T.L. Hughes

Melissa Newton announced on her Twitter account on Thursday (October 11) that she will be leaving Dallas CBS owned-and-operated station KTVT, where she has been a morning reporter since June 2009, to join her husband in Oklahoma City. Newton married Damon Lane on September 22, Lane has been a meteorologist for KOCO in Oklahoma City since August 2009, initially seen on the station's weekend morning newscasts before moving to the weekday morning show the following year. He has reportedly been promoted to chief meteorologist at KOCO, a position that has been open since Rick Mitchell left the Hearst Television-owned ABC affiliate in August after an 18-year run at the station to become the 4 and 10 p.m. meteorologist at Fort Worth-based NBC station KXAS (in which Mitchell will assume the chief meteorologist position currently held by David Finfrock after Finfrock retires following the 2018 expiration of his current contract). Newton’s last day at KTVT will be on November 21. This will be Newton's second go-around in Oklahoma City as she previously worked in the market for brief stints at two stations: first as weekend anchor/reporter at Sinclair Broadcast Group's Fox affiliate KOKH and then for an even shorter-lived reporting stint at KOCO, both between 2006 and 2008. David Bark, author of the UncleBarky.com blog, reports that there are sources that claim that Newton is being courted by two of the four local news outlets in the area to become a full-time anchor, meaning that she could rejoin KOCO or KOKH, or even join CBS affiliate KWTV or NBC affiliate KFOR.

Matt Turner. anchor and reporter at CBS affiliate KTHV in Little Rock, died Saturday evening (October 6) at the age of 32. Turner had only been working as a weekday morning anchor for the Gannett-owned station since joining the station in September from at NBC affiliate KNWA/Rogers (Fort Smith-Fayetteville). Turner died in an accident around 7:30 p.m. as he and his family were traveling to visit family in his hometown of Arkadelphia, Arkansas (something Turner often did for the first two years after the death of his father, who served as a pastor at 3rd Street Baptist Church in Arkadelphia) in separate vehicles. His Chevy Tahoe ran off of Interstate 30, near the Highway 70 exit in Saline County, Arkansas (outside of Benton), fallling 400 feet below and hit the concrete base of a highway sign. A graduate of Ouachita Baptist University, Turner started his broadcasting career at KNWA in 2003 as a sports anchor/reporter, before transitioning to news as a primary anchor in 2006. Turner's family released a statement on the tragedy Sunday morning (October 7): TVNewsTalk sends our heartfelt condolences to those Turner is survived by: his wife Julee and 10-month-old daughter Preslee Bell, as well as his mother, Lisa, and brother Andy.

Scott Michael Trager, weekday morning anchor at WWTV/WWUP and WFQX-TV/WFUP in Cadillac, Michigan, died suddenly Wednesday morning (September 26) at age 46. Trager had been anchor of Michigan This Morning at the CBS affiliates owned and Fox affiliate managed by Heritage Broadcasting Group (WFQX-TV/WFUP, which Heritage began managing alongside the CBS stations in October 2007 under a shared services agreement, began airing an extension of the program in 2008). Trager started with WWTV/WWUP in 1990 as the station's sports director, before transitioning to news anchor in 1998. During Trager's tenure as sports director, he helped create the station's 11 p.m. sports wrap-up segment Sports Overtime, which continues to air in the present day. Reacting to the news of Trager's death, WWTV/WWUP general manager Bill Kring said in a statement: Trager leaves behind a wife and three children (all of whom are triplets). All of us at TVNewsTalk send our condolences to the Trager family at this difficult time.

Colorado Springs station KKTV has purchased a building from local architect James Nakai, that will serve as a new studio facility for the Gray Television CBS affiliate. The station will relocate from its current studios on Nevada and Cascade Avenues to the new facility on East Colorado Avenue in early 2013. Gray has enlisted Nakai to assist in the redesign of the building.

WDRB, the Block Communications-owned Fox affiliate in Louisville, Kentucky, will produce a new half-hour 7 p.m. newscast on CW affiliate WBKI (which Block will operate under a pending shared services agreement with owner LM Communications as part of a virtual triopoly that also involves Block-owned MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYO). The newscast debuts September 17, and will replace an existing 10 p.m. newscast produced by Belo-owned ABC affiliate WHAS-TV.

