Back on the Air in Denver

A well known Denver Sports Anchor, who moved to news is returning to the air, back doing sports.

Are you confused yet?

KUSA has hired a long-time competitor, out of retirement. Ron Zappolo, who “retired” temporarily last year, will return to TV and to his first love, sports, as a KUSA weekend sports conversationalist. Not an anchor, not a reporter, but a well-known presence injecting a personal style into watercooler stories involving sports.

He’ll be paired with Sam Adams, Denver comedian and sportswriter (for the Rocky Mountain News), to talk sports as a segment within the newscast. The first taping is Friday, to air this weekend.

“We’ll see what develops,” Zappolo said late Tuesday. “Anything’s on the table.”

KUSA President and General Manager Mark Cornetta calls the move an “experiment,” as a way to inject talk about sports, sometimes in a debate style, in the weekend newscast. “As with anything, if it is good, there is the possibility it could expand,” Cornetta said.

Zappolo left KDVR last April with the intention of “reinventing myself one more time.” Zappolo had been considered Denver’s premiere sports anchor in previous stints at KCNC and KUSA, before taking a chance on becoming a news anchor for KDVR.

He had extended talks with FoxSports1 and with KDVR but nothing materialized at either outlet. At KUSA, he said, “they treated me really well.”

H/T Denver Post