Desk Duty

Carla Wade settles into the anchor chair at KTNV Channel 13.

There’s a new face on the anchor desk: Carla Wade, who had previously been a weekend morning anchor at the ABC affiliate in Dallas, recently joined KTNV Channel 13. “Prior to working in Dallas, I was chasing storms in Oklahoma City as a reporter and anchor,” said Wade. “I graduated from the University of Oklahoma, and started my television career reporting in a little town in Southwest Oklahoma. Working in this industry of television news, you go where the opportunities are.”

Wade moved around to various cities because her father worked with the Federal Highway Administration. But in 1995, her dad was killed tragically in the domestic terror bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Wade has successfully navigated the hurdles of the television news industry. She has a great deal of wisdom to impart.

“This is how the TV news industry works — you go where the job is,” she explained. “I knew I was going to leave Dallas for about a year because I wanted to be a full time news anchor instead of reporting for only weekends. So, I interviewed and visited stations around the country looking for an opportunity to anchor the news full time — which is very hard to come by in this business, especially for women of color as it relates to specific markets and based on demographics and available prime time anchor slots.”

Wade has already been embraced as a top talent at KTNV, and she is enjoying life in Las Vegas.

“It was great for me to receive the offer to come and work at Channel 13,” said Wade. “Las Vegas was very interesting to me, because I thought it was a very livable city. Which is a big deal for me at this stage of my life. When I first started my career in television I had to pay my dues — and a lot of places I worked, I never saw myself really planting roots in those cities that presented opportunities. But, you tried to make the best of it to build a portfolio. Before moving here, I had only visited Las Vegas for bachelorette parties and conferences, I just got a really good vibe about the city. I told someone the other day that Las Vegas has a lot of stuff that I really enjoy — like concerts, places to shop, and the best restaurants.”