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Major changes on your favorite anchor/reporters.

 

Katy Brown has departed KATU after seven years as the station’s sports director.

 

KATU news director Don Pratt confirmed Brown’s departure but would not give any details about what led to her exit. Brown has been covering the Portland sports scene since 2000. She was recently named Oregon Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. Weekend sports anchor Craig Birnbach, who has been with KATU since 2007, has replaced Brown on the station’s evening newscasts this week.

 

 

WXMI chief meteorologist Peter Chan is out the door at the Grand Rapids Fox-affiliate.

 

“We thank him for the time he’s been with us, and we wish him well in the future,” WXMI news director Kerri Cavanaugh told mlive.com, Chan was a member of the original WXMI news team, which debuted in 1999. His last day on the air was Thursday. Cavanaugh said the station has not made a decision on who will succeed Chan as chief meteorologist.

 

 

Don Hammond joins WOWK in Charleston from WRGT in Dayton. He will be the primary co-anchor at WOWK.

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Dionne Miller, most recently of Fox Sports Ohio has joined WFLD (Fox Chicago) as weekend (Fri/Sat) sports anchor. She effectively succeeds Jill Carlson who departed the station almost a year and a half ago when she was passed over for the lead sports job. Freelancers Dan Jiggetts and Kerry Sayers have been filling the role ever since.

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Entravision Communications has hired David Iniga as the sports anchor for a new in-house news department being started by the company for its Laredo, Texas duopoly of Fox affiliate KXOF-CA and Univision affiliate KLDO. KXOF is preparing to launch a 9 p.m. newscast this Spring, which Iniga will anchor sports for the KXOF newscast (Iniga himself will start at KXOF on April 2), as well as the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on KLDO. Iniga previously was a reporter for Newport Television's Bakersfield, California duopoly of NBC affiliate KGET and Telemundo affiliate KKEY-LP.

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Sinclair’s deal to buy WPEC and the rest of the Freedom-owned TV stations has closed. The $385 million deal with Freedom Communications was just approved by the FCC giving Sinclair a local duopoly in the process, the media company also owns Palm Beach CW affiliate WTVX.

And no sooner after the deal goes trough the WPEC newsroom is being dismantled to make way for a new set. This photo posted yesterday on WPEC’s Facebook page

wpec.526996_10150734398312941_35996547940_9569307_1429609072_n.jpg

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Former WAGA anchor Mark Hayes will join KXAS, the NBC O&O in Dallas, next month.

Hayes announced last week that he would say goodbye to the Atlanta Fox O&O after ten years as the morning anchor. He will join KXAS in the same role, sharing the anchor desk from 4:30 – 7 a.m. with Deborah Ferguson.

“When a viewer turns on the news in the morning, Mark is the kind of person they want to see,” KXAS vice president of news Susan Tully said in a statement. “He has a warm delivery and makes the early wake-up just a little more enjoyable. Mark had a deeply loyal following in Atlanta because of his personable approach to giving viewers their first news of the day.”

Hayes replaces Scott Friedman, who is leaving the anchor desk to run the station’s newly-launched investigative reporting team.

“Becoming part of such an experienced and talented news gathering team has exceeded all my expectations in taking the next step in my career,” Hayes said in a statement. “Their extraordinary vision and passion for journalistic excellence was what attracted me to this opportunity and I can’t wait to be part of such an outstanding news organization, rich with history and tradition, and dedicated to covering North Texas news.”

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The latest blurbs from the Dallas-Fort Worth DMA...

 

>> Congratulations are in order for WFAA morning anchor Cynthia Izzaguirre. Izzy is now the proud mama of fraternal twins, Karina and Simon. Brother and sister were both born during the five o'clock/central hour this past Thursday evening, a month ahead of schedule. She will be out on maternity leave for the next 3 months, including the entirity of May sweeps. Traffic reporter Alexa Conomos will fill in during Izzy's absence. Here's to wishing Cynthia all the best as she and her husband start their new family.

 

>> While Cynthia is out on maternity leave, WFAA has it's interim game plan in place for Daybreak. Weekend morning meteorologist Colleen Coyle will do traffic, while, as mentioned above, Alexa will fill in for Izzy. Also, I reported earlier in this thread that former KTVT weekday morning meteorologist Julie Bologna was looking to come back to DFW. She has. Julie now works in WFAA's weather center, and she will be Colleen's replacement on weekend mornings, while Colleen is moved to weekdays.

