Northridge Magazine

KCAL 9 news anchor and Emmy winner Rick Garcia attended Cal State Northridge in 1979-80 and recalls the campus back then as small yet charming. Its size became less charming, he admitted, when a karate tournament foot injury put him on crutches for a couple of weeks.

“The back and forth between classes almost killed me,” he said.

Garcia joined the KCAL 9 family in April 2009 after spending 22 years with KTTV-TV (Channel 11) and its Fox-owned sister station KCOP-TV (Channel 13). The Los Angeles native has been honored with the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s Excellence in Broadcast Journalism award, and received Minorities in Broadcasting Training Program recognition for his career and community contributions.

The seasoned journalist admits he has been thinking a lot about his profession lately. “The medium is changing due to sources such as the Internet. I have no idea what television news will look like in the near future, and whether we will get our news from a flat screen or a cell phone. But our society will always have a need for journalists—people who are curious and ask the tough questions.”

Garcia, who has received Emmys for best sports feature and twice for best sports reporting, cites Muhammad Ali as his favorite sports personality.

“I was always amazed at his brashness and kindness. Ali was quite influential and could have been a valuable part of our social conscience if not for Parkinson’s disease. But I also loved meeting the greatest athletes of our time: Gretzky, Magic, Fernando. As amazing as they were on the field of play, they were also great guys off the field.”

Politics is the news Garcia enjoys the most.

“I personally love politics and I’m saddened that more people don’t. Our political leaders do more to change our lives than anyone else. Good or bad, we can’t stop paying attention to politics or become ambivalent about it.”

For several years, Garcia has been active with the Facing Forward Foundation for children with deformities, stepping in to help families who couldn’t otherwise afford reconstructive surgery. He is also part owner of Tommie’s Castaic Café.

Garcia’s advice to students in the field of broadcast journalism is to “stay curious and be ambitious!”

— Julia Venkateswaran

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