In my column on July 10, I reported that KSEE, Channel 24, management would not comment on the departure of anchor/reporter Jennifer Brice except to say she no longer was with the local NBC affiliate.
Well, it seems Brice's friends saw the comment by KSEE and suggested she ex- plain her departure.And Brice has a lot more to say.Brice has moved back to Denver, her hometown. And she is taking some time off to be with her nearly 1-year-old son, Dylan.Brice is looking at all sorts of work options, including a return to tele- vision, when she decides to go back to work."I wanted to get closer to my family," Brice says of her departure. In a telephone interview from Colorado, she adds, "I have a new child, and the way the television business is, I just don't know if I want to be moving every couple of years."Before Brice left on maternity leave, she had every intention of returning -- and probably staying for some time -- at KSEE. The feeling must have been mutual. She says station management even wanted her to sign a new contract.Brice balked at inking a new deal because she still had one year left on her old contract.Things changed, Brice says, when she returned to work in November. Brice, who came to the Fresno station in May 2005, was told her contract would not be renewed. It was scheduled to end in May 2008. That gave her six months to look for work."I felt a little shell-shocked," Brice says. "I know that, while I was out on maternity leave, [KSEE owner] Granite [Broadcasting] went through a lot of changes. There were a lot of cuts going on throughout our entire building."Cuts aren't just a local phenomenon. Television stations across the country are being streamlined. That is one reason Brice is not in a hurry to get back into the business.KSEE general manager Todd McWilliams is out of the office this week and unavailable to comment on the matter.In the meantime, Brice is enjoying being a stay-at-home mom."I am so blessed to be back home. Really blessed. TV was really great to me, but it is not the end-all. I think it is going to get harder and harder to make good salaries as the newsrooms streamline," Brice says.Brice has one regret: She will miss the KSEE viewers who treated her so warmly over her three years."I had people I didn't know send me baby blankets and gifts. That is the thing I loved about television," she says.Another updateThe retirement of Jack Noldon and the end of the KSEE "Saturday Sunrise" has worked in Pamela Prado's favor. After four years as the anchor of the station's weekend morning show, Prado has moved into Noldon's anchor spot of the station's noon newscast. She also provides feature stories for the station's weekday morning show.The change occurred after Prado returned from four months of maternity leave."Apparently, people thought I left the market. I got a lot of 'where are you?' e-mails and phone messages. My husband and I welcomed a son, Kyle, on April 13," Prado says.The Anchorage native came to Fresno in December 2003. Other news:New job: Former KGPE, Channel 47, morning anchor John Wallace has a new job. He now is working as a public information officer for Mayor Alan Autry.Wallace's contract with the local CBS affiliate was not renewed in June.A laughing matter: Fresno native Kym Whitley is one comic scheduled to perform in the comedy cable series "Martin Lawrence Presents 1st Amendment Stand-Up."The program will air at 10 p.m. Wednesday on Starz.Whitley's television credits include "That's So Raven," "My Wife and Kids," "The Parkers" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." She also appeared in the feature films "Fun With Dick and Jane" and "Next Friday."The Starz series was filmed in Washington, D.C., at the Lincoln Theatre.