 

>> At the beginning of this month, former Dallas Cowboys special teams coach Joe Avezzano, passed away. Avezzano was a close personal friend of WFAA sports director Dale Hansen, and was a regular fixture on "Dale Hansen's Sports Special". Here is Dale's tribute commentary to Coach Joe. Joe Avezzano, 1943-2012...

 

>> I once said on this fine website, that the only thing that could possibly help KXAS with it's news product was if you took a wrecking ball to the building and yelled, "CLEAR!!!" and literally started over from scratch. Well, I just might have to eat those words. What was once seen as a lost-cause news operation has now won an award. Former KXAS morning anchor Scott Friedman, who now runs the station's investigative unit has now won the Texas Freedom Of Information Award for his story on triple-digit speeders.

"The risk of serious injury and death goes up dramatically when speeds are over 100 mph," Friedman said in a publicity release. "Yet we found our justice system sometimes treats those speeders no differently than someone caught driving 7 mph over the limit."

Some are calling KXAS winning this award 'a shot fired over WFAA's bow'... /munches on popcorn and stays tuned...

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WKRG 5pm anchor Jessica Taloney will be stepping down soon because she is expecting her first child due in July.

http://classic.lagniappemobile.com/article.asp?articleID=5347&sid=18

 

I wonder if WKRG will replace her with a cardboard cutout, like they did when morning anchor Devon Walsh was out on maternity leave last year ;)

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Veteran anchor Bob Howell has announced his retirement from WSFA, the NBC-affiliate in Montgomery.

Howell joined the station as the weekday evening anchor in 1976. He left the station in 1998, but returned in 2004 to anchor the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts.

“His wisdom, demeanor and desire to be the best have kept this station on top during all the years he has been associated with it,” vice president and general manager Collin R. Gaston said in a statement. “We wish him continued success and happiness in the future and look forward to having him back as often as we can.”

Howell will continue to anchor through the May ratings period and will officially retire on June 1.

Don Germaise, the first reporter hired at Tampa Bay’s WFTS, has announced that he will retire in May.

“There’s no replacing a Don Germaise,” WFTS news director Doug Culver told Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times. He said a tribute is planned for Germaise, who will work his last day at the station on May 25.

Germaise was hired in 1994 at the Tampa Bay ABC-affiliate. He said the decision to leave was his own, and he plans to volunteer for local charities after leaving the station.

“I’m lucky enough that I don’t have to work,” he said. “Now I feel I owe it to the community to give back.”

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Didn't want to create a new thread for this but wanted to note WHBQ's interesting campaign the past two weeks touting a "major" announcement they are supposedly making tomorrow on Good Morning Memphis. Don't know what it is, and it will almost surely be underwhelming, but their method of promotions for it has been rather creative and does have a lot of people talking, especially on social media. They've been running numerous promos both on-air and through social media, and have been using a TMZ-style format with the actual TMZ staff doing intros to fake segments with "paparazzi" bombarding Fox 13 staff with questions about the impending announcement.

 

Its generated a fair amount of buzz on social media, especially today with a lot of people guessing what the announcement will be, from staff changes to location changes and various other wild and humorous speculation. Like said, I'm guessing this "major" change will be no big deal at all, but it has accomplished its objective it seems, just in time for the start of sweeps tomorrow. If its something truly major, I'll report back.

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Didn't want to create a new thread for this but wanted to note WHBQ's interesting campaign the past two weeks touting a "major" announcement they are supposedly making tomorrow on Good Morning Memphis. Don't know what it is, and it will almost surely be underwhelming, but their method of promotions for it has been rather creative and does have a lot of people talking, especially on social media. They've been running numerous promos both on-air and through social media, and have been using a TMZ-style format with the actual TMZ staff doing intros to fake segments with "paparazzi" bombarding Fox 13 staff with questions about the impending announcement.

 

Its generated a fair amount of buzz on social media, especially today with a lot of people guessing what the announcement will be, from staff changes to location changes and various other wild and humorous speculation. Like said, I'm guessing this "major" change will be no big deal at all, but it has accomplished its objective it seems, just in time for the start of sweeps tomorrow. If its something truly major, I'll report back.

Seems interesting.

