KAKE News Director Anthony Maisel To Retire

Anthony Maisel, news director of Lockwood Broadcast Group’s ABC affiliate KAKE Wichita, Kan., announced he is planning to retire and will step down from his responsibilities on May 31. Lockwood President, Dave Hanna said: “Anthony made an impact for us at KTEN [Ada, Okla.] and created a win-win for us when he asked to go to Wichita to be closer to family. We will miss Anthony and hope he has a wonderful time in retirement.”

After serving as a Marine in Vietnam, Maisel graduated from the University of Southern Colorado and began his broadcasting career serving in a number of capacities that would span 40 years. He first joined Lockwood Broadcast Group in 2012 eventually moving to KAKE as news director in 2016.

“It has been an honor to work with so many great journalists and great people, too.  I’ll always have wonderful memories of you all,” Maisel said in a statement to his coworkers.

“Please join me in thanking Anthony for his service to our industry and congratulate him on this momentous milestone,” said KAKE General Manager Mike Rajewski. “We are sad to see Anthony go and we know he will miss the energy of the newsroom, but we are happy for Anthony to have more time to spend with his family and those grandkids he adores.”

KAKE will start the search for his replacement immediately. KAKE covers most of Kansas through its network of seven transmitter sites throughout the state, the KAKEland Television Network.

Virginia-based Lockwood Broadcast Group owns and operates 13 TV stations in eight markets throughout the American Midwest and Southeast.