SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

This is Willie Monroe’s response to my email. We’ll miss him.

Greetings.

Yes it’s true. My last official day was December 31st. After almost 23 years (It would have been 23 years at KGO on April Fool’s Day. Make of that what you will.) I decided it was time to give it a rest. It’s been a great ride. I’m not closing any doors on the future, nor are there any imminent plans. For now I’m on vacation. Here’s the note I sent out announcing my departure. I think it says it all.

To my colleagues and friends I’ve not been able to reach yet,

My sudden departure is really not so sudden. It has been in the works for a while. As many of you have heard me say, “I was glad I was here to do that story. That’s what keeps me going.” It is no longer enough.

At my request, KGO-TV has been gracious enough to release me from my contract. I have nothing but the utmost respect for KGO-TV management which has treated me with respect and understanding. I do not have a plan. One thing at a time. My only objective now is to achieve peace. I have done that.

My sincere thanks to those of you who have appreciated what I’ve done over the years, and let me know about it. I’m grateful to have worked with the most talented and erudite photographers and editors I’ve ever known, and shared those enlightening conversations in the course of our work and play.

My thanks also to management which allowed me to make some small contribution to the community, and to become recognized for that. I was never in love with the notoriety, but my opportunities were in my visibility, and for that I truly am grateful.

Please understand this is not a requiem. I am not going away mad. I am just going away.

Willie Monroe

Just before the holidays, veteran KGO reporter Willie Monroe left the station.

Monroe has been the Oakland bureau chief for KGO since 1991. Prior to that he served as weekend co-anchor of the ABC-owned station. He joined KGO in 1985 as a general assignment reporter.

Monroe began his television career in 1972 working as a reporter and photographer for KXAS-TV in Fort Worth. From 1976 – 1977 he worked at KBTV in Denver, and in 1978 returned to KXAS-TV where he produced and hosted a weekly news interview program, and produced and the anchored the weekend news broadcasts.

In 1979 he became a network correspondent for NBC, operating out of the Southwest bureau in Houston and the Northeast bureau in New York. Monroe spent three years in Philadelphia as a reporter and anchor for the NBC affiliate KYW-TV, where he also worked as a reporter for their I-Team investigative unit before coming to the Bay Area.

Monroe graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in communications and public policy in 1971. That year he began working as news editor and reporter for the Sun Reporter, a San Francisco newspaper. In addition, he attended a summer program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York.