KVUE anchor Jim Bergamo is retiring after 36 years in broadcasting.
Austin 360’s Gary Dinges reports Bergamo’s last day on-air at the ABC affiliate will be next Friday. The following week, he starts his new job working as a sales consultant.
“I’m eagerly looking forward to the next chapter,” Bergamo said. “I’m very happy with what I’ve been able to do over the years and I’m very blessed to have KVUE be the last stop in my run.”
For the past nine years, Bergamo has worked at KVUE, where he currently co-anchors the 5 p.m. news with Quita Culpepper and serves as the station’s medical reporter. Before jumping to KVUE, he worked at two other Austin stations: KEYE and KXAN.
Bergamo got his start in 1979 as the weekend sportscaster at station KPLC in Lake Charles, La., where he – coincidentally – worked alongside Robert Hadlock, who now anchors KXAN’s evening newscasts. Other stops on Bergamo’s road to Austin included cities such as New Orleans, Houston and Miami, as well network broadcasts on ABC and ESPN.
“KVUE has been wonderful to me. The management here has been wonderful,” Bergamo said. “But a lot of businesses are changing – not just broadcast news – and I feel like this is no longer a business for a guy like me. I feel like it’s time to go in a different direction.”