Olmstead Returns, Leaves KNWA Sports

Mike Olmstead, former sports anchor of KNWA, rejoined his team in Fayetteville as a reporter and anchor for about six weeks before leaving the station again.

Olmstead originally left the station in August 2003 to follow his wife Darlee Olmstead to Tulsa.

Darlee Olmstead, who was also a reporter/anchor at KNWA, got a job as a pharmaceutical representative in Tulsa soon after the two had a child.

Sometime in July, viewers saw Mike Olmstead behind the KNWA sports desk and in the field. He was commuting from the couple’s home in Tulsa. Then he was gone again.

During that time, he was a finalist for the sports anchor position at KHBS/KHOG, Channels 40/29, he said, but after that position was filled by Mark Lericos in August, he resigned from KNWA.

Things “just weren’t moving fast enough” to justify moving the family back to Northwest Arkansas, he said.