Someone apparently forgot to tell Pablo Pereira, the weatherman at Fox affiliate KTTV-TV Channel 11 in Los Angeles, that he’d been promoted to president and general manager of WTHR-TV Channel 13 in Indianapolis.
The owner of WTHR-TV Channel 13 has reached into its broadcasting backyard to poach a new president and general manager for the station, hiring Larry Delia from WXIN-TV Fox59.
Square-jawed news veteran Walt Maciborski will step down from the 5 p.m. newscast on Friday to take a similar gig in his adopted hometown of Austin, Texas.
Kerri Cavanaugh will replace Lee Rosenthal, who oversaw a major expansion of Fox59’s news programming.
Local television stations are each preparing in their own way for the return to the air this fall of popular weathercaster Angela Buchman.
Over his four-year tenure, Lee Rosenthal helped WXIN-TV Channel 59 more than double the airtime it devotes to news.
Three of Indianapolis’ four local TV news providers—WTHR-TV Channel 13, WISH-TV Channel 8 and WRTV-TV Channel 6—are looking for news directors.
WXIN-TV Fox 59 anchor and reporter Eva Pilgrim is leaving the local station for a similar position at the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia.
The announcement was made back in May and IBJ reported on it again in last week’s paper. However, I want to highlight WXIN-TV Channel 59’s expanded news coverage in the 6 p.m. hour, Monday-Friday, which starts airing this week. It’s the latest expansion of news at Fox 59 and the move is significant.
The Fox affiliate will go head to head with rivals at prime news hour as it continues to increase local programming.
WTHR led in the ratings for its nightly newscasts during the May sweeps in the key 25-to-54-year-old demographic, but TV stations are rapidly losing these coveted viewers. The addition of popular meteorologist Angela Buchman could help Channel 13 staunch further losses.
With the additional five hours of news, Fox 59 plans to add six employees at the television station, which will produce 60 hours of news programming each week.
DirecTV subscribers in 19 U.S. markets, including Indianapolis, have regained access to a host of channels that had been blacked out since Sunday because of a contract impasse with Tribune Broadcasting.
Tribune Broadcasting said there's been no settlement with DirecTV Inc. in their contract negotiations, which means DirecTV subscribers in 19 U.S. markets, including Indianapolis, have lost access to certain programming.
Local TV news operations have built temporary studios downtown, budgeted thousands for overtime, assigned special Super Bowl beats to field reporters, and will broadcast hours of extra news coverage between now and Feb. 6, the day after Super Bowl XLVI.
Digital technology ushered in over the last five years allows television stations to squeeze four signals into the broadcast spectrum a single analog signal occupied.
Tribune Broadcasting on Monday named TV veteran Larry Delia vice president and general manager of its two Indianapolis stations.
Jerry Martin notified staff on Monday that he has accepted a position as general manager of NBC affiliate KPRC-TV. Martin joined Fox59 six years ago and helped the station increase its news coverage.
Channel 13 received a huge ratings boost at 11 p.m., enabling it to surpass WISH-TV Channel 8 as the most-watched newscast during that time. WTHR’s newscast retained its lead in several other time slots, although audience numbers dipped, enabling competitors to close the gap.
Ad buyers are watching the November sweeps period to see if the NBC affiliate bounces back from recent periods when it lost ground in the ratings.
