Anthony Carl Kovaleski (born 1959) is an American investigative journalist for Denver television station KMGH. Previously, Kovaleski worked at KNTV in San Jose, California from 2012 to 2015. From 2001 to 2011, he was the investigative reporter at KMGH and rejoined the station in 2015. [1]
Born in Michigan and raised in San Jose, California, Kovaleski graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in broadcast journalism. [2] [3] At San Jose State, Kovaleski was sports director at campus radio station KSJS in 1981 and 1982. [4] [5]
Early in his professional journalism career, Kovaleski was a reporter for television stations KIEM-TV in Eureka, California; KTVN in Reno, Nevada; KNXV and KTVK in Phoenix, Arizona; and KPRC-TV in Houston. [6] Kovaleski first joined KMGH in Denver as an investigative reporter in June 2001. [3]
Kovaleski’s source based investigative reporting landed interviews with four members of Denver’s FBI that produced a look inside the federal investigation and conviction of admitted terrorist Najibullah Zazi. The 30-minute documentary provided insight into how the Denver’s FBI office unraveled a national terror plot targeting New York City. [7]
In the summer of 2008, while at KMGH-TV in Denver, Kovaleski aired a series of stories that chronicled problems with emergency ambulance service in Denver including response times that were nearly double the national standard. The stories also showed there was no permanently stationed ambulance at Denver International Airport even though the facility was more than twenty miles from the city center. [8] [9]
In December 2008, more than 100 people were on Continental Airlines Flight 1404 when the pilot lost control. The plane slid off Runway 34 Right and burst into flames during take-off. Kovaleski obtained records of the ambulance response showing the first emergency ambulance needed 33 minutes to reach the scene. The investigative documentary "33 Minutes to 34 Right" [10] aired in March, 2009 and lead to significant changes in Denver's ambulance procedures and policies including the permanent assignment of an ambulance at DIA. [11]
In May 2010, Kovaleski reported on several state-appointed board members of Pinnacol Assurance accepting gifts and an all- expense-paid trip to Pebble Beach. The board was tasked with oversight of Pinnacol Assurance including the agency's spending. [12] Kovaleski's investigation forced an overhaul of the board including the appointment of a new president and the implementation of strict regulations on travel and gifts accepted by board members. [13]
Hired on November 10, 2011, Kovaleski became chief investigative reporter at KNTV in San Jose, California in 2012. [2] [14] [15] A 2012 story revealed that the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) had the worst fare evasion rate among San Francisco Bay Area transit agencies at 7.2 percent; the story resulted in VTA implementing new measures to enforce fare payments, such as hiring inspectors and adding notice signs to stations. [16]
KMGH re-hired Kovaleski November 11, 2015, as investigative reporter. [17] In addition to his regular duties with KMGH, station owner The E.W. Scripps Company also made Kovaleski an investigative reporting trainer for journalists on other Scripps stations. [6]
In his two decades working as a reporter Kovaleski has been honored with more than four dozen national and local awards including the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award in 2010, [18] the 2011 National Emmy Award for Investigative Reporting, the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting [19] the Sigma Delta Chi Award [20] and the National Headliner Award. [21]
His 25 Emmy Awards include recognition for writing, investigative reporting, live reporting and journalistic enterprise. In 2004 and 2006, the Colorado Broadcasters Association named Kovaleski the state’s “Best Specialty Reporter.” He has been honored several times by the Associated Press and the Radio Television Digital News Association. In 1997, the Texas Associated Press named Kovaleski that state's "Reporter of the Year."
In December 2011, Kovaleski and his colleagues John Ferrugia and Theresa Marchetta were recognized by Denver's 5280 Magazine as one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Colorado. The Call7 Investigative Team ranked 27th Most Powerful in the state of Colorado, according to the magazine. The investigative team members were the only journalists recognized by the magazine in its annual report.
Kovaleski is a cousin of Dan Benishek, a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing Michigan's 1st congressional district from 2011 to 2017. [22]
KCNC-TV, branded CBS Colorado, is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios on Lincoln Street in downtown Denver; its transmitter is based on Lookout Mountain, near Golden.
KMGH-TV is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Sterling-licensed independent station KCDO-TV, channel 3. The two stations share studios on Delgany Street in Denver's River North Art District; KMGH-TV's transmitter is located atop Lookout Mountain, near Golden.
KUSA is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KTVD. The two stations share studios on East Speer Boulevard in Denver's Speer neighborhood; KUSA's transmitter is located atop Lookout Mountain, near Golden. In addition to its main studios, the station also operates a secondary studio and news bureau on Canyon Avenue in Fort Collins.
KDVR is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is simulcast full-time over satellite station KFCT in Fort Collins. Nexstar Media Group owns KDVR and KFCT alongside CW station KWGN-TV. Studios and offices are located on East Speer Boulevard in Denver's Speer neighborhood. KDVR's transmitter is located atop Lookout Mountain, near Golden, while KFCT's transmitter lies atop Horsetooth Mountain just outside Fort Collins, covering Northern Colorado.
KSJS (90.5 MHz) is a college radio station that broadcasts 24 hours a day from the campus of San Jose State University in San Jose, California, United States. The brainchild of Professor Clarence Flick, it went on the air on February 11, 1963, with only 85 watts of power. The studio is located in Hugh Gillis Hall, easily accessible to RTVF majors. Originally, its transmitting antenna was installed atop the Walquist Library Building on campus, but broadcasting range was adversely affected due to the nearby Bank of America Building's superior height. Today, however, its transmitter atop Coyote Peak broadcasts 1,500 watts, allowing the station to be heard by the entire Santa Clara Valley and much of the San Francisco Peninsula. Currently, the station features five musical formats: urban, electronic, alternative rock, rock en Español, and jazz. In addition, KSJS has student-produced broadcasts of San Jose State Spartans sports teams, including football, basketball, and baseball.
