Longtime newsman Ibarra set to sign off
Rich Ibarra, a Stockton TV newsman since 1977, and a face as familiar to local TV viewers as Oprah Winfrey or Scooby Doo, is retiring Dec. 15.
"The news of my demise is probably much exaggerated," said Ibarra, 64. "But yes. It is coming."
TV news can be a fickle employer. TV reporters in the Stockton market, though, are more like journalistic Dick Clarks. You watch them live out their whole lives on TV.
Craig Proesser worked at KOVR CBS 13 for 35 years, but he retired. Tim Daly has been with NEWS10 ABC since 1991.
OK, Tom Duhaine, up at KCRA 3 in Sacramento, Ibarra's employer, has put in 40 years. Of the Stockton TV journalists, though, Ibarra has worked far longer than any.
"We joke among ourselves, the older reporters," Ibarra said. "We're the dinosaurs. Kind of proof that dinosaurs are not really extinct. But they are an endangered species."