People
Gray NBC affiliate KTIV/4 (Sioux City) has hired a half dozen more people who previously worked at Sinclair FOX/CBS affiliate KPTH. Following news that KTIV hired Diana Castillo as news director, the station has also announced that anchor Larry Wentz and meteorologist Cat Taylor are joining the station. Its website also lists KPTH alums Taylor Deckert, Brandon Irvine, Joe McMahan, and Connor Trett as members of the KTIV news team. The announcement of Wentz’s hiring notes that KTIV will expand its news programming.
The Star Tribune notes that Bill Dallman is departing his position as general manager of Tegna NBC affiliate KARE 11 (Minneapolis).
Gray CBS affiliate KOLN/10 (Lincoln) announced that Madison Pitsch has been promoted to evening co-anchor. She replaces Kelsie Passolt, who departed the news business last week.
Stations
Pioneer PBS (KWCM/10 Appleton) provided an update on the broadcast outage that began May 9, saying it “cannot reasonably forecast a completion timeline” for when it will return to the air. Replies to posts on its Facebook page indicate the outage also affects cable and satellite service. The update says a fiber line damaged when it was struck by a construction crew can’t be fixed and must be replaced. It says there has been a staffing impact but did not specify how many people have been affected. As noted here previously, KWCM satellite KSMN/20 (Worthington) had already been off the air since February due to a studio-transmitter link equipment failure, according to an FCC filing.
A note on Minnesota Public Radio‘s station alerts page says Twin Cities listeners may notice a temporarily reduced signal between June 1 and June 9 due to tower work. The note does not specify which station(s) may be affected; MPR’s full-power stations transmit from three separate sites in the Twin Cities.
TCT’s KCWV (Duluth) has dropped Grit from channel 27.3 two months after WDIO (Duluth) added it on channel 10.5. KCWV-DT3 is now airing a slate.
In case you missed it here:
- Pirate Overtakes Clipper in Sturgeon Bay
- Iowa Catholic Radio Buys Southern Iowa FM Station
- FCC/CRTC Monitor: New Neb. FM Signing On; McCook Station Returns
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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.