NY1 reporter Vivian Lee was reportedly attacked Friday morning while preparing to do a story in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn by a woman adorned with a white sheet (with a T-shirt underneath it, as well as sweatpants and green flip-flops) who entered into a NY1 news van, who was caught using Lee’s make-up and eating snacks. Lee asked the woman to leave, and the woman allegedly swung at Lee and not long afterward, punched Lee in the neck. The driver of the vehicle apprehended the attacker until authorities arrived. The story Lee was working on at the time the incident occurred was about a 61-year-old man that died Thursday night after part of a church steeple fell onto a street after it was struck by lightning during a line of strong to severe thunderstorms that moved through the Tri-State area that evening.

Chad Krispinsky, weekend sports anchor at ABC affiliate WYTV in Youngstown, Ohio, has been arrested for the second time on a DUI complaint. At around 2:25 a.m. ET last Thursday morning (June 1), A police officer in Krispinsky's hometown of Boardman, Ohio, saw Krispinsky’s car drifting partially into the center of the road on Market Street near McClurg Road in the southern part of town, but did not pull over Krispinsky’s car. The officer later noticed Krispinsky a short while later walking on Roche Way (a few miles northwest) and while speaking with him, detected the smell of alcohol on Krispinsky’s breath. Krispinsky refused to take a Breathalyzer test and was arrested, with his license suspended for one year. 34-year-old Krispinsky was scheduled to be arraigned last Friday in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman, however court records don’t indicate if he attended the hearing. Krispinsky's first run-in with the law occurred In August 2010, when he pleaded guilty in a Canfield court to an amended charge of failure to maintain physical control of his motor vehicle after registering a 0.181 on a Breathalyzer test, more than twice the legal limit of .08.

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.

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.

Sinclair Broadcast Group flagship WBFF in Baltimore will expand its early evening news offerings starting on April 9, by adding an additional half-hour newscast at 5 p.m. Jeff Barnd and Jennifer Gilbert, who anchor the 5:30, 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts on weeknights, will anchor the newscast. Judge Judy, which currently airs in the 5 p.m. timeslot will move back one hour to 4 p.m. with the change. Side note: Out of the 17 Fox affiliates that Sinclair owns and/or operates, WBFF is currently the only one with early evening newscasts (its existing 5:30 p.m. newscast, which will continue with the expansion, and be treated as a separate newscast despite having the same anchor team according to WBFF/WNUV general manager Bill Fanshawe, began in January 2005); all other Fox stations owned/managed by Sinclair carry only weekday morning and/or nightly late evening newscasts (especially the three other in-house news operations among the group's Fox affiliates: KOKH/Oklahoma City, WZTV/Nashville and KABB/San Antonio).

Newport Television's Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX is making changes to its anchor lineup, as it tries to get out of its distant fourth place position in news, particularly among the area's late newscasts. The station has put Brent Hunsaker and Kylie Conway as its 10 p.m. anchor team; Conway, who had been anchoring the 9 p.m. newscast on KUCW, will no longer anchor the newscast as it will be cancelled following this Friday's (December 9) edition, due to low ratings (this leaves Fox affiliate KSTU with the only live primetime newscasts in the 9 p.m. slot in the market). December 9th will also be weeknight anchor Karen Carlson's last day with KTVX, Carlson is expecting her first child and will be returning to Los Angeles to become a stay-at-home mom. Anchor Robert Maxwell's contract was not renewed by the station. In addition, KTVX will expand its 4 p.m. newscast to one hour beginning January 9; the 5 p.m. newcast will be anchored by current "Good Morning Utah" anchor Don Hudson and former KXAS Dallas reporter Kim Fischer starting December 12; former KUSI San Diego anchor Dan Plante will take Hudson's place on "Good Morning Utah". Steve Stadelman, weekday morning and 5 p.m. anchor at Nexstar Broadcasting's Rockford, Illinois ABC affiliate WTVO, has filed paperwork to run for state Senate in Illinois' 34th district. WTVO news director Kent Harrell confirmed to "Rockford Register Star" political editor Chuck Sweeny that Stadelman will be leaving the station.

