Popular Boise TV Station Starts 2024 With Major Line-Up Changes

If and when KTVB’s parent company works out a deal with DirecTV, subscribers that haven’t been able to watch the local news network since late November will notice some big changes when they get Channel 7 back. 

TENGA, KTVB’s parent company, is currently having a dispute with the satellite and streaming provider over what a “fair market” rate is for their stations in Boise and 51 other markets. On one side, DIRECTV says the rate that TENGA wants for their content would make it the most expensive broadcaster on their national platform. Meanwhile TENGA is pushing people to switch providers, expressing their disappointment that DIRECTV won’t let people out of their contracts. DIRECTV initially posted about the outage on November 30. 

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KTVB is still available through other providers in the Boise area, including Sparklight. 

KTVB Starts 2024 with Big Personnel Moves

Customers who watch KTVB through a different provider were introduced to a series of personality moves this week. As we previously reported, meteorologist Jim Duthie retired on December 29. Duthie made the move to KTVB’s morning newscast in 2022 following the unexpected death of Larry Gebert. In addition to helping Boise prepare for the day, Duthie also hosted the “You Can Grow It” gardening segment. 

Duthie has been replaced by Rachel Garceau, who returned to Boise TV after a two year hiatus in May 2023. Her forecasts started after Bri Eggers left the station. After the hire, she did the weather on the 4 p.m./5 p.m. newscasts Monday-Thursday, noon show on Tuesday and Wednesday and 5 p.m./10 p.m. newscasts on Sunday. Now she’ll be on the morning show with Maggie O’Mara and Justin Corr. 

You’ll notice another new face on the KTVB morning news, too. Hector Mendoza, who’s been with the station since June 2023, has been promoted to morning news reporter.

So what does that mean for Brenda Rodriguez, who was the morning news reporter? She’ll be co-anchoring with Joe Parris at 4 p.m. 

Finally, viewers are were posting questions about what that means for KTVB’s regular 4 p.m. anchor, Shirah Matsuzawa? She recently posted a vacation photo from Guadalajara, with the caption “To new adventures…”

When a follower mentioned that if that means losing Matsuzawa to Mexico, she’d be sad, Shirah wrote back “Ha ha not Mexico, but I am leaving KTVB. My last day is March 2nd.”