Gary Sprinkle, news anchor and reporter at KITV4 Island Television News, announced that he will leave the station effective at the end of this year. “I’m not retiring, just scaling back,” Sprinkle said. “I’ll take a little time to do the things I haven’t been able to do for the past 32 years.”

KITV President and General Manager Mike Rosenberg said, “Gary has been a valued member of the KITV family and news team for the past 18 years, though we will miss him, we respect his decision to step away at this time.”

Pamela Young, Sprinkle’s co-anchor and wife, has also decided to scale back her schedule and will take on a new role as weekend anchor at KITV. “Co-anchoring with Pamela has been wonderful. We are delighted to have spent the majority of those years as the top-rated newscast at 5 o’clock,” Sprinkle said.

As KITV prepares for the transition at the end of the year, the station will immediately begin a national search for a weeknight anchor to join the news team. Paula Akana, who currently anchors KITV Island Television News at 10 p.m., will expand her role at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. during the transition.

Hearst Television Inc., formerly known as Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc., is a leading local media company comprising 29 television stations and two radio stations. The company's television stations reach approximately 18% of U.S. TV households, making it one of America’s largest television station groups. It also owns more than three dozen Web sites and multicasts more than two dozen digital channels providing news, weather and entertainment programming. Hearst Television is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hearst Corporation. The company’s Web address is www.hearsttelevision.com.