A mixture of fast food and family lured Kylie Walker away from Pittsburgh.
Well, it was those two factors combined with Hearst helping out one of its own that led the 27-year-old WTAE-TV general assignment reporter to recently accept another reporting and anchoring gig at KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. Her last day at Channel 4 will be July 8.
Walker made the news of her imminent departure official on social media Tuesday afternoon.
Some bittersweet personal news ???? pic.twitter.com/PP33QVQ7i0
— Kylie Walker (@kylieWTAE) June 21, 2022
Hearst, which owns both WTAE and KOCO, knew Walker wanted to move closer to her childhood home in Dallas. So, the company steered her in the direction of Oklahoma City.
“Hearst has been amazing in providing me with opportunities in the company to do what I really want to do, which is telling great stories and making an impact with those stories,” Walker told the Post-Gazette.
Not only was she impressed with KOCO’s talent and setup, but also she immediately fell in love with the area upon seeing fast-food favorites like Whataburger and Torchy’s Tacos that had not been available to her for a quite a while. Most importantly, though, relocating from Pittsburgh to Oklahoma City puts Walker closer to her family, especially her 86-year-old grandmother.
“She is my best friend,” Walker said. “She is the person I’m waking up in the morning and am on the phone with. ... She’s so excited to have me back home and I’m excited to be closer to her, my friends and immediate family.”
Walker graduated from Texas Christian University with a journalism degree in 2017. She got a crash course in local broadcast journalism during her two years reporting for ABC 57 in South Bend, Ind., before joining WTAE in 2019. She quickly realized how dedicated Pittsburghers were to “making sure they’re tuned in to what’s going on in their neighborhoods.”
Her favorite stories that she got to cover here all generally involved emphasizing “the strong community in Pittsburgh,” including the recent feature she did on the local photographer who runs the keeppittsburghdope Instagram page. Walker said she has always admired how unique each Pittsburgh neighborhood is and how much they look after each other.
“It’s a tight-knit community,” she said. “They are each other’s champions and really lift each other and they’re stories up. If we didn’t know about a story that was happening, you can bet that some neighbor was going to send it in on their behalf. I think that support system these neighbors have for each other is super special.”
She thanked the people of Pittsburgh for being her support system when she moved here with no prior knowledge of the city or anyone in it. Walker fully intends to visit Pittsburgh again, especially because she never got around to attending a Steelers game at Heinz Field.
Walker’s WTAE colleagues will “always be my second family” and she urged Channel 4 viewers to stick with the station as it continues to “dig deep on stories that are important to them.” She also wanted to thank all the “newsies in this market” who kept her on her toes for three years as she did her best to make sure they were informed about the most important local happenings.
“Thank you so much for your support over these last three years,” she said. “It has meant the world to me. Thank you so much for agreeing to talk to me no matter the story and opening yourself up to me and my co-workers.
“We work so hard to bring you all great content. I’ll definitely miss you guys.”
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxelburgh.
First Published: June 21, 2022, 9:26 p.m.
Updated: June 22, 2022, 10:23 a.m.
