Alumni Profile

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Early Birds


You really have to love your job to get up at 3 a.m. every morning. Just ask Kent Shocknek ’78 and Catherine Anaya ’89, co-anchors for CBS2 News “This Morning,” which airs 5 a.m. weekdays in Southern California.
“I hate to miss anything,” says Shocknek, explaining his devotion to the early-morning hour. Rising with the moon is never easy, “but the work makes it worthwhile.” Anaya wholeheartedly agrees. “Morning television is great, the early hour is different – you can relax and show your true self,” she says. “We always have a lot of fun.”
Co-anchoring a news show seems like destiny for Shocknek and Anaya, whose lives have run parallel in many ways. Both native Californians, the pair worked together 12 years ago at L.A.’s NBC4-TV, where Shocknek was a news anchor and Anaya, a production assistant. They each worked in print journalism before embarking on broadcast careers, and both honed their reporting skills in other cities before returning to Los Angeles. Shocknek, who worked at television stations in Orlando, Fla., and Sioux City, Iowa, says, “Trends begin here in Southern California, and CBS2 is showing the next evolution of news programming. We do a lot of positive stories.” The man J-school classmates may remember as Kent Schoknecht (he simplified the spelling for on-air use), says he finds “excitement in the ever-changing nature of TV news.”
An Emmy Award-winning journalist, Anaya appreciates how TV news can influence lives. While working as a reporter for KPNX-TV in Phoenix, she spearheaded the award-winning breast cancer awareness program “Buddy Check 12,” which had a palpable impact on women. “We had people who called and said, ‘You saved my life,’” Anaya says. “It’s really wonderful to hear that.”

While the news duo share many similarities, try getting them to pinpoint their favorite stories and you’ll quickly see the differences. “That’s sort of like having to pick your favorite child,” says Shocknek. A broadcast journalist with five

Anaya and Shocknek at their station.

Emmy Awards and more than a dozen Emmy nominations, he has reported from war zones, flown military jet fighters and covered big headline events, such as the Northridge earthquake and the O.J. Simpson trial. For Anaya, celebrity interviews are fun, but “nothing’s better than interviewing everyday people in the community, the unsung heroes who make a difference in others’ lives.” An integral part of life for the co-anchors is contributing to the community. Both give generously of their time, an impulse they learned in college. “USC has always been very community-minded, and I am happy to give something back,” says Shocknek, who was named a distinguished USC journalism alumnus. “I like to do anything that gets me out in front of neighborhoods where I can listen and help.”

– Kathy Wyer