When consumer reporter Matt Gephardt left KUTV-Channel 2 six weeks ago, he insisted he didn’t know what he was going to do next. And he brushed off speculation that he would end up working for another local television station.
KSL-Channel 5 announced Monday that Gephardt will do just that. He’ll join that station’s “investigative unit,” working with reporters Mike Headrick and Brittany Glas. Gephardt will appear on the station’s Monday-Friday 6 p.m. newscasts.
In a story by KSL, Gephardt said, “There is something really, really romantic about doing local news for a company that is locally owned. That is very rare in this industry, and it’s really appealing.”
KSL is owned by Bonneville International, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. KSL is the only TV station owned by Bonneville. KUTV is one of 193 stations owned or operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is based in Maryland. And there were reports that Gephardt was one of the Channel 2 staffers unhappy with that station’s ownership.
But when he left KUTV at the end of December, Gephardt insisted he was “trying to leave on a positive note” and that he wasn’t leaving to work at another station in Utah or anywhere else.
“I have no plans to do such things,” Matt Gephardt said. But, he said, he will be a “free agent” as of Jan. 1, “and then we'll see what life brings.”
It brought a job offer from KSL.
His departure from KUTV brought an end to the long-running “Get Gephardt” feature on Channel 2, which was begun by his father, Bill Gephardt in 1997. Matt Gephardt took over the feature in 2010.
It’s unclear whether he’ll be able to bring the “Get Gephardt” brand with him.
