After 13 years, the man giving viewers the news in the mornings on KAAL-TV is heading in a new direction. He will become the community relations coordinator at the Fairmont Medical Center.

“It was an extremely difficult decision leaving KAAL, but I just felt at this point in my life I needed to make a career change,” he said.

Howland, 35, grew up in Riceville, Iowa. He received his journalism degree from Iowa State University in 1995 and started at KAAL right away in January 1996. He and his wife, Katie, have a daughter in second grade.

“The working hours and lifestyle of television news just wasn’t really conducive to family life,” he said. “I’ve had several colleagues make the switch from television to the medical communications field and they love it. I am extremely excited about the new challenges of this career.”

Howland was sports director for eight years and then switched to the morning anchor three years ago. He switched from a night shift to getting up at 3 a.m. to be on the air at 5:30 a.m.

As sports director, he put together the Friday night “Sportszone” show, often shooting footage for football games and rushing back to the studio to get it on the air, then ad-libbing the highlights — no time to write copy for the teleprompter. Viewers also knew him for outdoors segments, seeking to take viewers to places they hadn’t visited.

“The fishing segments were obviously my favorite,” he said.

Howland has lived in Albert Lea for 10 years. He said he plans on staying in Albert Lea for now and commuting to Fairmont.

Some of the big news moments he said he will never forget are the Interstate 35W bridge collapse, the floods in Austin in 2004 and 2007, Jesse Ventura’s upset in the governor’s race, the Glenville tornado and, of course, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“I also enjoyed building up the morning show into, what I believe, is the best in the market, he said. “We’ve won the Upper Midwest Emmy for best daytime newscast the last three years.”