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/the-big-announcement-is-coming!-mfo-20120425

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Didn't want to create a new thread for this but wanted to note WHBQ's interesting campaign the past two weeks touting a "major" announcement they are supposedly making tomorrow on Good Morning Memphis. Don't know what it is, and it will almost surely be underwhelming, but their method of promotions for it has been rather creative and does have a lot of people talking, especially on social media. They've been running numerous promos both on-air and through social media, and have been using a TMZ-style format with the actual TMZ staff doing intros to fake segments with "paparazzi" bombarding Fox 13 staff with questions about the impending announcement.

 

Its generated a fair amount of buzz on social media, especially today with a lot of people guessing what the announcement will be, from staff changes to location changes and various other wild and humorous speculation. Like said, I'm guessing this "major" change will be no big deal at all, but it has accomplished its objective it seems, just in time for the start of sweeps tomorrow. If its something truly major, I'll report back.

As it turns out, the big announcement was a major anchor shakeup at WHBQ with the return of Ernie Freeman and the addition of Joey Sulipeck to mornings alongside Valerie Calhoun from 6 to 10AM. Lauren Johnson, Jason Carter (who recently returned to Memphis), and Ed Echols will be doing mornings from 4:30 to 6AM. Greg Coy has been moved to evenings at 5:00 alongside Mearl Purvis (who will still be doing the 5:00 & 9:00 shows), with Darrell Greene now doing the 9:00 & 10:00 newscasts (replacing Freeman). Meteorologist Brian Basham will replace Sulipeck on the nightside shows. Don't know if there will be any changes to the midday newscast.

 

EDIT: No changes were made to the midday newscasts (it only competes with WPTY during the 11:00 hour).

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Indeed some rather notable anchor shifts, though as expected this isn't the massive or shocking news that they hyped it up to be yesterday.

 

Seems to be an increasing trend that stations are trying to move the chief meteorologist to the morning periods as their importance rises. Not sure how I feel about that, one thing I'm interested in is to see how its handled in the next significant weather event to impact the market (though 13 has long been the least aggressive in the market for that type of coverage).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tribune Broadcasting's Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN is set to debut a 6 p.m. newscast on September 10, the station announced Tuesday; the addition will create a three-hour block of local news from 4-7 p.m. each weekday and add the only local news offering in the Indianapolis market during the 6:30 p.m. half-hour, when national network newscasts air on NBC affiliate WTHR, CBS affiliate WISH-TV and ABC affiliate WRTV. The addition of the 6 p.m. newscast will increase the amount of local newscasts on the station to 60 hours per week. Plans to add a 6 p.m. news hour on WXIN have been in the works since 2010, as confirmed by an October 2010 interview in the Indianapolis Business Journal by station general manager Jerry Martin, who helped increase the amount of local newscasts on the station from just a nightly half-hour 10 p.m. newscast and a three-hour weekday morning newscast to include an additional three hours on weekday mornings (4-5 and 9-10 a.m.), two hour-long late afternoon/early evening newscasts at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. and four hours of news on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

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  • 2 weeks later...

WTVJ announced today that Adam Kuperstein will join Jackie Nespral as anchor of the NBC station’s 5, 6, and 11 p.m. newscasts.

Kuperstein, who has been with WTVJ since 2005, has transitioned to the news desk over the last several months while serving as the station’s weekend sports anchor and weekday sports reporter. For the past six years, he has also co-hosted WTVJ’s Sunday night sports show.

“This is an incredible honor for me,” Kuperstein said. “I am excited to have the opportunity to come into our viewers’ homes in this new role and look forward to informing and serving the South Florida community for many years.”

Before joining WTVJ, Kuperstein served as the weekend sports anchor at Toledo Fox-affiliate WUPW. Prior to that, he was the weekend sports anchor at WHIZ, the NBC-affiliate in Zanesville, OH.

In December, Kuperstein began anchoring WTVJ’s weekend morning newscasts.

In addition to Kuperstein’s promotion, WTVJ announced two other staff moves today. Trina Robinson is moving from the station’s 11 a.m. newscast to anchor the news at 5:30 p.m., and morning anchor Pam Giganti will add the 11 a.m. newscast to her list of duties.

“I am delighted to announce these expanded roles for three individuals so dedicated and passionate about what they do,” WTVJ president and general manager Manuel Martinez said, announcing the moves. “These changes to our anchor line-up will continue to position NBC 6 in line to serve our community and our viewers.”

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WWL Northshore Bureau chief Doug Mouton is now the station's new sports director. He will anchor all weekday evening and nighttime newscasts as well as "Fourth Down on 4".

