Rob Quirk said goodbye to Colorado Springs, Colorado NBC station KOAA yesterday, 35 years to the day he started in 1989.
“I guess one doesn’t really know or understand the impact we have on people until it’s over… and the overwhelming message of thanks and that I did my job the way it should be done all these years, mattered,” he wrote on Facebook. “Again, thank you for your kindness, support and trust all these years. The next chapter begins. CHEERS!!”
“Rob is completely dedicated to his work — he gets here before his workday starts,” KOAA anchor and reporter Dianne Derby told The Gazette. “He is constantly involved in the product and determined to help reporters and make sure their scripts are clear and clean. He does a lot of mentoring people don’t realize. They see this newsman they’ve watched for decades and think he’s up there reading the news and everything is told to him, but he’s part of it. He’s helping to create it every day.”
Quirk started working at KOAA as a weekend anchor and weekday reporter before being named main anchor in 1991 alongside Lisa Lyden, who retired in 2016.
“I’m going to try and decouple myself from the day to day intensity of focusing on everything, everywhere all the time,” he said. “As I joke, folks in news know 30 seconds of everything. Pushing that aside a bit will be interesting. It’s going to be a transition.”