Erika Thomas Joins KFSM as Evening Anchor

Erika Thomas

Erika Thomas has traded the Steel Valley for the Arkansas River Valley, joining KFSM in Fort Smith as the CBS affiliate’s weeknight anchor on 5News.

She replaces Katelynn Zoellner, who left KFSM earlier this year for a public relations job in Sacramento, California.

A 2008 graduate of the University of Missouri, Thomas spent three years on the anchor desk at WKBN, Channel 27, in Youngstown, Ohio. “Erika is a strong communicator whose passion is understanding each story she reports,” KFSM News Director Bill Cummings said in a news release. “Our viewers are going to be able to see the work she puts into every newscast.”

Colleagues at WKBN praised that work ethic in an emotional on-air farewell late last year. “She’s so dedicated and such a hard worker, and that’s going to be missed here,” meteorologist Paul Wetzl said.

Thomas, who was a double major in broadcast journalism and economics at Missouri, said she was excited about coming to Arkansas but will keep sentimental ties to Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. “My son, Axl, was born here,” she said in her goodbye. “I’ll always have a piece of my heart dedicated to the valley.”

Before joining WKBN, a CBS station, Thomas was at KMEG/KPTH in Sioux City, Iowa, and KOMU in Columbia, Missouri. Among several career awards, she won a regional Murrow Award for investigative reporting from the Radio Television Digital News Association and a regional Emmy for Best Evening Newscast for WKBN.

Thomas’ resume says she was valedictorian in 2004 at Harrison High School, but she’s not from Boone County, Arkansas. “Nope, I’m originally for northwest Indiana!” she told Arkansas Business. Her Harrison High is William Henry Harrison High School in West Lafayette.

Her first day at KFSM will be Thursday.