Keith Norton, we hardly knew ye.
The Channel 13 sports anchor, hired over the summer from a station in Louisville, parted ways with Sacramento's CBS station in early December.
And on Monday, the Houston Chronicle reported that Norton - son of former heavyweight boxing champion Ken Norton and brother of a former 49er linebacker - is negotiating to move to KPRC (Houston's NBC affiliate) as a weekend sports anchor.
We at Media Savvy hear that Norton asked out of his Channel 13 contract to pursue an opportunity in a larger market (11th nationally vs. Sac's rating of 20), and that Channel 13 honchos were happy to let him go.
Certainly, in our humble opinion, Norton wasn't the most polished sportscaster in town.
One of his most memorable on-air gaffes happened in early August, after Roger Goodell was tapped to replace Paul Tagliabue as NFL commissioner. The Channel 13 anchors went to Norton in the newsroom for a live shot. He stumbled through a painful one-minute report, during which he completely and continually mangled the pronunciation of "Tagliabue" and hardly told the viewers much at all about Goodell.
Channel 13 now has Arran Andersen as the sole sports anchor. Bruno Cohen, president of channels 13 and 31, declined to say much about Norton's departure other than that the station will be hiring a replacement.
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