As expected, WPXI announced morning anchor Gordon Loesch will succeed long-time Channel 11 anchor David Johnson, who retired last month.
Loesch will anchor alongside Lisa Sylvester during the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. WPXI newscasts beginning Jan. 20. He’ll also co-anchor at 6:30 p.m. with Liz Kilmer and at 10 p.m. with Sylvester on WPGH, Channel 53.
Loesch, who joined Channel 11 in 2004 as a weekend evening news anchor (a role he filled for nine years), most recently anchored weekday mornings. But he’s no stranger to evenings, having filled in for Johnson routinely over the past 21 years. And he anchored the 10 p.m. Channel 53 news for five years.
Loesch said management approached him about the move to evenings last fall after Johnson disclosed his plan to retire. While anchoring weekday evenings has been Loesch’s goal since entering the TV news business, as it is for most broadcast journalists, he was in no rush to see it happen.
“You’re front and center representing the station, it’s a huge responsibility and it feels a little overwhelming,” Loesch said. “It’s a big job I don’t take lightly. It’s definitely been my goal for a long time, but I haven’t been impatient about it. I always felt it would happen when it’s the right time and this feels like the right time.”
Loesch said he’s had opportunities to leave Channel 11 for other TV markets, but he always chose to stay largely because the station sent him to travel to cover big stories, including three Olympics.
“We got to do all these stories on local athletes, interviewing them, building relationships with them, seeing them compete. It’s really something special,” he said. “I just wasn’t sure I would get that opportunity somewhere else.”
Born in Jacksonville, Fla., Loesch grew up in Michigan and is a graduate of Central Michigan University. Prior to joining Channel 11, he worked at WWTV in Cadillac-Traverse City, Mich.; WKBN in Youngstown, Ohio; and WXYZ in Detroit.
About five years ago when Joe Arena took a job out of the market and a morning co-anchor role opened up at Channel 11, Loesch said he asked management to give him a shot, even though he’s not a morning person.
“You get to be more fun, more personable in the morning and it took a little getting used to, having that freedom in the morning, but the morning team developed a really good bond and rapport,” Loesch said. “People can tell when you’re all getting along.”
Loesch said he thinks the station is still trying to figure out who will take his place during morning newscasts co-anchoring with Jennifer Tomazic, who moved to the anchor desk in April 2024 after Katherine Amenta was let go amidst budget cuts. (Channel 11 news director Scott Trabandt did not respond to queries about who will replace Loesch weekday mornings.)
“I don’t think we know yet” who will take the morning co-anchor role, Loesch said. “I know there are a lot of people in the newsroom who are exceptional and very qualified for the position, and I know the station is looking, still trying to figure that out.”
Regardless, Loesch said the move to evenings will be a better fit for him as “a night person.”
“Everybody I work with (in the morning) is so much more awake,” he said, chuckling. “I love working with them and laughing with them during commercials and that kept me awake in the morning.”
He praised his new evening co-anchor, Sylvester, who he worked with for five years on the 10 p.m. newscast.
“We already have a natural rapport,” Loesch said. “And I have a tremendous amount of respect for Lisa. She’s an incredible journalist and she has a lot of compassion and empathy for the people we do stories on. I love to work with her.”
And while he’ll try to put his own stamp on the evening anchor role, don’t expect any big changes.
“I realize I have huge shoes to fill,” Loesch said. “I have the highest amount of respect for David. He’s the ideal example for a news anchor you want leading the newsroom, so I know the bar is high. He set the bar and I’m hoping to get close to it.”
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