T.L. Hughes

NBC affiliate KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City is debuting a new 4 p.m. newscast in September, tentatively titled the 4 O'Clock News (intended to play on the station's over-the-air virtual channel number), that will directly compete against a long-running 4 p.m. newscast on CBS affiliate KWTV. Meg Alexander, who currently anchors the 5 and 6:30 p.m. newscasts, will serve as principal anchor. It is unclear whether this means that the 4:30 p.m. newscast is being merged with the new half-hour which would likely give the station a three hour block of local and national news from 4-7 p.m., or the 4:30 p.m. newscast, which is anchored by 6 and 10 p.m. anchor Linda Cavanaugh is being dropped altogether. This would increase the station's weekly news output from 32½ to 35 hours a week. Jeopardy! currently airs at 4 p.m., and has aired on the station since 1999, when it picked up the show from KWTV, after it expanded its half-hour 4:30 p.m. newscast to a one-hour newscast at 4 p.m.

A station in Victoria, Texas will switch its network affiliation on September 12, KXTS-LP will drop its affiliation with MyNetworkTV to become the market's CBS affiliate. Owned by Saga Communications (which controls six of the market's eight television stations; in addition to KXTS, Saga also owns ABC affiliate KAVU, NBC affiliate KMOL-LP, Univision affiliate KUNU-LP and Telemundo affiliate KVTX-LP, and operates Surtsey Media-owned Fox affiliate KVCT), KXTS-LP will be the first CBS affiliate for the Victoria market.

Fox affiliate WFLX in West Palm Beach, Florida will debut a 4 p.m. newscast this fall (a story on TVNewsCheck.com does not specify what date it will premiere or who will anchor it); the newscast will be produced by WPTV, the Scripps-owned NBC affiliate, who operates WFLX under a shared services agreement with WFLX's owner Raycom Media.The timeslot is unusual placement for a Fox station whose newscasts are produced under a news share agreement given that only two other Fox stations whose local news are produced under such an agreement carries a late afternoon/early evening newscast: Nexstar's WQRF in Rockford, Illinois (which has a 6:30 p.m. newscast produced by co-managed ABC affiliate WTVO) and Journal Broadcast Group's WSYM in Lansing, Michigan (which carries a 5:30 p.m. newscast, produced by Gray Television's NBC affiliate WILX). Otherwise, for unknown reasons, no other Fox affiliate who runs outsourced newscasts carries newscasts outside of weekday mornings and nightly or weeknightly primetime.

Raleigh, North Carolina Univision O&O WUVC will debut the first Spanish-language newscast in the state of North Carolina. The station, one of the few stations owned by Univision Communications without any local newscasts, will debut the weeknight-only Noticias 40, on August 29 at 6 p.m. (there apparently will be no 11 p.m. newscast). It will be anchored by Edwin Pitti and Jaime Zea.

Jim Van Fleet, the weekday morning meteorologist for Fox O&O WOFL Orlando's Good Day for the last 10 years is leaving the station. Van Fleet will remain in Florida, as chief meteorologist at Gannett's CBS affiliate WTSP in Tampa starting in December. Roanoke, Virginia NBC affiliate WSLS is revamping another one of its local programs, its social media-friendly 7 p.m. newscast WSLS at 7 is being revamped in a new format in September as a more traditional local newscast (last week, WSLS announced it was dropping the noon talk show Our Blue Ridge, an revamping it into a localized version of owner Media General's Tampa-based talk/lifestyle program Daytime, which is set to debut in September); with the change, Meagan Farley will no longer anchor the newscast and has also been let go by WSLS.

Lexington, Kentucky CBS affiliate WKYT is adding a 10 a.m. newscast starting on September 12, the half-hour newscast will be anchored by noon anchors Bill Bryant and Barbara Bailey, with weather provided by weekday morning and noon meteorologist Todd Borek. This change, along with the already announced addition of Anderson Cooper's new daytime talker Anderson in the 4 p.m. timeslot that Oprah will vacate, will cause a shuffle in WKYT's daytime lineup. The Bold and the Beautiful will air following the newscast at 10:30 (moving there from 1:30 p.m.), while The Young and the Restless will go from a day-behind airing to a same-day airing when it moves from 9 a.m. (Live with Regis and Kelly will move backward one hour into Y&R's current 9 a.m. slot) to 1 p.m., replacing the now-cancelled syndicated version of Don't Forget the Lyrics! and B&B.

