I am beyond honored to have shared the anchor desk with these two – and starting very soon, another!
If you haven’t heard, the KAKE News family is growing. We’re adding another meteorologist to the mix. KAKE has needed another full-timer for a while.
Meteorologist Cat Taylor will be joining me on weekend mornings. I’m excited to be with Cat. She’s super sweet and a local gal — love that.
As I’ve described on Facebook and on Good Morning Kansas, this means that Tanner Swift and Blake Smith won’t be on our weekend morning show every Saturday and Sunday. Last weekend was my last regularly scheduled newscast with the guys. It does make me sad to think they won’t be there.
However, that does not mean that they are gone. Not in the least.
We will still see Tanner and Blake at KAKE. They are two loved weathermen who have become two of my favorite people. My bosses love them too and this move will give our weather department some gusto! I came in this past week to work on special stories to share on Good Morning Kansas. I told my news director I wanted the last shows to be special. He had a good answer: “Annette, they’re still on the payroll.”
Absolutely! To hear that is reassuring. Honestly.
The best part is that we’re making our weather department even better than it was. To have seasoned meteorologists like Jay Prater and Ben Pringle is amazing. They’ve been in Kansas for so long (Ben is from here, after all) that people have come to respect and love that. Tanner and Blake have deep Kansas roots as well. (By the way, the also have full-time jobs elsewhere, in case you didn’t know that.) Then, Frank, who joined KAKE not long before me, he’s a Kansas guy too, having grown up in El Dorado. (We were in competitive speech around the same time, so it’s kind of funny that we ended up back here.) Cat, our newest addition is much needed and much wanted. She’s a local gal who was eager to come home to KAKE. She’s super sweet, and I can’t wait for you all to get to know her better, as I will too.
Cat’s first weekend is this Saturday and Sunday. We’ll be on air at 6 & 8 a.m. I’m planning to have a couple of get-to-know-you segments with her, so please do join us in welcoming her to the team. It’ll be fun!
Until then, here’s a little GMK tribute to both Tanner and Blake. Enjoy!