Stacey Bell is leaving Local TV, LLC-owned WJW in Cleveland, effective with tonight's (Wednesday's) 10 p.m. newscast; Bell has been with the Fox affiliate since 1998, as a reporter for the station's weekday morning newscast, before being promoted to 5 p.m. anchor in 2000, and 10 p.m. anchor five years later. Bell was raised in Arkansas (though was born in Memphis, Tennessee), eventually attending the University of Central Arkansas, where she earned a bachelor's degree in mass communications. It is unclear who will join Bill Martin as his co-anchor for the 10 p.m. newscast after Bell's departure, though The Plain Dealer reports that Tracy McCool is a potential candidate.

Austin, Texas NBC affiliate KXAN-TV has named Chris Willis the lead investigative reporter for the station's investigative unit. Willis currently serves as co-anchor of "KXAN News Today", the weekday 4:30-7 a.m. newscast, having anchored that newscast from 1999 to 2005, and again since 2007; between his morning anchor stints, he also served as the station's senior correspondent from 2005 to 2007. Before joining KXAN, Willis was an evening anchor at ABC affiliate WDEF in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and has served as news director for CBS affiliate KSWT in Yuma, Arizona and for Big Sky Broadcasting/KB Media in Helena, Montana.

Don Hickman, former anchor/reporter at Sinclair Broadcast Group's Springfield, Illinois ABC station WICS, died of natural causes Saturday at the age of 74. Hickman was known as the station’s main news anchor from 1972 to 2001, while it was still an NBC affiliate, and also served as news director for the last six years of his WICS tenure. After leaving the station, Hickman co-founded and served as the publisher for the bi-monthly "Springfield Scene Magazine", which focuses on social events and profiles of prominent people in Central Illinois. Hickman also ran for mayor of Springfield in 2003, but finished fourth in a five-candidate primary, failing to make the general election ballot. He attended Union University in Jackson, Tennessee for two days, only to drop out to take a full-time job at a local radio station and moved to television in 1957; on April 4, 1968, while a reporter at Memphis NBC affiliate WMC-TV was the first reporter to break the news of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. TVNewsCheck sends our condolences to Hickman's family, including his wife Betty, his sons Barry and Todd, and several grandchildren.

Scott Cody will be leaving WWL-TV, Belo Corporation's New Orleans CBS affiliate, as a sports anchor effective next week; Cody, who regularly works as a weekend evening sports anchor, will have his last on-air shift on Wednesday, November 23; after that, Cody will move behind-the-scenes, remaining with the station as part of its sales department. Cody told the Times-Picayune newspaprer, that his move from sports to sales, is in order to spend more time with his family, wife Jill Hezeau (who works as a weekday morning reporter at WWL) and their children. Hearst Television's Manchester, New Hampshire ABC affiliate WMUR-TV has announced it will debut a weeknight 10 p.m. newscast. The newscast, set to start in January 2012, will air on WMUR digital subchannel 9.2, which carries programming from MeTV, Weigel Broadcasting's classic television network ("MeTV New Hampshire" is also seen on Comcast channel 298 in Manchester or 308 in some areas). Tom Griffith and Tiffany Eddy will serve as anchors for the newscast with weather forecasts from chief meteorologist Mike Haddad and sports with Jamie Staton, WMUR's sports director. WMUR will increase its news output from 28.5 hours a week to 34 hours as a result (likely meaning the newscast will run six nights a week, one hour Monday-Fridays and a half-hour on Saturday or Sunday nights). Amy Mearkle is leaving Johnstown/Altoona/State College, Pennsylvania station WTAJ-TV, effective November 23. Mearkle, who has been with the Nexstar-owned CBS affiliate since 1999, has taken a job as director of marketing and advertising for DelGrosso's Amusement Park, located in the Altoona suburb of Tipton, Pennsylvania. Mearkle started at WTAJ as a reporter covering nearby Bedford County, Pennsylvania in 1999, before being promoted to anchor of the station's Saturday morning newscast, and then being promoted to weekday morning anchor in March 2001.

