News anchor Bernie Lange leaves KKCO, moves to KREX

Welcome to KREX, Bernie Lange

Award-winning, long time local news anchor Bernie Lange has left KKCO and will start working at KREX-TV Channel 5 on Monday, March 25 as the station’s main anchor for their 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts. He has more than 20 years experience in broadcast journalism.

Bernie grew up in Lakewood, graduated from the University of Colorado, started his career in Rapid City, South Dakota and came to Grand Junction in 1998.

Bernie is a familiar face in the area, having worked in broadcast news in Grand Junction on and off since around 2006. He has been a news anchor, executive producer, and reporter at KJCT News 8 and KKCO NBC 11 News. He left Grand Junction for two years be a news anchor in Burlington, Vermont for WVNY/WFFF-TV. He returned in 2018.

Baby RMHP denied health insurance coverage to in 2009

Some of us remember back in 2009 when Bernie and his family became emblems of America’s broken health care system after Rocky Mountain Health Plans (PMHP) denied health insurance coverage to Bernie’s then four month-old baby, Alex, saying it was because the baby was too fat, and the pre-existing condition of obesity made him too high of a risk. Alex was still breastfeeding at the time. Bernie said, “I could understand if we could control what he’s eating, but he’s 4 months old. He’s breast-feeding. We can’t put him on the Atkins diet or on a treadmill. There is just something absurd about denying an infant.” When the baby was ready for solid food, Bernie joked, they would put him on Slim Fast.

Bernie, an expert in communications, public relations, advertising and public policy, launched a national campaign citing the absurdity of the incident and promoting the need for children’s health care. The campaign got media coverage from The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, CNN, The Daily Show, Fox News, KUSA-9 News and Fox31 News and resulted in RMHP changing its policy and insuring the infant.

KREX News Director, Terri Chappell, said “I had the chance to work with Bernie many years ago, and we feel very fortunate to be able to hire someone with his integrity, experience, journalist ethics, and track record of community involvement.”

KREX was the first TV station on the western slope and aired its first newscast on May 22, 1954.

KREX TV News has won acclaim from the public recently for fearlessly covering news stories that were important to the community but other local news outlets were reticent to cover, like the questionable business practices occurring at Red Rock Auto Group and concerns about lead contamination and the potential for lead poisoning at the new home of the Ascent Classical Academy charter school, which purchased the old Rocky Mountain Gun Club as its new school building. Lead contamination in indoor shooting ranges is a known public health threat, and children are particularly susceptible to lead poisoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  15 comments for “News anchor Bernie Lange leaves KKCO, moves to KREX

  1. I will be changing my news station to KREX. I have always watched KKCO for news but being a huge fan of Bernies I cant wait! KKCO hasnt been the same since Butch, Jean and Bernie left.

    • I inquired about this, and Bernie started on Monday but took a couple of days first to familiarize himself with the new station before going on air. He started on air Wednesday night.

  2. Glad to hear you’re on another station. I’ve missed you and Jean on the 6:00 news show. Where is Jean now?

  3. Ditto to the comment above.
    The internet has changed the way we consume media/news. I am so grateful to find your “coverage”!
    You deserve an award!

  4. Anne, I just want to thank you for providing ethical up to date info for this community. Kudos!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *