Jennifer Roscoe spent 34 years at WCIA-TV — all of them at the same central Illinois station — before signing off last month. She joins The 21st Show to talk about her career, which started with a 1992 internship at WCIA and included an unlikely brush with celebrity: sharing shrimp with '90s heartthrob Fabio in a mall green room.

Roscoe also reflects on the losses of two colleagues, meteorologist Robert Reese and anchor Dave Benton, who both died of cancer, and on how the industry itself has changed — from typewriters and pagers to satellite trucks, and from a public that trusted local news to one now more skeptical of the press. A tornado that struck central Illinois just days before her retirement convinced her that local TV news isn't going anywhere: she says only a station with people on the ground can tell viewers, in real time, which way a storm is headed.

Now retired, Roscoe says she's looking forward to spending more time with her daughter Sophia, who has special needs.

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Benton, who has been with WCIA-TV in Champaign since 2005, had battled brain cancer for about 18 months. He only made the decision to step down from the anchor desk last month, saying the tumor affected his ability to deliver the news.   Benton was 52.

The Champaign news anchor says a brain tumor is affecting his ability to do his job, and will step down after broadcasts Monday night.  But he hopes to continue with his Crime Watch programs.