Well of course you knew that by now but still, what’s good for the New York Daily News is good for this site. So lets rehash –
Charles Perez, 41 (whoa that’s like 80s in gay years man, but lookin’ good), is moving to the Big Apple’s circle 7 – WABC assuming the position of weekend anchor and reporter. Nice market jump from #17 to #1
NY Daily News
Perez moves to N.Y.
Perez moves to N.Y.
Will join Ch. 7 news
By RICHARD HUFF
DAILY NEWS TV EDITOR
Charles Perez will co-anchor Ch. 7’s weekend news.
Charles Perez, best known as the host of a 1990s daytime talk show, is returning to New York – as an anchor at WABC/Ch. 7.
Perez will join the station in September as a weekend anchor and a reporter.
“I don’t look at this as my next TV job,” Perez, 41, told the Daily News last night. “I look at this like this is a big statement: I’m moving to New York because that’s where I’m going to live my life.”
He’s currently working at Miami station WSVN-TV, where he’s also been a weekend anchor, reporter and the main substitute anchor for weekday newscasts.
His departure from WSVN wasn’t announced until late yesterday. Staffers at Ch. 7 learned of the news via an internal memo.
What the hiring means for others working at the station now remains a bit unclear. Tim Fleischer and Sandra Bookman are currently the anchors of Ch. 7’s weekend programs. Perez said yesterday he would be teamed with Bookman.
Perez hit the national scene in 1994 as the host of “The Charles Perez Show,” which targeted younger viewers with topics such as sex, teenage drug use and guns in schools.
When the talk show ended two years later, Perez and his sister, Michelle Dabney-Perez, were teamed as hosts of the syndicated magazine “American Journal.”
Dabney-Perez had risen to fame in the mid 1990s covering the O.J. Simpson trial for NBC News and is now a wife and mother.
Perez admitted his background is not that usual for a hard-news anchor, but said it gives him a different perspective.
“I have a unique career path,” he said. “It’s not the standard rise up in small markets and, if you’re lucky enough, to get to New York.”
Before joining WSVN, the bilingual correspondent worked as a reporter for KCAL-TV in Los Angeles. He also worked as a producer on such shows as “The Ricki Lake Show,” “Jane Pratt” and “The Montel Williams Show.”
“I went into the TV business because I loved issues and current affairs,” he said. “It’s what gripped me as a kid. When I went into the business, at the time, I wanted to be the next Phil Donohue.”
Working with Williams, he said, got him into the field talking to organizations and groups around the city, experience that helped lay the groundwork for news.
In fact, Perez said he was asked by Ch. 7 general manager Dave Davis and news director Kenny Plotnik about his perspective on reporting.
“I told them what’s been so true for me in Miami,” Perez recalled. “I know every police department, I knew where the jails are, I know the school board members. You don’t get that if you don’t report on the communities.
“Some people want to come in and land on the anchor desk. But if you don’t know the communities, you don’t know anything.”
Originally published on June 24, 2004
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I miss Charles Perez in Miami. He may be 42, but he is HOT!!! Made me want to tune in each weekend to watch.
I guess I need to plan more trips to the Big Apple to catch his smiling face.
Well, not too sure if Charles Perez is in fact gay (but why should that matter), but speaking selfishly, I could only hope he is because he is quite a guy!