Shannon Hart Retires From KMBC to Run Bea’s Flowers and Gifts

KMBC and KCWE Director of Sales Shannon Hart has been part of the KMBC family for decades. As a child, she spent many weekends running around channel 9’s downtown studios. Her father, Gerald Golden, served as the station’s business manager for 37 years before retiring in 2000. Now, Hart is announcing the end of her own 20-year tenure at KMBC and KCWE.

I am now blessed with the opportunity to buy my own small business in the community I was raised in and still call home - Shannon Hart

“It has truly been an honor to work with KMBC and KCWE over the last 20 years,” Hart said. “I have worked with so many great people, developed many friendships, and I have been proud to represent these stations in the Kansas City business community.”

Hart will depart the stations at year’s end as she begins a business venture of her own—running Bea’s Flowers and Gifts, located in downtown Kearney.

“I am now blessed with the opportunity to buy my own small business in the community I was raised in and still call home,” Hart said. “I will be able to give back to this community, interact with the community, and feel a part of my hometown.”

For KMBC, 2021 will mark the first year a Golden/Hart hasn’t walked the halls since 1967. “I don’t have the words to express the impact Shannon has had on our stations,” said KMBC and KCWE President and General Manager Sarah Smith. “Over two decades, she has navigated multiple changes for our industry—always with an eye to serving our partners in the Kansas City business community. All of us will miss her daily presence, but we will move forward from a position of strength because of her leadership.”

Shannon Hart graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism before starting her career as an Account Executive at KSNT in Topeka, KS. Over the course of 16 years, she moved up the ranks to become that station’s General Sales Manager. In 2000, she moved to Kansas City after accepting the General Sales Manager position for the website that would become kmbc.com. She excelled in multiple roles at KMBC and KCWE before ultimately being named the Director of Sales for both stations.

Her earliest memories of channel 9 include competing on the locally produced Bowling for Dollars game show and enjoying many KMBC Kids Christmas Parties. “I literally grew up at KMBC,” Hart said.

“Shannon has been a trusted leader, model colleague, and beloved friend to so many of us,” Smith added. “We wish her nothing but the best as she embarks on her next adventure.”

KPGZ News – Brian Watts contributed to this story