)”
A manager at the CBS-owned TV station hasn’t returned a request for comment.
Koch has been the quintessential evening news anchor in Baltimore for nearly 30 years. She began working at the station as a lifestyle reporter, later joining the Eyewitness News desk in 1987 after longtime anchor Jerry Turner passed away. Since then, she’s chronicled local news on the popular evening newscast through four presidents, two Super Bowls and the unrest and fallout following Freddie Gray’s death in police custody.
In her time at the station, Koch has won an Emmy Award and been nominated six times, according to her bio.
This will be the second major change for WJZ in the last two months. In late January, the station’s six-year general assignment reporter Megan McCorkell left to take over communications for the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
Koch’s new schedule will take effect in the final week of April. The station hasn’t yet announced her 11 p.m. news replacement.
