Kim Khazei, a longtime anchor at WHDH-TV (Channel 7), will leave the station in December, the company announced Tuesday.
She first joined the station in 1994 and left in 2001 to help raise her three children, before returning to the station in 2007. After stepping down next month, Khazei will be relocating to spend more time with her family, following the birth of her first grandchild.
“Going back to 1994, this station has been my second home and our viewers have been like family,” Khazei said in a statement. “I’m excited to take a breath, spend time with loved ones, and see what comes next. I’ll always be grateful to the Ansin family and the people at Sunbeam TV for the opportunity and for my many colleagues who will be lifelong friends.”
Khazei was one of the first members of the Channel 7 news team, after Ed Ansin’s Sunbeam Television Corporation bought WHDH in 1993. The company also later bought WLVI-TV (Channel 56).
After years of broadcasting as an NBC affiliate, the network dropped its affiliation of WHDH in 2017. WHDH has since been independent, and NBC operates WBTS-CD (Channel 10), better known as NBC10 Boston.
Currently, Khazei anchors 7 News at 5, 6, 10 and 11 p.m. on WHDH, as well as at 10 p.m. on WLVI with
“There hasn’t been a major story in the last 20 years that Kim hasn’t shared with our viewers,” said Linda Miele, news director of both WHDH and WLVI. “She is an accomplished journalist, and we wish her every happiness as she enters this new chapter of her life.”
Khazei is just the latest long-serving anchor to leave one of Boston’s commercial TV news stations. Some have retired or moved onto to other careers, while others have been impacted by layoffs and cost-cutting.
Just last week, Paramount laid off longtime WBZ political analyst Jon Keller as part of job cuts across the corporation that followed the parent company’s merger with Skydance. Paramount, which owns WBZ, also laid off four other employees at the CBS local station.
Aidan Ryan can be reached at aidan.ryan@globe.com. Follow him @aidanfitzryan.