| NECN ANCHORS
KAREN SWENSEN
Karen Swensen came to NECN in February 2006 and co-anchors "Good Morning Live" and "New England Midday" with Mike Nikitas. She also anchors "NECN Healthweek." Karen came to New England from New Orleans where she and her colleagues at WWL won the George Foster Peabody, duPont-Columbia and National Edward R. Murrow Awards for their continuous coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
At NECN, Karen wrote and produced a one-hour documentary called "Katrina: A Flood of Tears." It was a first-person account of the storm and its aftermath that revealed the personal loss, strength and resilience of the people of the Gulf South. It won a First Place Associated Press Award.
During her twelve years at WWL, Karen worked as an anchor and reporter, earning six Edward R. Murrow Regional Awards for investigative journalism, writing and feature reporting. She also earned two Emmy Awards, in addition to several Gracie, Gabriel and Associated Press Awards.
Karen graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors from Penn State with a degree in Political Science and was a Louisiana state finalist in the Rhodes Scholar competition. She has a Master's Degree in Journalism from Penn State.
Karen lives with her husband and daughter in a suburb north of Boston.
BETH SHELBURNE
Beth Shelburne co-anchors Newsday Live with Leslie Gaydos from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, and the News at 9 each weeknight with RD Sahl. She is also the host of New England Dream House. Beth Shelburne joined NECN in May 2006 after anchoring and reporting for close to four years at KFMB, the CBS affiliate in San Diego, California. While there, Beth won an emmy award for her coverage of the devastating 2003 Cedar fire, the largest brushfire in California history. She also won a San Diego Press Club award for a feature she did on a self defense program for women called "Rape Escape." Before working in San Diego, Beth was the main anchor at WFTX in Fort Myers, Florida. She was the only reporter from Southwest Florida to cover the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in New York, and won a prestigous Edward R. Murrow award for a series of reports she did called "New York Stories." Beth has previously worked as an anchor and reporter in Tupelo, Mississippi and Florence, Alabama; she was also a producer at WVTM in Birmingham, Alabama. Before starting her career in broadcast journalism, Beth lived and worked in New York City; she did an internship in the executive producer's office at "Late Show with David Letterman" and worked at Grey Advertising and MTV Networks. Beth graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism. She was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She lives in Boston with her husband and daughter.
JIM BRAUDE
Jim Braude hosts NewsNight With Jim Braude, NECN's nightly in-depth news analysis program. Braude has an earlier history with NECN as host of the station's Emmy Award-winning Talk of New England in the 1990's. By day, he is a radio talk-show host at 96.9FM with Margery Eagan of the Boston Herald. He started his career as a legal services lawyer in the South Bronx, and was the first president of the National Union of Legal Services. He was the executive director of TEAM (Tax Equity Alliance for Massachusetts), a tax reform group, from 1987 to 1996, and then served as a Cambridge City Councilor from 1999 to 2000. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and New York University’s Law School.
CHET CURTIS
Chet Curtis is a primetime anchor at NECN. He anchors The Chet Curtis Report. Before joining NECN in the spring of 2001, Curtis was as an anchor and reporter with WCVB-TV since its launch in 1972. For the majority of his time with WCVB, Curtis co-anchored the station's principal weekday newscasts, and was the original host of the station's award winning Chronicle program. Before coming to New England, Chet Curtis worked as an anchor and reporter at the CBS flagship station in New York City, and prior to that at the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., also as an anchor and reporter. He has three daughters, and currently resides in Quincy, Massachusetts. Curtis is an avid pilot and sailor.
TOM ELLIS
Tom Ellis is NECN’s weekend evening anchor. His career in television news spans more than 35 years, and he is well known throughout New England where he has served as anchor for all three of Boston’s major network affiliated stations. Ellis was a correspondent for WNBC-TV in New York City and an anchor for WABC-TV Channel 7 – both in New York City, and for KONO-TV Channel 12 in San Antonio. Additionally, his broadcast career in radio included anchor/reporter duties for KVET-AM in Austin, Texas, KWED-AM in Sequin, TX, and KONO-AM/FM in San Antonio. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the prestigious Emmy and Peabody awards.
LESLIE GAYDOS
Leslie Gaydos is the anchor of New England Daily beginning at 9am, co-anchor of Newsday Live at 4pm and 5pm and anchor of Worcester News Tonight. She is also a general assignement reporter. Gaydos contributed to a collection of in-depth reports that won NECN the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Broadcast Journalism Award. She is a Gabriel Award winner, and was also honored by the American Women in Radio and Television with a Gracie Award. Gaydos has hosted New England Dream House and the network’s movie review program, Jay Carr’s Screening Room. Gaydos began her career in television as a reporter and anchor at WTRF-TV in Wheeling, West Virginia. She is a native of the Pittsburgh, PA area, and holds a degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University. She and her husband live in the suburbs west of Boston and have three children.
KRISTY LEE
Kristy Lee is the weekend morning and noon anchor at NECN. Her career began in 1994 in Palm Springs, California where she worked as the weekend anchor/reporter at the ABC affilaite. A year later, she moved to Spokane, Washington also as weekend anchor/reporter, this time at the CBS affiliate. In 1997 she arrived in Boston to work at WHDH, eventually as weekday morning and noon anchor. She went by her maiden name, Kristy Kim. Four and a half years later, she took on the main anchor job at the CBS affiliate in Seattle, Washington. She returned to Boston in 2005. "Out of all my moves, and I've had many as you can see, this was the best. It's great to be home again with family and friends and working at a wonderful station like NECN." Kristy immigrated to America at age 7. She was born in Taegue, South Korea. Her parents named her Yun Kyong Kim, but when she became a US citizen, she got to name herself. "Why Kristy? Who knows, I was 12, but it eventually ended up working well for TV." Kristy has an undergraduate and graduate degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She lives in the suburbs with her husband, who is from Boston, and their two daughters.
MIKE NIKITAS
Mike Nikitas anchored NECN's first newscast on March 2nd, 1992, and continues to anchor weekday mornings and middays on NECN. He has anchored NECN's live studio or field coverage of nearly every major news event since 1992: the O.J. Simpson, Nanny and Impeachment trials; New Hampshire presidential primaries, 9-11, the Democratic National Convention, three Patriot Super Bowl victories, the Red Sox World Series victories, and more. Mike also co-costs NECN's "This Week in Business" on Sundays with Paul Guzzi, President of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Mike has produced documentaries on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and novelist John Irving. He has written a story about his late father for the Boston Sunday Globe, "Last POW's of WWII First to See Hiroshima." His news career began in 1979, and he has worked on-air and in management at radio and TV stations in California, Colorado, Indiana, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He has been nominated three times for an Emmy as outstanding anchor in the Boston/New England region. He's a New Hampshire native, a UNH graduate, is married with four children, and has been involved in numerous community affairs, including ten years as a softball coach.
R.D. SAHL
R.D. Sahl is a primetime anchor at NECN. He anchors Right Now with R.D. Sahl and co-hosts New England Business Day. His 35-year career in broadcast journalism has taken him to stories around the corner and around the world. Foreign assignments include: The former Soviet Union and the new Russia, Solidarity-era Poland, German unification, France, The Vatican, Japan, and Cuba. He’s covered national political conventions going back seven elections. Sahl first joined NECN in 1995 as host of NewsNight. He joined the network fulltime in 1997. He’s received several regional Emmy awards for reporting and anchoring. He is a member of the Silver Circle of NATAS, a recipient of the Yankee Quill Award, and the Boston University Kauff Award. Sahl holds a Journalism degree from the University of Colorado, and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
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