A 300 ft. radio/television tower located outside the studios of Tulsa, Oklahoma's Fox-MyNetworkTV duopoly KOKI/KMYT and several radio stations owned by former KOKI/KMYT owner Clear Channel has an unexpected resident, as a 25-year-old man has perched himself on the lower portion of the tower (moving between 70 and 100 ft. since climbing up the tower) since Thursday, even weathering strong-to-severe storms that had moved through the area on Thursday, Friday morning and Friday night on the tower. The man, identified as William Sturdivant, is according to KOKI and Oklahoma City's KWTV to have a history of criminal offenses, a history of mental illness, is said to have other personal issues and is described as "not suicidal". The standoff, now in its fifth day, is reported to be the longest in the history of the Tulsa Police Department. The man apparently has enough endurance to stay there for even longer, especially given that in the past, the man actually somehow managed to make a 200+ mile trek from Tulsa to Dallas on foot. Full main story: http://www.fox23.com...t_N2MJ6Peg.cspx Additional links: http://www.fox23.com...1kKGHpV-Vw.cspx and http://www.fox23.com...EtSAS6ochg.cspx On September 12, Nexstar Broadcasting/Mission Broadcasting's virtual duopoly in Utica, New York will broadcast local news for the first time since 2003. ABC affiliate WUTR will air newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m., while Fox affiliate WFXV will air a 10 p.m. newscast; while this will end NBC affiliate WKTV's local news monopoly in that market, WKTV will still be the only station to carry weekend newscasts, though WUTR/WFXV will be the first in the Utica market to carry local news in high definition with the launch of its joint news department. Finally, in El Paso, Hema Mullur will leave area Fox affiliate KFOX as its 6 and 9 p.m. anchor on August 26; she will be moving to a station in a top-20 market, which was not revealed; a replacement for her position is currently being sought out.

Like its Miami sister station WSVN, WHDH in Boston is also dumping Live with Regis and Kelly for a 9 a.m. newscast. An hour-long extension of Today in New England will debut starting next Monday, August 22; Today in New England's existing 5-7 a.m. team of Anne Allred, Adam Williams and meteorologist Dylan Dreyer will anchor the newscast. WHDH is dropping Live reportedly due to the show's declining ratings in the Boston area, but ABC affiliate WCVB has picked it up and will begin carrying it the same day as the launch of Today in New England at 9 a.m.

Greenville, North Carolina ABC affiliate WCTI will launch a 5:30 p.m. newscast this Monday, which will be anchored by Brian North and Jaime McCutcheon. WSMV, the NBC affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee has announced that it will become the newest partner station in the WeatherBug network; WeatherBug is a national network of weather observation sites that provide real-time local weather information from area schools, public buildings and recreational sites. The most notable partner station in the WeatherBug network is WGN-TV Chicago, WeatherBug observations from the WGN broadcast viewing area as well as information from national WeatherBug sites during its newscasts (including the noon and 9 p.m. newscasts seen nationally on WGN America).

A couple of other notes: Miami Fox affiliate WSVN is expanding its weekday morning newscast Today in Florida to five hours. Starting on August 22, the newscast will run from 5 to 10 a.m., displacing Live with Regis & Kelly from the schedule. The fifth hour will be anchored by current Today in Florida anchors Christine Cruz and Diana Diaz, with field reports by Richard Jordan and meteorologist Julie Durda providing the weather forecast. This will increase the station's local news output to 60½ hours per week, equal to that of San Francisco's MyNetworkTV affiliate KRON-TV, tying it for the most local news of any U.S. television station (Canadian station CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario broadcasts 69 hours of local news per week, which will expand to 71½ hours next month with the expansion of its morning newscast to 4:30 a.m., the first such newscast in that timeslot in the entire country of Canada). Meanwhile, Roanoke, Virginia's WSLS has dropped its low-rated midday talk show Our Blue Ridge. The program will be revamped as a local version of owner Media General's syndicated Daytime program called Daytime Blue Ridge, another talk show focusing on community and lifestyle news similar in format to Our Blue Ridge, though described will "be completely new and different" by WSLS general manager Leesa Wilcher, that will debut in six weeks (infomercials will air in the meantime in the defunct program's former noon slot).