Every weekday morning, KCEN viewers in Temple, TX, are getting a whole lot of Black girl magic with their news. Since May 2, Taheshah Moise, Jasmin Caldwell and Ashley Carter have been the lead anchors on the Texas Today morning show, the first time in television history that three black women have held down a local television news broadcast. And in an interview on their show, the women talk about what this historic lineup means to them.
Anchor Jasmin Caldwell says the new lineup is a big change from the way things were when she first arrived at the local NBC affiliate. “When I first came to KCEN in 2017, we did not have any African American anchors. It was completely different,” she said.
Ashley Carter, Texas Today’s meteorologist, knows that not many Black women are doing the weather. She knows that she is in a position to inspire other young Black girls who are watching her forecast.
“It didn’t hit me then that nobody really looked like me, like the people I was watching growing up,” she said. “It kind of added on the responsibility of, ok, I didn’t get to see it growing up, and now little girls in this area are going to see me when they wake up, and now it can become a reality.”
And while Carter knows there will be some haters out there, she wants viewers to know that she and her co-anchors got their jobs because of their talent and not based on a need to fill a quota.
“I think it is important to know when people watch us every morning, they will be able to see that each and every one of us earned our position on this team. I don’t think our news director intentionally did it. I think he just realized they are all women, and they are all Black, but hey, they are the best for this show, and this is what we’re going to do,” she said.