Earlier today we reported Bay Area media blogger Rich Lieberman was saying Grace Lee was leaving KPIX.

Confirmation of Grace Lee‘s (pictured center) departure from the San Francisco CBS owned station has come from her new station, Hawaii News Now.

News director Mark Platte confirmed Lee will anchor the station’s morning news show “Sunrise.”  Lee began working for KGMB in 2002 before leaving for KCRA in Sacramento.  She returned to KGMB in 2007 to launch “Sunrise.”  She left again in 2010 to join KPIX as an anchor and reporter. Read more

Stations in Honolulu have essentially become 24-hour news channels as the islands of Hawaii are threatened by a tsunami stemming from Friday’s earthquake off the coast of Japan.

ABC-affiliate KITV, CBS-affiliate KGMB, and NBC-affiliate KHNL all extended coverage from their late local newscasts to provide constant live coverage of the tsunami, including a news conference with the director for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Chip McCreery, who warned of the destruction that a looming tsunami could cause.

The recent shared services agreement between KGMB and KHNL was evident throughout the night as the stations’ news coverage emanated from the same anchor desk with the Hawaii News Now duo of Stephanie Lum and Keahi Tucker (left), along with meteorologists Ben Gutierrez and Dan Cooke. Lum and Tucker powered through the night together.

“This is exciting,” Tucker said early on in the night. “I wouldn’t be up at 1:30 if it wasn’t exciting.” Lum, Tucker, and Gutierrez handed it off to the morning team at 5:00 a.m.  Lum told anchors Steve Uyehara and Tannya Joaquin that they had stuffed the desk with snacks for them. Read more