Channel 13 adds Sunday newscast
4/25/2005WTVG-TV, Channel 13, is adding a newscast in a time slot that, upon hearing it for the first time, may cause you to do a double take.
Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
Which begs the question, why 11:30, as opposed to the traditional noon?
"It just fits," WTVG news director Brian Trauring said. "It comes out of This Week with George Stephanopoulos and gives us news and information programs all morning, from 7 to noon."
Just as importantly, it doesn't conflict with the noon starting time of network sports programming, the most notable being NFL pregame shows from September through mid-January.
WTVG, owned by ABC, already is the only Toledo television station with a Sunday morning newscast. It has two one-hour segments sandwiched around Good Morning America, which airs at 8. Efrem Graham and Sashem Brey are co-anchors of the 7 and 9 a.m. newscasts, and they will have the same roles at 11:30.
For the past several months, WTVG has aired infomercials during that time slot. The infomercials attract roughly 1,000 viewers.
WTVG general manager David L. Zamichow anticipates the new newscast, to debut in six days, will attract about 15,000 viewers in the beginning. That would be about half of the audience for the one at 9 a.m.
"If the ratings aren't there [at the start], we're prepared for that," Zamichow said. "We think we could have something by November."
Trauring said: "Every now and then you've got to do something that's new and different. ... This is an opportunity to get our people in front of a whole new audience."
The move gives WTVG a market-leading 29 hours, 25 minutes of local news each week -- 2 1/2 hours more than runner-up WTOL-TV, Channel 11.
NEW SHOW: WUPW-TV, Channel 36, is launching a public affairs program on Sunday. Your Right to Know will be hosted by Bernadette Noe, former head of the Lucas County Republican Party. According to a WUPW news release, the program will feature "everything from live studio guests discussing the current issues affecting northwest Ohio to out-of-town dignitaries talking about national issues."
The 30-minute show will air at 10 a.m., pitting it against WTVG's public affairs program, Carty & Company, which is hosted by former Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, a Democrat.
WEEKEND ANCHOR: WNWO-TV, Channel 24, has hired Andrea Mock as a weekend news anchor. She replaces Karla Hult, who left the station last month for a reporting job with WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Mock, who will serve as a reporter three days a week, comes from WDTV-TV in Clarksburg, W.Va., where she was anchor and executive producer of the station's morning and noon newscasts.
MORNING SHUFFLE: "Jen" is out as co-host of the WTWR-FM (98.3) morning show, meaning the Cumulus-owned station soon will have its fifth morning combo in 2 1/2 years. Program director "Train," who has hosted the morning show for 13 months, said he has begun a search for a new co-host.
HYPE ALERT: Nielsen Media Research's May "sweeps" -- generally regarded as the most important TV ratings period of the year -- will start Thursday and continue through May 25.