News 4 really used the old ‘Bean’ hiring Romi
“In replacing Mark Haas Channel 4 made the most intriguing hires I can remember since Altitude brought on Vic Lombardi. The station awarded the job to former Denver Broncos cheerleader and media personality Romi Bean.”
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Here at the ‘Stands I write a ton about sports radio because I ingest endless amounts of it. I have been a listener since I was in my early teens. I know what I like and I know what I don’t like and I consider myself to be a competent critic.
I don’t comment as frequently on local television sports coverage and in particular that of the three major network affiliates as part of their daily Denver news coverage. In general this is because the abbreviated nightly “hits” by sports anchors offer such superficial reportage in relation to the scads of web sites, radio shows and podcasts I enjoy that I have very little to gain by awaiting the local evening sports report.
Still, the personalities who make up the Denver sports media as a whole are fascinating to me. Who is in – who is out – who is working for this and that outlet and the other – who is doing a good job and who isn’t – it’s all fodder for this here site and so I attempt to stay abreast of what’s happening.
I was pretty bummed out a couple of weeks ago when I learned that Channel 4 (CBS Denver) had opted not to renew the contract of sports anchor Mark Haas. Haas had been with the station for several years and was – in a word – watchable. From what little I saw of him on my television screen I found him to be professional, humorous, light-hearted and entertaining.
Haas handled is cancellation by Channel 4 well on Twitter. He joked about it plenty. But it’s a safe bet that as bummed as I was to see him go he was even more so. His Twitter bio now lists him as a “free agent”. He’s good enough at what he does that some outlet will most certainly snap him up but whether or not that’s a Denver outlet remains to be seen. Moving sucks and nobody wants to be forced to leave Colorado so for Mark’s sake I hope he can wind up with Altitude or ATT&T Sports Net or one of the other network affiliates.
In replacing Mark Haas Channel 4 has made the most intriguing hires I can remember since Altitude brought on Vic Lombardi. The station awarded the job to former Denver Broncos cheerleader and media personality Romi Bean.
Romi has done a mound of local radio with IHeart affiliates 850 KOA and Orange and Blue 760 but her new gig with Channel 4 is her first television role aside from some morning “hits”. Her promotion from no full-time TV gig to network affiliate sports anchor is a massive leap. The station and its news director Tim Wieland have rolled the dice on this one but I think they have a winner.
Romi Bean joins Channel 7’s Alison Mastrangelo (who was hired last year) and Channel 9’s Cealey Godwin (who was also hired last year) as a female sports reporter / anchor in the Denver market. But unlike the others, who moved to our fine city from other markets as they climbed the TV ladder, Bean is making her transition directly from cheer squad where she served for an impressively long six years after graduating from the University of Colorado.
Having dived into Romi’s YouTube and Facebook accounts and having gotten a bit of a feel for her on-camera work I am impressed. She has a personality big enough to fill up an 80” 4K screen. She’s just a lot of fun to watch. Naturally, she’s hot – she only recently hung up her pom-poms after all – but she’s not hot in a Barbie way. She’s completely relatable and self-deprecating and just goofy enough to come across like your favorite sister.
Romi is sort of a card which I think will serve her very well. A fine example of her levity was when she famously dressed in an inflatable T-Rex costume for a Halloween game against the Chargers at Mile High – a canard that gained her national acclaim. Aside from that, however, she is remarkably talented and comfortable in her own skin when there’s a camera in her face. I think she’s going to do extremely well.
As little as I tuned in to Channel 4 to see Mark Haas cover local sports I enjoyed him. But Mark wasn’t a reason that I would turn on Channel 4. I’m not tossing shade at Mark. Very few TV sports anchors are people I will tune in specifically to see. Romi is. I will make a special point of selecting the channel for that very reason. There’s little doubt that station brass are banking on others making the same choice.
As far as this local blogger is concerned News 4 was really using the old “bean” when it hired Romi.
Here she anchors the sports news in 45 seconds:
