Local news viewers may be seeing a little less of Amelia Santaniello.
Starting Monday, the longtime anchor at WCCO TV will move to the 4 p.m. weekday newscast. She’ll work alongside Erin Hassanzadeh, whose former on-air partner, Jeff Wagner, is now the main voice of the station’s popular feature “Good Question.”
Frank Vascellaro, Santaniello’s husband, will serve as solo anchor for the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts.
The power couple have anchored together for more than 20 years. They will continue to broadcast as a team at 6 p.m.
Santaniello, 60, said the shift is “great news.”
“I’ll miss the crew at night, but honestly, it’ll be nice to be on in daytime, doing an hour that isn’t all hard news,” she said in an interview Friday. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
The changes were announced earlier this week in a news release that included comments from management.
“This new lineup at WCCO underscores the strength and collaboration of our trusted on-air journalists, giving them the opportunity to go deeper into the news of the day and provide even more value to our community,” said WCCO’s vice president of news, Brian Nemitz. “With pivotal newsmaker interviews, greater community engagement and the exciting CBS fall programming, these changes will connect with Minnesotans in new ways while continuing to showcase the talents of our news team.”