KGTV is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Air Way in the Riverview-Webster section of San Diego, and its transmitter is located on Mount Soledad in La Jolla.
KNXV-TV is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with ABC. It was established in 1979 as the Phoenix area's second independent station with part-time subscription television programming from ON TV. It was originally owned by the New Television Corporation, which had attempted to set up the station for nearly five years prior to its launch. In 1985, Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, the broadcast division of the E. W. Scripps Company, acquired KNXV-TV. Channel 15 affiliated with Fox in 1986 and became the leading independent in the market, one of Fox's strongest affiliates. In 1994, Fox announced a multi-city affiliation agreement with New World Communications which included Phoenix's then-CBS affiliate, KSAZ-TV, and mostly CBS affiliates in several other major markets. CBS expressed interest in affiliating with Scripps's ABC affiliates in other cities and Scripps used this as leverage to force ABC to move its Phoenix affiliation from market leader KTVK to KNXV-TV beginning in January 1995.
The Rocky Mountain News was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As of March 2006, the Monday–Friday circulation was 255,427. From the 1940s until 2009, the newspaper was printed in a tabloid format.
KNTV, branded NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the NBC outlet for the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo outlet KSTS ; it is also sister to regional sports networks NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California. KNTV and KSTS share studios on North 1st Street in the North San Jose Innovation District; KNTV's transmitter is located on San Bruno Mountain, and two of its subchannels are also broadcast from the KSTS tower on Mount Allison.
Vicky Nguyen is a Vietnamese-born American investigative journalist working with NBC News in New York City. Nguyen joined NBC News in April 2019 as the Investigative and Consumer correspondent. Her reporting has been seen on The Today Show, 3rd Hour Today, Nightly News with Lester Holt, NBC News Now and MSNBC.
The Colorado Daily was a newspaper published in Boulder, Colorado, by Prairie Mountain Publishing Co. LLC, a unit of MediaNews Group. Its final issue was published on September 17, 2022. The Daily was operated out of the offices of Boulder's Daily Camera newspaper. Originally the student newspaper of the University of Colorado, the Daily became independent in 1970 and underwent several ownership changes since 2001, coming under the control of the Camera, its former competitor, when it was purchased by the E.W. Scripps Co. in 2005. The newspaper and its website, coloradodaily.com, continued to focus much of their coverage on the university.
KZCO-LD is a low-power television station in Denver, Colorado, United States. It rebroadcasts four secondary digital subchannels of ABC affiliate KMGH-TV, including Ion Mystery on 7.3 and Laff on 7.4. Like KMGH-TV and KCDO-TV, as well as KSBS-CD, KZCO-LD is owned and operated by the E. W. Scripps Company. KZCO-LD shares a channel with KLPD-LD, owned by Syncom Media Group, and transmits from atop Lookout Mountain, near Golden; its parent station maintains studios on Delgany Street in Denver's River North Art District.
The VTA light rail system serves San Jose and nearby cities in Santa Clara County, California. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and has 42.2 miles (67.9 km) of network comprising three main lines on standard gauge tracks. Originally opened on December 11, 1987, the light rail system has expanded since then, and currently has 60 stations in operation.
KCDO-TV is an independent television station licensed to Sterling, Colorado, United States, serving the Denver area. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate KMGH-TV. The two stations share studios on Delgany Street in Denver's River North Art District; KCDO-TV's transmitter is located in rural southwestern Morgan County, east of Frederick.
Scripps News is an American news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and owned by the Scripps Networks division of the E. W. Scripps Company. It was previously known as Newsy, from its launch in 2008 until December 31, 2022.
John Ferrugia is an investigative reporter who is currently working as a journalist/trainer for the non-profit Colorado News Collaborative (COLab). He is the former News Anchor and Managing Editor for Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver, Colorado. From 1992 through February 2016, he worked as an investigative reporter at KMGH-TV. He is a former CBS News correspondent. In the 1980s, he covered the White House, foreign and domestic assignments, and was a principal correspondent for the news magazine West 57th.
The Silicon Valley BART extension is an ongoing effort to expand the Green and Orange Line service by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) into Santa Clara County via the East Bay from its former terminus at the Fremont station in Alameda County. Planned since at least 1981, the project has seven stations in three sequential phases.
Henry Wofford is a sports anchor/reporter for NBC Sports and hosts Raiders Post Game Live, A’s Pregame Live, A’s Postgame Live, and Race Week.
The Copper Canyon Apartment Homes shooting was a mass shooting on December 31, 2017, in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. One police deputy, Zackari Parrish, was fatally shot, and four others were wounded. Two civilians were also shot by the gunman, who was later killed in an exchange of gunfire with a SWAT tactical team. The perpetrator reportedly used a rifle and a shotgun. Law enforcement had responded first to a noise complaint, then to a domestic-disturbance call to the apartment. During the second visit, the perpetrator barricaded himself in his bedroom and shot the deputies in an "ambush" style when they entered. The perpetrator was later shot dead by a police tactical team that subsequently re-entered the apartment. It was later determined that the perpetrator, former attorney Matthew Riehl, was a veteran with a history of psychotic episodes and he had recently stopped taking his medication.
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