San Diego NBC station KNSD has announced that Catherine Garcia has been promoted to weeknight anchor, starting December 5. Garcia joined KNSD as a weekend anchor in 2003, and now serves as anchor for the station's noon and 4 p.m. newscasts, as well as a feature reporter with the “San Diego Explained” segments seen during the 6 p.m. newscast. She replaces Susan Taylor, who earlier in the fall had announced that she was leaving the station as its weeknight anchor, Taylor's last night at the station will be on December 2. Gannett's Denver duopoly KUSA/KTVD has announced that Kim Christiansen, who has been with NBC affiliate KUSA since 1982, as the new co-anchor for the weeknight editions of the KUSA-produced 9 p.m. newscast for sister MyNetworkTV affiliate KTVD, effective immediately; Christiansen will continue to co-anchor with Mark Koebrich on KUSA's 4 p.m. newscast on weekdays. Christiansen replaces Bazi Kanani, who left the station to accept a job as a digital reporter for ABC News based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Erin Kienzle, weekend morning meteorologist for Hearst Television's WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, has announced she'll be leaving the ABC affiliate; her final day at the station is New Year's Eve (December 31), she is returning to Charleston, South Carolina (where she previously worked for the area's Raycom-owned CBS affiliate WCSC-TV in Charleston), where her husband Nick has family living in the area and a new job (the couple has a one-year-old daughter). Michael Hayes, president and general manager of WTAE, announced that a search will soon be underway for Kienzle's replacement, with meteorologists already working for other Hearst stations also eligible.

Meteorologist A.J. Colby has moved from one Cleveland area station to another, Colby (who left Gannett-owned NBC affiliate WKYC Sunday, after having worked without a contract since May, when he was originally set to leave the station) has returned to Local TV, LLC-owned Fox affiliate WJW; starting this Saturday, Colby will be the station's weekend morning meteorologist. Colby's first stint at WJW began as a fill-in meteorologist in 1994, before moving to Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was a meteorologist at NBC affiliate WICU; the native of suburban Ashtabula returned to Cleveland and WJW in April 2000, before being let go by the station in 2003; he then worked for a short time at Scripps-owned ABC affiliate WEWS, before becoming a freelance contributor at WKYC in January 2005, and was promoted to full-time weekend and noon meteorologist in 2007. Hearst Television's Orlando NBC affiliate WESH has hired Meredith McDonough, who joined the station today as a general assignment reporter for its weekday newscasts and anchor for the weekend evening newscasts. From 2007 to 2011, McDonough was an anchor and reporter for sister station and ABC affiliate WPBF in West Palm Beach, and before then, was a reporter/anchor at Fox affiliate WWCP/ABC affiliate WATM in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

CBS affiliate WINK-TV in Fort Myers, Florida has added two reporters to its news staff. Colby Robertson joins the station as freelance reporter for the station's Collier County bureau. The University of Miami graduate has previously worked as a State Capitol reporter at Quincy Newspapers' ABC affiliate WKOW-TV in Madison, Wisconsin. Amanda Hall, another University of Florida grad, has also joined as part of the Collier County bureau; she previously worked at Nexstar Broadcasting's ABC affiliate WDHN-TV in Dothan, Alabama.

Andrea Cambern, a twenty year veteran of Dispatch Broadcasting's CBS affiliate WBNS in Columbus, Ohio, has announced that she will be stepping down from the anchor desk. However it will be several months before that happens, her final broadcast will be the 6 p.m. newscast on May 23, 2012. Cambern joined WBNS in 1991, after working at television stations in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona; she has been paired alongside Jerry Revish as anchors of the station's weeknight newscasts for about 18 years. Tom Griesdorn, president and general manager of WBNS has announced that a search for Cambern's replacement will begin immediately. Newport Television CBS affiliate WKRC in Cincinnati is adding Cincinnati native Scott Dimmich to its weather team as a weekend evening meteorologist, he starts the week of November 7. Dimmich formerly was a meteorologist at Nexstar Broadcasting's ABC affiliate WEHT in Evansville, Indiana, for the station's weekday morning newscast. Dimmich interned in the weather department at WKRC while attending Penn State University. He previously worked as a meteorologist for Weather World, a statewide science magazine in Pennsylvania, and as a weekday meteorologist at CBS affiliate WYMT in Hazard, Kentucky.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has named director of sales Kent Crawford as general manager of the duopoly of CBS affiliate KUTV and MyNetworkTV affiliate KMYU in Salt Lake City; Sinclair is in the process of purchasing the stations from Four Points Media Group. Crawford succeeds Steve Carlston, who left in September to become president/general manager at NBC O&O KNBC in Los Angeles.

