Bowing Out in the Bay Area

NBC Bay Area reporter George Kiriyama has left the station after eight years and two months “to search for new opportunities.”

In a Facebook post Kiriyama said, “I am deeply honored to have worked side by side with such a talented group of journalists. For nearly a decade, I enjoyed sharing the stories that mattered the most to our viewers.

“To my fellow NBC Bay Area journalists…you were more than just a team to me. You were my family.

“Thank you, NBC Bay Area, for an opportunity I will never forget. Onward and forward …”

Kiriyama traveled around the country as a television reporter for more than nine years before returning home to California in 2006 to report for NBC Bay Area.

He began his broadcasting career in Midland/Odessa, Texas. From there, his career took him north to Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo. During his four years in Michigan, he was honored by the Michigan Associated Press for his individual reporting and received an honorable mention from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters for his series “Surviving the Economic Slowdown.”

He spent four years as a general assignment reporter in Kansas City, Mo., before coming back to California to join NBC Bay Area.

H/T RAFU.com