People
The Nebraska Broadcasters Association announced that radio reporter/producer Bill Kelly, engineer Val Lane, and Omaha radio host Otis Twelve will join the NBA Hall of Fame. The induction will be held on Aug. 8 during the 88th Annual NBA Convention in La Vista.
Kristin Rogers has been promoted to morning co-anchor at Gray ABC affiliate KCRG-TV/9 (Cedar Rapids). Rogers grew up in the city and has been reporting for KCRG since 2020.
Stations and networks
Regional Media’s “Planet 93.9” (KQCJ Cambridge-Quad Cities) moved into a new state-of-the-art facility on North Brady Street in Davenport.
Gray TV’s KTTC (Rochester) has added Circle on channel 10.6.
Weigel Broadcasting announced that its Decades network will transition to an all-comedy lineup as Catchy Comedy beginning March 27. Longtime observers will recall that Decades originally launched with a focus on a daily theme and later evolved into a general classic TV lineup. It is seen over-the-air in eight Upper Midwest markets and is also carried on some cable and streaming providers.
Even with continued challenges facing AM radio, a development from outside the Upper Midwest came as a surprise: RadioInsight reports that Audacy will shut down KDWN/720 (Las Vegas) and KXST/1140 (North Las Vegas) on March 1. KDWN was a 50kW blowtorch until a downgrade two years ago. Its Conservative Talk lineup will continue on an FM translator fed by an HD subchannel, while KXST’s Sports Betting format will be on an HD subchannel. Here’s KDWN as heard from Grand Canyon National Park in 2021, before it was sold to Audacy:
In case you missed it here:
- Alpha Launches Lincoln “Mix” After Combining Sports, Talk Formats
- BEK Launches New Fargo-Grand Forks TV Station
- Community First Broadcasting Adds Another NW Iowa Radio Pair
- Iowa Catholic Radio Adds Larger Des Moines FM Signal
- FCC Upholds Decision Giving WCTS Translator Minneapolis Upgrade
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Disclosure: Jon Ellis was an employee of Gray Media Group at the time this item was posted. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.