NBC-Owned NECN Boosts Its News Staff

NBC-owned regional cable news network NECN, based in Boston, is adding a trio of new hires to its roster, including veteran New England meteorologist Pete Bouchard and journalists Joy Lim Nakrin and Melody Mendez.

Beginning Monday, Jan. 11, Bouchard will join the network’s Early Warning Weather team led by Chief Meteorologist Matt Noyes, while Nakrin and Mendez will start at the network this spring.

Bouchard, a local television meteorologist in New England for more than 20 years, joins NECN from WHDH Boston, where he was chief meteorologist for more than 13 years. Before working at WHDH, he was a meteorologist at a number of stations throughout New England, including WPXT and WGME in Portland, Maine; WFXT in Boston; and WVII in Bangor, Maine, where he earned his American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval. Bouchard holds a bachelor’s degree from Lyndon State College in Vermont.

A native of New England, Melody Mendez joins NECN as a weekday morning anchor at the end of March. She brings more than a decade of journalism experience to her role, most recently as morning anchor of WFLD’s morning newscast, Good Day Chicago, where she worked for two years. Mendez has also held anchor and/or reporter positions at KDVR Denver, KOMO Seattle, WICD Champaign, Ill., and WBBJ Jackson, Tenn. She began her career in journalism in Boston at Neighborhood Network News.

Mendez holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University’s College of Communications, where she received the Dennis Kauff Award for excellence in journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Joy Lim Nakrin makes her debut on NECN in early May as an afternoon anchor and evening reporter, bringing more than 10 years of television experience. For the last two years, she was an anchor and reporter at WFXT Boston. Before that, Nakrin was an anchor and reporter at KSTP Minneapolis and WTIC Hartford, Conn.

Before entering local broadcast television, she was an anchor and reporter for ESPN Asia, hosted shows on MTV Asia and starred in a Malaysian reality television series.

Nakrin is a licensed attorney with a law degree from Duke University and membership in both the American Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar. She has a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College.