Angela Kennecke

I feel so lucky to live and work in KELOLAND. I started at KELO-TV fresh out of college and thankfully viewers forgave me for my many mistakes and all the learning and improving I had yet to do!

I earned a Journalism degree from the University of Iowa. I began working for KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids while I was still in college. You should have seen my first anchoring fiasco there! I'm told there's an embarrassing tape floating around out there somewhere with that on it!

Anyway, shortly after graduating I went on to be a one-man-band reporter in Rapid City for KELO-TV. That means I carried my own camera and shot and edited all of my own stories. Those were back in the good old days (I'm showing my age!) when the equipment was even more bulky and heavy. I'm not exactly a large person, so it wasn't an easy task. But the most annoying thing was that I kept running my hose and breaking my heels while hauling all that gear around! But it was a great growing experience and gave me confidence in my reporting abilities.

I got my big break as an anchor on KELO's morning show. I produced and anchored the morning show and the noon show for a little more than a year. While I loved every minute of it, I never did get used to getting up at 3 a.m.! Our morning people now have to get up even earlier because the show is much longer.

In 1991 I was promoted to evening-anchor. I had the intimidating task of anchoring with veterans Steve Hemmingsen and Doug Lund. Fortunately they were nice to me and I learned a lot from both of them. It could be a painful process, but Steve Hemmingsen helped fine-tune my news writing abilities and to this day I thank him for that! I feel very fortunate to have held a job for so long in a business that sees so much turnover. I still love what I do and enjoy going to work each day.

In an effort to expand our business coverage, I have been named Business Editor at KELOLAND News.  I have covered business and consumer issues for years, but have done so on a daily basis since before the 2007 recession hit.  This means, I am longer anchoring the nightly newscasts but rather Midday in KELOLAND and KELOLAND News at Five.  Continue to look for my “Your Money Matters” reports on KELOLAND News at Ten.

I also am able to help with the Children's Miracle Network Broadcast and that is a reward in itself.  I have a Master’s degree in Communications Management and I am an adjunct instructor in the school of journalism at South Dakota State University.  I'm a very busy mom with four kids. But I wouldn't change a moment of my hectic life for anything!

 Email Angela

Return to Our People