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CBS11 tabs Lisa Pineiro as early morning co-anchor



By ED BARK
CBS11 has named Lisa Pineiro as its new weekday early morning co-anchor. She'll be joining incumbent Scott Sams on Oct. 28th, the D-FW-based station announced Tuesday.

Pineiro, currently living in Salt Lake City, has been out of broadcasting for the past five years, opting to be a stay-at-home mom to her four sons. The southern California native's last TV job was as an anchor/reporter at Salt Lake City's KTVX-TV. She earlier worked for Salt Lake City's KSL-TV.

"We think North Texas viewers will respond to Lisa's warmth and sincerity," CBS11/KTXA president and general manager Gary Schneider said in a publicity release. "She and Scott really hit it off and look to have a great rapport."

The waker-upper position became vacant in mid-July, when new CBS11/TXA21 news director Adrienne Roark tabbed Ginger Allen to be CBS11's senior investigative reporter. Allen had been CBS11's early morning co-anchor for the past three years.

Pineiro broke into television two decades ago at Cheyenne, Wyoming's KGWC-TV. Still a University of Wyoming student at the time, she later joined Casper, Wyoming's KTWO-TV as an anchor/producer.

"Football and basketball are the only languages we speak in our house," Pineiro said in the publicity release. "So you can imagine how excited the boys were when I told them we were headed for Texas. There were no big congratulations for mom -- just a million questions about how many Cowboys, Mavericks and college games we could attend."

Pineiro said she felt the warmth at CBS11 during her auditioning for the job.

"It's not often that you walk into a newsroom and get the feeling that every single person there enjoys their job," she said. "But that's certainly the case here."

Pineiro and Sams will have a steep hill to climb in the early morning ratings. CBS11 currently ranks fourth behind Fox4, NBC5 and WFAA8.

CBS11, Fox4 and WFAA8 all recently expanded their dawn patrols to pre-dawn, with each of their programs now starting at 4:30 a.m. NBC5 continues to get a later start at 5 a.m.