Greggo

Patti Smith, general manager of KVUE/Austin (Tegna) for the past 17 years and a Texas broadcasting legend, is leaving the station in May. http://www.mystatesman.com/news/business/kvue-general-manager-departing-after-17-years/nqsNQ/

Surprising to see a station as strong as WCVB make such a knee-jerk decision.

Agreed. A partnership seems more likely then starting from scratch. There's the cost of hiring a staff, plus they'd likely have to move. They're currently in a small office on the 19th floor of a downtown Corpus office building. With multiple stations in town already sharing one newsroom -- CBS/NBC/CW/KDF (Independent) -- it'd have to be with KIII (Tegna/ABC). Back when it was still under London Broadcasting ownership, KIII was planning to run KUQI after National Communications took over. That deal, of course, never materialized. So talks could, in theory, pick up where they left off. I still think there's a possibility an out-of-town Sinclair station could be enlisted tho. Stay tuned ...

The bigger question is ... will KUQI get a news department of its very own? Or at least partner with another Corpus Christi station -- or a nearby Sinclair station, such as KGBT in Harlingen -- to finally put a 9 p.m. newscast on the air?

Allison Miller, the morning news anchor at KEYE in Austin, was originally one of their meteorologists. She still fills in from time to time. In Houston, going the opposite way, Khambrel Marshall at KPRC was originally the 4 pm anchor before taking a behind the scenes job. During that time he went to school to get his weather degree and he is now the weekend evening meteorologist, in addition to hosting their weekly public affairs show, Newsmakers.