Two years later, campground reopens at Rocky Mountain National Park
The largest campground at Rocky Mountain National Park re-opened this week, bringing a pleasant surprise to campers who just happened to check for reservations.
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Alan Gionet loves living and working in Colorado. He has been in news for more than 30 years. "I find new things every day and truly love people, so this is a great job for me."
Alan started in a small market in Mississippi where he lugged the camera and the video recording deck around, shot, wrote and edited stories; then put together the newscast.
He also anchored and reported in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he exposed deplorable conditions in the state's foster care system resulting in more vigorous enforcement on behalf of children and reported on worker safety issues leading up to the largest workplace fine in state history.
Prior to his first stint at CBS Colorado in the early 1990s, Alan worked as an investigative reporter in Providence, Rhode Island, where he reported on the city's infamous, but charming mayor Buddy Cianci and exposed tax breaks for nonprofits.
While at CBS Colorado in the 1990s, Alan reported extensively on forest fires and was the first to report that the firefighters killed on Storm King Mountain did not get critical information about the changing weather conditions that put them in danger. He also showed how registered sex offenders were often not living where they showed their registered addresses.
In the late 1990s, Alan left to serve as main anchor in Jacksonville, Florida where he was later also named nightside managing editor. He logged many hours during hurricanes and the 2000 election controversy, when he first revealed voting irregularities in Duval County. His reporting on endangered North Atlantic right whales brought national focus to a little-known species, of which there are only a few hundred known left. His newscasts won a long list of awards including Emmys and Edward R. Murrow Awards and individually Alan has been lauded with Heartland Regional Emmy Awards covering the Denver area as top anchor and for his innovative Good Question reporting. He has won awards for everything from spot news to feature stories.
Alan returned to CBS Colorado in the 2000s and is glad to be back in Colorado with his wife and four grown daughters. His love of journalism is surpassed only by his love of fatherhood. He has covered all of Colorado's biggest stories over those years, like forest fires and environmental stories, mass killings and COVID. A student of science and politics, he loves to break down complicated concepts and ask questions that get to the core of the story. He reads extensively, plays blues harmonica and hockey and loves trail running. He has marked off quite a few of Colorado's 14ers.
"If you're a television journalist, CBS News Colorado is recognized as one of the greatest places to work the nation, because of the quality of reporting, the videography and the team atmosphere," Alan says. "I consider each new person and place in Colorado a privilege. I believe in listening, it's a skill my parents, who were both highly regarded public educators, taught me that I treasure."
Alan holds a degree from Boston's Emerson College where he studied broadcast journalism. He also studied at Harvard University Extension and the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Amherst.
Just The Facts
Dream job: That's why I returned to CBS Colorado. There's no place I'd rather be.
Favorite word: Understanding - intelligence is the ability to consider another's point of view.
Favorite noise: The sound of children laughing
Year hired: 1994 (first stint at CBS Colorado) and again in 2006
First TV appearance: Tupelo, Mississippi
First story: The death of an impoverished woman in Mississippi.
Most memorable interview: An African-American high school principal in Mississippi who said after a racial incident: "Show me a man who who has a problem with Black people and I'll show you a man with a problem with all people."
Dream interview: Meriwether Lewis
Star sign: Virgo
Why I am a journalist: I love the craft of storytelling. I enjoy writing television news and the access I get to people and places.
Hidden talent: With four kids, going anywhere takes an Eisenhower-like ability with logistics.
Hometown: Pittsfield, Mass.
Number of children: Four
Hobbies: Reading, running, hockey, biking, finding new places in Colorado
Favorite food: Burrito
Favorite musician: James Taylor
Number of siblings: Four
Number of pets: One dog
Favorite sports team: Avalanche, I'm an old hockey player.
Favorite author: Joseph Mitchell
Favorite vacation spot: Anything I haven't discovered in Colorado
What one word best describes CBS Colorado: Teamwork
Least favorite household chore: Cleaning up after the dog
Least favorite word: Hate - I hate it.
Least favorite noise: Loud motors in the mountains
Favorite music? Running tunes and the blues, JT - who lives in the Berkshires where I'm from
What keeps you in Colorado? The wide open spaces and open minds
What's the biggest risk you've taken? I've been in a couple of spots on 14ers I wish I'd avoided.
Who would play you in a movie? If I get to pick, let's make it Jason Bourne.
You can contact Alan by sending an email to yourreporter@cbs.com.
The largest campground at Rocky Mountain National Park re-opened this week, bringing a pleasant surprise to campers who just happened to check for reservations.
Summer storms running over Colorado are bringing rain, hail, lightning and winds, a common offering from the skies at this time of year.
The Colorado district attorney who will be prosecuting the new case against Barry Morphew in the killing of his wife Suzanne says she's proud of the work that led to this week's grand jury indictment.
A Colorado mom is worried and angry after she was struck by a stray bullet while inside her home in Aurora.
Greg Johnson walks with a limp three years after he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle in Golden. Now no one will be held responsible.
Three times, what one Northern Colorado woman believes is the same man, has visited her home at night in the Harvest Junction Village neighborhood in Longmont to steal her flags.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold closed off access to the state's online election database, known as "TRACER," over the weekend, amid concerns in the aftermath of the politically-motivated shootings and killings in Minnesota.
The massive enlargement of the Gross Dam is back on.
The Supreme Court has overruled a lower court in favor of a plan to ship crude oil through Colorado to the Gulf Coast.
S Denver Health physician said there are "concerning dimensions" about the announcement from Health and Human Services Secretary that the HHS will no longer recommend that healthy children and healthy pregnant women get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Memorial Day weekend wasn't quite a washout, but for a lot of people, there wasn't much useful about the weather.
But he also vetoed the bill that would have added regulations to the so-called transportation network companies, including rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft.
Boulder area District Attorney Michael Dougherty says there will likely be more charges against the 23-year-old accused in the hit-and-run death of bicyclist John Wilkinson on Sunday. Dante Johnson of Denver is already accused of two charges, including failure to remain at the scene in an accident causing death.
In Evergreen, Colorado, the old one-room school that has sat on the grounds of Wilmot Elementary for decades has now moved on. The school was built 12 years after the Civil War and is now in its fifth location.
Broomfield resident John Wilkinson has become the latest victim in what's becoming a disturbing trend in deadly cyclist crashes in Colorado.