These days, Sachi Koto answers her own phone. The former Headline News anchor didn't do that at CNN, which protects its on-air talent from overzealous fans and potential stalkers by insulating them in its downtown Atlanta headquarters.

But Koto and CNN split last summer - after more than 16 years - when her contract wasn't renewed. At 54, she wasn't surprised. Broadcast news can be a tough business and tends to favor younger female anchors with less experience and no facial lines.

Today, as president of Sachi Koto Communications, she is her own boss. Koto employs three people and several consultants at her Tucker public relations office and focuses on representing such Asian constituencies as the National Association of Chinese Americans, Korean Americans of Greater Atlanta, the Japan-America Society of Georgia, the Fil-Am Association of Greater Atlanta, the India American Cultural Association and the Malaysian Association of Greater Atlanta.

It's sort of an industry joke, Koto said: "What do old anchors do? They go into PR." There's a truth to it, because the transition is an easy one, she said.

"People want people who were on the air. They want the celebrity, a spokesperson, a front person," Koto said. Clients want someone they trust, and Koto has volunteered with many of those groups for years. "They're very supportive, and it's such a blessing to see that come back to you," she said.

Koto's parents lived in Los Angeles, but, after spending three years in internment camps during World War II, they relocated to Georgia.

Koto is Atlanta-born, a third-generation Japanese- American who became the first Japanese on-air talent in the Southeast and the first Asian on-air talent in Atlanta (in the 1970s at WQXI AM/FM radio and WAGA-TV).

"I had one guy tell me, 'Oh, welcome to the men's industry,' " she recalled. "And then he said, 'You must be the token Asian.' That tells you where the industry was then."

She's seen it change greatly. In the '70s, television stations hired only anchormen and an occasional "news lady." Today, every network and many local stations employ Asians as anchors and reporters.

"I kind of feel like, 'Oh, good. I pioneered. I helped them get through,' " Koto said. "The general scene has changed. I think that's indicative of the whole face of America. We represent what the audience looks like."

Koto now works up to 60 hours a week. At Headline News, it rarely topped 40. But she works in an office surrounded by gifts and remembrances that make her "feel at home and at peace."

Three pieces of art face her desk. A Japanese ink-brush drawing by her mother, now 84, and a watercolor that her sister painted flank a three-dimensional angel she got from her son, Ken Ichiro, now 25 and finishing his degree in business marketing.

Behind her desk are a brightly colored sash she received from a fan in Ghana during her CNN International days and a big black cowboy hat from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who made her an honorary Texan for her work with the Texas Asian Chamber of Commerce.

"And like a good Asian, I have my lucky bamboo, although I'm not Chinese," she said.

Most significantly, she keeps a Bible nearby. It was her father's until he died in 1991. She finds comfort in the indentations made by his hands in the leather cover and his red-ink notations inside.

Although her grandparents were Buddhists, Koto and her parents have always been Christians. "That's how I get through my days," she said.

She's having fun, even though more days than not she still has to dress up, wear full makeup and "pouf and spray" her hair.

When she's off, she's at home in what she calls her "fat pants" (a jogging suit).

"I'm free, because I can just do what I want to do," she said. "Hang out with my sweetie."