After the 6:30 evening news next Friday, longtime KRCR News Channel 7 anchor Mike Mangas will sign off for the last time.

Mangas, 62, is leaving his seat at the station for a job with Dignity Health, where he will work in the healthcare company’s communications department.

A Shasta High School and Chico State University graduate, Mangas started at the ABC affiliate in 1978, and for all but six months in 2005, when he worked shortly for the Mercy Foundation, the station has been his professional home, heading up the sports desk for many years before moving to news.

Jimmy Carter was in the White House, Walter Cronkite was still anchoring the CBS Evenings News and the 24-hour news cycle was still a concept in Ted Turner’s head when Mangas started at KRCR.

“It’s a changing business and this seems like I had a wonderful opportunity to change, which I was not actively seeking,” Mangas said Thursday, noting he just finished a three-year contract with the station and had been offered another when the Dignity offer came up.

Mangas’ first day with Dignity will be Nov. 27.

“Things are so polarized now on the national level and people on the local level expect that, and I just want to tell stories,” Mangas said. “I want to do local stories and not get involved in politics — liberal or conservative, or whatever.”

While many TV and print journalists who start in a market the size of Redding are eager to move on after gaining experience, Mangas said the North State will always be his home.

“I never wanted to go anywhere else, I never tried to go anywhere else,” said Mangas, who with his wife, Lindy, raised three children, Jake Mangas, 37, president of the Redding Chamber of Commerce; Andy Mangas, 34, who operates an online sales business in Redding; and Michaela Boucher, 30, who works at Shasta Community Health Center in Redding.

“It’s my hometown and I feel so blessed to do what I do in my hometown. It’s been amazing.”

KRCR was recently purchased by Sinclair Broadcast Group, an East Coast media conglomerate that owns nearly 200 stations.

Mangas said he has thought a lot about KRCR’s new parent company.

“To a degree, to a degree,” Mangas said when asked if the ownership change was the reason he is leaving. “That is not why I am leaving but it kind of got thrown in the hopper with everything else.”

Jake Mangas said having a father on TV is all he has ever known, it is what’s normal to him. He remembers growing up that he always knew when dinner was on the table.

“Mom would have dinner ready when Dad finished his final sportscast during the 6:30 news. We knew he was coming home soon,” Jake Mangas said.

Jake Mangas said he is most happy for his parents.

“They are empty-nesters and for practically their entire life, really, my dad worked holidays, he didn’t have a normal vacation,” he said. “I am so excited for my parents. They will have the chance to spend more time together.”

Redding Mayor Brent Weaver also grew up in Redding watching Mangas on the news.

“I think many people who are doing things in our community have the utmost respect for Mike and the manner in which he reported the news and has given back,” Weaver said. “Obviously, it’s a huge loss to see him leave the local news station. I wish him success in his endeavors with Dignity Health.”

Jennifer Scarborough, KRCR's news director, said she has been blessed to work with Mangas for 22 years.

"I can't say enough good things about Mike," she said. "He is an exemplary co-worker, an exemplary journalist, but beyond that, he is an exemplary human being. I have been blessed to know him and I am going to miss him terribly."

Scarborough said she hasn't decided who will replace Mangas.

"There is no replacing Mike, but you know, there are many journalists working in our newsroom who have the same commitment to this community that Mike does," Scarborough said.

With so many stories to look back on, Mike Mangas said it’s his days as a sportscaster that he keeps coming back to.

Especially Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto. Chico’s Jeff Stover was on the 49ers and Mangas remembers covering Stover on Media Day and then watching the 49ers blow out the Miami Dolphins. Mangas didn’t have a media pass but he remembers somehow getting into the locker room after the game.

“I got into the locker room and I was able to celebrate with him, the guy I knew on the team. That was pretty fun, pretty neat at the time,” Mangas said.

Has he thought about what’s he going to say when he signs off Nov. 17?

“I have not,” Mangas said. “Honestly, I would like to just do what I always do and walk quietly out the door.”

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