IATSE Local 489 is recruiting Western Pennsylvanians through the end of June to its Studio Mechanics Grip Training program in partnership with the Pittsburgh Film Office and Brooklyn, N.Y.,-based workforce development organization Reel Works. WPXI news director Scott Trabandt did not respond to questions about who will fill in for Arena in the short-term or what the longer-term plans are for the weekend morning anchor position but Trabandt offered a statement: “We wish Joe continued success in his career and thank him for all the good work and great moments throughout his time at WPXI.” “As much as we are heartbroken to do it, it helps that we’re not going somewhere we don’t know anybody.” “Having this opportunity for my kids to see their cousins and for me to be back in New York and really close to family after what’s been a 23-year journey for me around this country, that’s the silver lining about leaving Pittsburgh,” Arena said. In recent years, both Arena’s mom and brother have relocated to Long Island near where Arena will soon make his home. “I’m the least-talented one of my whole family,” Arena joked.
His brother recently retired from advertising (Arena said he did the Betty White Snickers commercial). It’s a heavily relied-on station.”Īrena grew up in midtown Manhattan, where his mother was in advertising (Arena said she came up with Excedrin’s “I have a headache this big” ad) and his father was a Marlboro Man model-turned-construction-business owner. “Everybody on Long Island knows Channel 12 and everybody watches Channel 12 for their news.
“I grew up watching them and they are hyper-local,” Arena said. “When I interviewed with the general manager at Channel 12, the first thing he said to me was, ‘What’s it like to be working in the most competitive news market in the country for the past 10 years?’ referring to Pittsburgh.”Īrena said one of the things he likes about his new station is that even though it’s in a much larger media market than Pittsburgh (No. That’s a refreshing thing to be a part of.
They’re real people, blue-collar people and they hold your feet to the fire and you better know what you’re talking about. “A town like Buffalo and a town like Pittsburgh, they’re wonderful places to be a reporter or anchorperson in because the people of those cities really, really watch their local news. “I actually compare the two a lot to people I’m talking to,” Arena said. “Nothing just ever became permanent,” he said, “so then it became a decision on what’s best for me and my family.”Īrena praised his Channel 11 co-workers, saying, “All the people I’ve worked with, they’ve been such a shoulder for me to lean on the last handful of years, and they’re great people and they deserve to know how great they are every day.”Īrena arrived in Pittsburgh in October 2012 after four years as an anchor at WIVB-TV in Buffalo, N.Y., a market not entirely dissimilar to Pittsburgh. weekday newscast with Susan Koeppen during November and May sweeps this past year. In addition to weekends, Arena co-anchored Channel 11’s 4 p.m.
“Things happen in this business and there are things you can’t control,” Arena said. Arena said the shift to anchoring and reporting offered “a nice balance,” but he was hoping that a larger role would come about. But when you plant roots in a town like Pittsburgh and you’re here for 10 years, you don’t really think you’re gonna be going anywhere.”Īrena was hired at Channel 11 as a weekday morning anchor but got shifted to weekend morning anchor in 2019. “So anytime I noticed an opportunity that might have come up, it was always something I looked at. “Staying in Pittsburgh would have been great, but it’s always been a dream of mine to report the news in my hometown,” Arena said. After almost a decade as an anchor/reporter at Channel 11, Joe Arena is leaving WPXI after his June 26 newscast for a job at News 12 Long Island, a 24-hour local cable news channel, where he’ll be a lead weekday afternoon/evening news anchor.Īrena, a New York City native, called his decision to leave the Pittsburgh market “bittersweet,” but he’s heartened to move to a place where his children, ages 7 and 9, will be able to see his extended family with more regularity.
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