Erin Kennedy is leaving LIN TV's Providence virtual duopoly of CBS affiliate WPRI and Fox affiliate WNAC; Kennedy served as co-anchor for the 5:30 p.m. newscast on WPRI, and the WPRI-produced 10 p.m. newscast on WNAC, and was with the station since December of 2005. Another LIN TV station has been shifting many veteran staffers to different shifts, a move by station management according to the "Buffalo News" that appears to be targeting veteran on-air staffers, according to multiple sources at WIVB. Buffalo CBS affiliate WIVB-TV meteorologist Mike Cejka was moved from weekday mornings to weekend evenings is the latest personnel. Cejka switched shifts with Amelia Segal, who started at the station in March of 2010, as meterologist for the station's weekday morning newscast “Wake Up!”. According to the "Buffalo News" story, Cejka had been told his new assignment would be temporary, but station sources believe he may be transitioned into being a multimedia journalist, reporting, shooting and editing stories. The same sources say that senior reporter Rich Newberg (a multiple Emmy winner who has been with WIVB since September 1978, and was named senior correspondent in 1999) is also reportedly being “pushed” by station management to shoot and edit new video. Two veteran reporters and one anchor have also been left or been let go in the past year: reporters Lorey Schultz (who left earlier this month, and is now assistant director of communications and marketing for the City of Buffalo) and Tricia Cruz (who left in March), and anchor Mylous Hairston (whose contract was bought out in February). WHDT, a television station in West Palm Beach, Florida owned by Günter Marksteiner, and known for being the first digital-only television station in the United States, has announced that it will drop its affiliation with the Retro Television Network and affiliate with the Weather Nation network effective this weekend. This is another major blow to RTV (which had WHDT as the network's only affiliate to carry its programming in HD, solely consisting of more recent series provided by RTV sister network Tuff TV, both networks are owned by Luken Communications), which has lost numerous affiliates in the past year-and-a-half culminating in Media General's announcement last month to replace it on most of its stations with RTV competitors Me-TV (owned by Weigel Broadcasting and distributed by MGM) and Antenna TV (owned by Tribune Company), which also offer classic television series and signed on after RTV's 2008 debut. Within the same time frame, RTV has also lost NBC Universal Television Distribution and CBS Television Distribution as program suppliers (Sony Pictures Television, which is the primary program distributor for Antenna TV is currently RTV's only major program supplier, the other program suppliers for the network are smaller companies such as Classic Media, Peter Rodgers Organization, Stay Creepy Productions and even Granite Broadcasting). Weather Nation was started by Paul Douglas, a former meteorologist at KARE in Minneapolis (KARE is the flagship station for the Weather Nation service as it carries a localized version of the service on its second digital channel).

Tampa Fox O&O WTVT has promoted general assignment reporter Kristin Wright at WTVT to anchor of the weekend 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts. She says she will still be reporting for three days a week. Wright had been filling in on the weekend evening newscasts for the past few weeks, following the departure of Nerissa Prest. Wright will also continue to report during the evening newscasts three days a week. Wright joined WTVT in March 2008; before that, she worked as a weekend anchor/reporter at Allbritton Communications' ABC affiliate WHTM-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2008; and was a weekday morning anchor/general assignment reporter at Newport Television's ABC affiliate WIVT and NBC affiliate WBGH-CA in Binghamton, New York; she began her television career as a news writer for Post-Newsweek's NBC affiliate WDIV in Detroit.

CBS O&O KTVT in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has named Keith Garvin as its new co-anchor for its weekday morning newscast. Garvin, who started with the station and sister independent station KTXA in 2009 as anchor for "First in Prime", the recently-cancelled early evening newscast on KTXA (which has since been replaced in its former 7-9 p.m. timeslot by a local hour-long sports program hosed by KTVT sports anchor Gina Miller during the 7 p.m. hour and reruns of ''America's Funniest Home Videos'' in the 8 p.m. hour) replaces Scott Sams, whose contract was not renewed with the station in April (Sams now works at KTVT/KTXA's sister radio station KRLD-AM, also owned by CBS Corporation).

Lee Ranson, weeknight weather anchor at Granite Broadcasting's NBC affiliate WEEK-TV in Peoria, Illinois, has announced his retirement from the station. Originally a sports anchor for sister ABC affiliate WHOI, Ranson moved to weather in 1971, starting as an emergency fill-in after then-WHOI weatherman Rollie Keith fell ill, before becoming a full-time weather anchor.