WATE, Channel 6, is creating another half-hour news program, bridging its 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. broadcasts.
Starting Oct. 12, the ABC affiliate will feature a new half-hour of news beginning at 5:30 p.m. Station officials are calling the second half-hour a separate program from either the 5 p.m. or the 6 p.m. newscasts.
Kristin Farley will anchor the new program.
The extra half-hour will allow the station to concentrate on more in-depth reporting, officials say.
Co-anchors Gene Patterson and Lori Tucker will continue their regular duties at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
WATE’s 5 p.m. news traditionally pulls solid ratings; WBIR, Channel 10, has been airing an hour of local news for more than a year; WVLT, Channel 8, presents a half-hour of local news at 5:30 p.m., with “The Andy Griffith Show” as a lead-in.
The 5:30 p.m. show will be “a little bit different than” what viewers will see in traditional newscasts, says Gwen Kinsey, general manager for WATE.
“We try to approach, in a really aggressive way, big stories, really getting juicy with them, really getting into detail. ... It can be frustrating when you’re trying to (tell) that meaty story in a minute or a minute and a half.
“Doing the 5:30 will really let us take the handcuffs off.”
WATE news director Jamie Foster says the new half-hour will allow reporters to be more in-depth with local subjects. Softer features and entertainment news will not be part of the mix.
Weather and sports will also be part of the half-hour, with more of an emphasis on local high school sports, Foster says. The lead story at 5 p.m. may not be the top story at 6 p.m., he says, though the 5:30 p.m. broadcast may examine the headlines from both.
With local news being produced from 4 p.m. through 7:30 p.m. weeknights, does Knoxville need another half-hour of it?
“If it’s just (filler) then it’s all too much,” Kinsey says. “That’s how we want to be different. We don’t just want to put (filler news) in there.
“We want to take what we think is the really important story of the day and really dig deeper going into that.”
WATE has no plans at present to bring back its noon newscast, citing that noon newscast audiences are shrinking anyway. A much larger audience can be found during the 5 p.m. hour.
With the expanded news, WATE will shift some of its other programming. “Judge Joe Brown” will air in an hour block at 9 a.m.; “Judge Judy” will also have back-to-back episodes starting at 7 p.m.
Entertainment magazine “Inside Edition” can be seen at noon, with “The Insider” at 12:30 p.m.
© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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Comments » 1
informedintennessee writes:
UUUUUGGGGGHHHH. Just what we need-- more of the same old stories told and retold to death. I think local news from 5-6:30 is simply ridiculous. I watch the 5 o'clock news now on WATE,not because they are better, but because there is nothing else on worth watching. Now that they have jumped on the bandwagon, I won't be watching.
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