Friday, March 29, 2024

Morning star

Morning star

Navajo anchors the morning news at KOB

ALBUQUERQUE

Special to the Times | Colleen Keane News anchor Colton Shone (Diné) appears with co-anchor Rachel Hackbarth on a recent KOB-TV early morning news cast.

Special to the Times | Colleen Keane
News anchor Colton Shone (Diné) appears with co-anchor Rachel Hackbarth on a recent KOB-TV early morning news cast.

When Colton Shone was a young child, he woke up early, made his way to the family room, found the remote and turned on the TV.

But instead of clicking on cartoons like most kids his age, six-year-old Shone tuned in to Matt Lauer reporting for the NBC Today Show.

“I’ve always watched the news. As a child, (in addition to the Today Show), I watched the nightly news and current affairs programs. I was attracted to the television programming as a way to tell stories,” said Shone, who’s now 28.

Shone grew up in Phoenix with his sister, Autumn. His mom, Regina Yazzie, is from Lukachukai, Arizona. His late father, Louis Shone, was from Piñon, Arizona.

Now, instead of watching others, Shone is the one in front of the camera.

Shone’s early interest in television news put him on a path to becoming one of the few Native American broadcast journalists reporting on air at a national network affiliated station.

He’s been on the job of anchoring NBC’s affiliate KOB-TV’s morning news show since November of 2015.

Shone’s hoping his broadcast reporting that reaches into many southwestern tribal communities and homes will engage Native American students to look into journalism as a career.

Previously, Shone hosted a morning TV news show in Tucson, reported for a commercial radio station in Phoenix, and free-lanced for the Navajo Times.

As a general assignment reporter for KOB, Shone said that he covers everything from crime to health, business, education, and government affairs.

On the day the Navajo Times interviewed Shone at the KOB-TV studio near Old Town, he and co-anchor Rachel Hackbarth reported on breaking news about a fire that burnt down a nearly constructed condo complex near a popular Central Avenue shopping district; a local business owner refusing to provide service to President-elect Trump supporters; edible marijuana trends that have parents concerned; nabbing drunk drivers during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday; low gas prices; what’s going on with the ongoing debate to change the University of New Mexico seal, which Native rights groups say is racist, along with several other stories.

Shone and Hackbarth were up early to get all this on the air.

Their show runs from 4:30 to 7 a.m. every weekday.


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