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KTAB, KRBC hire news director
Meet Austin Kellerman
Age: 27
Wife: Wife, Laura, former news producer at KXAS in Dallas
Hometown: Arlington
Education: Graduated Lamar High School 1999; graduated University of North Texas in 2004 with degree in radio, TV, video and film
Community involvement: Coordinated food drives while at the University of North Texas; volunteered with the Red Cross while in Shreveport, La.; volunteered for various Catholic charities while in Dallas.
Hobbies: Softball, working out, reading and watching Fox News and CNN.
Interesting fact: Paid his way through college by writing, editing and producing a one-hour professional wrestling show for UPN.
More Business News Austin Kellerman, 27, recently started as the news director for KTAB-TV and KRBC-TV in Abilene.
He replaces David Bacon, 55, who has moved back to the sales department. Bacon had served as news director since April 2007.
KRBC, an NBC affiliate, is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which contracts with Nexstar Broadcasting to run the station. Nexstar owns KTAB, a CBS affiliate. While the two stations share a location, resources and news information, each has its own news studio.
Kellerman comes to Abilene from KTVT, a CBS affiliate in Dallas where he had served as executive producer since 2005.
Kellerman said he is happy to be in Abilene.
"My wife and I wanted to be in a smaller town where you can get to know the community you are reporting on and where you can get to know your neighbors," Kellerman said.
He also said he is looking forward to getting involved in various civic groups and being part of the community.
He is quick to assure KTAB and KRBC viewers that they will not see any immediate changes.
"This is a great crew. They are doing a great job, and I can't see anything that requires immediate attention."
Kellerman said his future plans are simple.
"I plan on building on their success and making these two stations the best news producers in the market," he said.
Before KTVT, Kellerman was at Nexstar station KTAL in Shreveport, La., where he was first a morning news producer and later the executive producer until leaving in 2005 for KTVT in Dallas.
Posted by closingtime12 on August 24, 2008 at 4:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I hope this guy knows what he is doing.... for example... same technical error happens over and over and over. You would think someone notices ?
If a techinal error happens on the KRBC weekend news and nobody saw it... did it really happen ?
Posted by abideejay on August 25, 2008 at 7:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
good luck Austin, they need it!
Posted by JohnB44 on August 26, 2008 at 10:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Austin- PLEASE don't fix the newscast on the weekend!! It's the only good entertainment on TV! It's better than AFHV because it's live!
Posted by lal3126 on August 26, 2008 at 4:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
At least get different scripts for each station. You can watch one story on a station and flip to the other one and it is the same, exact script being read off the teleprompter. And usually a poor job of it.
Posted by ropers40 on August 27, 2008 at 1:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is why I watch KTXS, and for the new guy lets hope this is just not a stepping stone as I think it is.
How many up and comings would be looking for a smaller audience with less national exposure.
It seem weird to me for as young as he is he has already had a bunch of jobs.
OK thats all for the negatives. I really hope he can do some good with KTAB, I was a staunch supporter from when they first came into being, but finally had to go to KTXS after KRBC took over and ruined them.
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