 

In addition, former New Orleans Saint Darren Sharper joins the station as the Saints' football analyst.

 

http://www.wwltv.com/sports/black-and-gold/Darren-Sharper-added-to-WWL-TV-sports-team-Doug-Mouton-named-Sports-Director-151733655.html

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Here we go again...

 

A few weeks after WHBQ's "big announcement" which ended up being anchor switches at several of its newscasts, two Memphis stations are touting big announcements about one of their main personalities tonight at 10. At WMC, its Dave Brown, and at WREG, Claudia Barr. Both could conceivably be about pending retirement, especially Dave Brown who's been on Memphis TV for nearly 40 years, but will have to again play skeptic given we're at the end of sweeps and 3/5 are very very close in the 10 PM ratings so far this month. Both have gotten a good amount of buzz on social media today like WHBQ had with theirs.

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Here we go again...

 

A few weeks after WHBQ's "big announcement" which ended up being anchor switches at several of its newscasts, two Memphis stations are touting big announcements about one of their main personalities tonight at 10. At WMC, its Dave Brown, and at WREG, Claudia Barr. Both could conceivably be about pending retirement, especially Dave Brown who's been on Memphis TV for nearly 40 years, but will have to again play skeptic given we're at the end of sweeps and 3/5 are very very close in the 10 PM ratings so far this month. Both have gotten a good amount of buzz on social media today like WHBQ had with theirs.

I saw both "big announcements", and both of them were disappointments with one of them was just another sweeps gimmick.

 

Dave Brown, who has been in broadcasting for 50 years, will be sticking around at WMC-TV for at least a couple more years even though he's close to retirement age as was mentioned on air, so that was a bummer way to end an otherwise nice tribute to him. WREG, on the other hand, announced a shopping spree at a luxury retailer as the last part of their Prize Box promotion, and included Claudia Barr "showing off" a pair of black Christian Louboutin heels with her hands.

 

I got nothing else to say. :bang:

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LOL, couldn't have gone much better. WMC's announcement was that Dave Brown was staying a couple more years (I had heard earlier in the evening that he signed a 2-year extension with plans to leave after that), but WREG? Yes, Claudia Barr was excited to announce that one lucky person will be the recipient of a shoe shopping giveaway at a high-end store! Ridiculous on both accounts, but at least there was appropriate background to Dave Brown's with tonight his 35-year anninversary at WMC and 50th year in radio/TV broadcasting coming up in a few weeks.

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I saw both "big announcements", and both of them were disappointments with one being another sweeps gimmick.

 

Dave Brown, who has been in broadcasting for 50 years, will be sticking around at WMC-TV for at least a couple more years even though he's close to retirement age as was mentioned on air, so that was a bummer. WREG, on the other hand, announced a shopping spree at a luxury retailer as the last part of their Prize Box promotion, and included Claudia Barr "showing off" a pair of black Christian Louboutin heels with her hands.

 

I got nothing else to say. :bang:

 

Ha! We posted at about the same second.

 

I don't give a lot of grief to Dave Brown's announcement, the fact is he is a Memphis institution and when he does retire, it will be a huge deal. But WREG's stunt was a tasteless, classless gimmick rushed together to try and draw away viewers from WMC on one of the last night of sweeps, likely not knowing whether a real retirement announcement was coming from Brown. Just totally ridiculous - WREG loses a lot of respect for that one.

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Some people understandably mad at WMC for the DB "announcement" but the real fury is for those few (and it seemed by FAR most people tuned to WMC) that chose to watch WREG tonight. Twitter and 3's FB page is hilarious.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yetta Gibson, who has worked as a reporter and morning field anchor for KTVK since 2010, has been promoted to evening anchor at the Phoenix independent station.

Beginning Monday, Gibson will anchor KTVK’s 6 p.m. newscast alongside Fields Moseley, and solo anchor the station’s 10 p.m. news.

“Can’t wait 2 work w/u!” Gibson tweeted to Moseley on Wednesday.

As part of KTVK’s evening shuffle, Moseley and Carey Pena will move from 10 p.m. to co-anchor the station’s hour-long 9 p.m. newscast. Pena will also host “Politics Unplugged,” KTVK’s weekly public affairs show.

Patti Kirkpatrick will stay on as anchor of KTVK’s 4:30, 5:00, and 5:30 p.m. newscasts.

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