<\/p>\n
Channel 26 “Great Day” co-hosts Kim Stephens and Kopi Sotiropulos on the set in a file photo from 2007.<\/p>\n
CHRISTIAN PARLEY<\/p>\n
The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n
Kim Stephens is in between segments on KMPH\u2019s Great Day<\/a> and is surrounded by morning-show frenzy.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a band playing in the station\u2019s Studio B. The beat leaks through into the newsroom, where a toy racetrack is set up as promo for Sunday\u2019s Freedom 250 Grand Prix<\/a>. Across town, the live crew is doing segments from the Monster Jam arena show.<\/p>\n In the midst of it all, Stephens is fielding questions about her decision to leave Great Day later this fall.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have so much fun together,\u201d says Stephens, who came to Fresno in 2003 to co-host the newly-minted morning show alongside Kopi Sotiropulous.<\/p>\n Over the next two decades, the well-known weatherman would play the comic relief to Stephens\u2019 serious tone and years of TV news experience (including Edward R. Murrow and Emmy awards).<\/p>\n Sotiropulous retired in March.<\/a><\/p>\n Stephens\u2019 departure will leave the show without its two founding anchors.<\/p>\n \u201cKopi and I are really proud of what we started,\u201d Stephens says.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we\u2019re proud to have it carried on.\u201d<\/p>\n Tenure track at Fresno State<\/p>\n Stephens only recently returned to Great Day after several months filling in for Monty Torres<\/a> on KMPH\u2019s evening newscast. She broke the news of her departure in a social media post<\/a> Wednesday, announcing she was stepping away from the show to take a full-time, tenure-track position in Fresno State\u2019s Media, Communications and Journalism Department,<\/a> where she\u2019s been an adjunct professor since 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a dream for me,\u201d she says of the new position, but also of getting into academics in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the whole reason I got my master\u2019s degree,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Even before she started teaching, Stephen was thinking academics. Over the years, she collected files worth of material, examples that she would one day use in class and also as the basis for Broadcast News in the Digital Age<\/a>, a textbook she wrote with fellow local TV anchor-turned instructor Faith Sidlow.<\/p>\n One payoff, she says, has been sitting as co-anchor across from former students, like Great Day reporter\/anchor Karl Cooke, who graduated from Fresno State in 2022. \u201cThat is just like, the best,\u201d Stephens says.<\/p>\n Stephens will remain on air for the next few months. Her last \u201cGreat Day\u201d (pun intended) is Nov. 25.<\/p>\n Other changes in Fresno\u2019s TV news scene<\/p>\n Stephen\u2019s announcement comes on the heels of massive switch-ups at Fresno\u2019s other TV news stations.<\/p>\n Last week, ABC30 announced Jason Oliveira<\/a> would be taking some time off before transitioning to the station\u2019s evening newscasts. He will replace Warren Armstrong, who is retiring in November.<\/p>\n Cory James returned to ABC30 to take over Oliveira\u2019s position on the AM Live broadcast. James was at the news station from 2016-2020 before leaving for a job at WCBS, the CBS station in New York.<\/p>\n This came a month after the station lost three on-air personalities \u2014 Tiffany Olin, Gabe Ferris and Stephen Hicks. Sydney Berger replaced Hicks as sports director.<\/p>\n KSEE24\/CBS47 stations<\/a> also saw the departure of several on-air personalities, including Ben Morris, Brian Dorman, Briana Byus and Jason Takhtadjian.<\/p>\n