Denver FOX affiliate KDVR has announced a change to its evening anchor line up. After more than 35 years on-air in the Denver market, anchor Ron Zappolo (pictured left) will sign off this Friday, April 5.

To replace the longtime anchor, KDVR has announced Jeremy Hubbard (pictured right) will join Deborah Takahara to form the new anchor team at 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. beginning Monday April 8.

“I’ve had a really fortunate run,” Zappolo told the Denver Post. “I’ve been able to see the world, provoke a little thought, have fun and get paid for it. How many people can say they got to do exactly what they wanted to do?” Read more

KDVR anchor Jeremy Hubbard, who is a former anchor of ABC’s “World News Now,” was visiting his former show in New York last night when news of the Colorado shooting broke, TVNewser reports.

“World News Now” was on the air last night when the first reports of the Colorado shooting came in. The program was seen in Denver ABC-affiliated KMGH, which broke away from “World News Now” and went into continuing coverage shortly after 3 a.m. local time.

Video of Hubbard’s “World News Now” appearance is after the jump. Read more

“We have a brand-new set,” KDVR-KWGN anchor Deborah Takahara announced on Monday, during KWGN’s 7 p.m. newscast. “[It] really embodies our station, our brand, and our image: ‘Colorado’s Own.’”

“Yeah, it looks like a ski lodge around here,” added Jeremy Hubbard, Takahara’s co-anchor, alluding to the new set’s rustic stone pillars and homey accents. Read more

While President Obama was preparing to sit for an exclusive interview with ABC News, in which he would express his support for same-sex marriage, Mitt Romney was in Colorado, talking to local reporters.

Just hours before news broke of Obama’s gay marriage pronouncement, Romney affirmed his opposition to same-sex unions in interviews with reporters from a handful of Denver stations.

On Tuesday night, Republicans in the Colorado state house of representatives blocked a bill that would have allowed same-sex civil unions, so on Wednesday reporters from KDVR, KUSA, and KCNC asked Romney to discuss his stance on the issue. Read more

Anne Craig joins WTNH in New Haven, CT as weekend anchor and reporter, from reporter at WNYW in New York.

Lucy Noland joins KNBC in Los Angeles, anchoring the station’s midday and 5 p.m. newscasts during the week.

Ken Barlow becomes a weeknight meteorologist at KSTP in Minneapolis-St. Paul, from KXTV in Sacramento.

Chita Johnson joins KHOU in Houston as the 4 p.m. weeknight meteorologist from morning meteorologist at KRCR in Redding, CA. Read more

Ed Kosowski, who last week was appointed vice president of news at Denver duopoly KDVR-KWGN, says that he plans to shift the stations’ focus from entertainment to hard news.

“If you look at my track record, I’m very hard news oriented,” Kosowski, who comes to Denver from CNBC, told the Denver Post recently, adding that he sees “huge opportunities to come in with a fresh set of eyes.”

KDVR-KWGN previously employed Carolyn Kane, a veteran of reality shows and infotainment programming, as VP of content overseeing the stations’ move towards lighter fare. Shortly after Kane joined KDVR-KWGN, the CW-affiliate rebranded itself as “The Deuce” and dumped the long-standing 9 p.m. newscast in favor of the 7 p.m. 18-to-34-year-olds-centric “News on the Deuce.” Read more

Former ABC “World News Now” co-anchor and current ABC News correspondent Jeremy Hubbard is leaving the network and going back home, to Denver. TVSpy has learned Hubbard is re-joining KDVR Fox 31. Hubbard left KDVR, where he was weekend anchor and reporter, for ABC News in 2007.

Hubbard will co-anchor the 7pm newscast on KWGN-2 and the 10pm on KDVR-31. His last day on the air at ABC News is May 20. Tribune-owned KWGN and Local TV’s KDVR co-located their news operations at KDVR in 2008.

Hubbard, a native of Glenwood Springs, CO says, “My wife and I have a new baby, seven-month-old Charlie, and we can’t wait to raise him in Denver…the greatest city in America.”