Darren Hunt
Darren made the jump to television news in January of 2006 after nearly two decades as a sportswriter for the El Paso Herald-Post and El Paso Times, and two years as a radio morning news/sports talk show host at KROD. During his time with the Herald-Post and Times he was the lead beat writer for UTEP football and basketball, including the final five years of legendary coach Don Haskins’ career.
Seven months after arriving at ABC-7, the 38-year-old rookie TV reporter found himself in the middle of the station’s award-winning Storm 2006 coverage. “I get asked a lot if I miss sports,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love sports and sometimes I do miss it. I still get goose bumps when I think of all the leaping touchdown grabs and buzzer beating shots I saw from the front row. But when you’re interviewing a woman while standing in four feet of mud and water and she starts crying uncontrollably after she realizes her family has just lost everything … That’s as real as it gets. Football and basketball don’t seem quite as important after covering something as devastating as Storm 2006.”
Darren’s favorite thing to do is break stories. “Think about it,” he said. “I mean, everybody likes to be the one to tell somebody something for the first time, right? My goal is to do that every day, but make it news not only to our viewers, but to our competition as well.”
His newest assignment is host of ABC-7 Xtra, a weekly broadcast designed to provide viewers in-depth analysis on hot topics.
At age 11 in 1979, Darren’s father, Alan, a master sergeant in the Army previously stationed in El Paso, and his mother, Lucia, moved the family to the Sun City. Darren’s parents settled in Northeast El Paso, where they still reside. He went on to play varsity basketball and write for his high school newspaper and a sports weekly before graduating from Irvin High School in 1985 and attending UTEP.
Darren cites El Paso Times Editorial Writer Joe Muench, former KVIA anchors Gary Warner and Suzanne Michaels, KVIA General Manager Kevin Lovell, former KVIA news director Eric Huseby, El Paso Times photo editor Ruben Ramirez and most of all — his mother and father — as his major influences. Darren spends his free time with his fiancee, Patricia Martinez, morning show host on El Paso’s KSII-FM.
