Arkansas News Director Leaves To “Pursue Other Opportunities”

Dawn Dugle (Courtesy: Rick Gevers)

Dawn Dugle, news director at KHBS/KHOG-TV in Fort Smith, Ark., has left the station.

She had worked there for a little over two years.

Fort Smith CBS Station Adds New Reporter

Christine Whitten (Courtesy: Twitter)

South TV News has learned journalist Christine Whitten started with KFSM-TV last month as a reporter for the Fort Smith, Ark., station.

Her station bio on KFSM’s website states she previously worked at sister station KFOR, the NBC afiliate in Oklahoma City.

Sign Of The Times? Fort Smith Station Lets Sportscasters Go, Paves Way For “Radical Change”

Mike Irwin (Courtesy: KFSM-TV)

In a time where local sports is considered a dying art in many television markets, Fort Smith, Ark., CBS affiliate KFSM-TV has fired sports reporter Mike Irwin and chosen not to renew sports director John Engleman’s contract.

ArkansasOnline.com reports Irwin had worked at the station for 37 years, while Engleman started in 2009.

Arkansas Native Returns Home As New Meteorologist For Fort Smith

Laura Huckabee (Courtesy: KHBS/KHOG-TV)

She’s a graduate of Arkansas State University and a Jonesboro native. And next week, Laura Huckabee will officially join the on-air staff of 40/29 News Sunrise next week, on May 14.

Huckabee will be the morning meteorologist for KHBS/KHOG-TV, the Fort Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers market ABC affiliate.

Memphis Fill-In Met Gets First Gig in Arkansas

Brittany Bell (Courtesy: Twitter)

Brittany Bell, a fill-in meteorologist for WMC-TV in Memphis, Tenn., has been hired by ABC/CW affiliates KHBS/KHOG-TV as a meteorologist/reporter in the Fort Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers market.

Bell will anchor the station’s weathercasts on weekends and report during the week, according to a press release provided to Arkansas TV News.

Statewide Newscast Planned for Arkansas Stations

Four Arkansas stations owned by Nexstar Broadcasting will soon be pooling their resources together to provide content for a statewide newscast that will also air on the four stations.

TVNewser reports KARK in the Little Rock market, KNWA in the Fort Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers market, KTVE in the Monroe, La.-El Dorado market and KTAL in Texarkana will air the newscast at noon, titled “Arkansas Today.”

New Assistant ND Comes to 40/29 News

KHBS/KHOG-TV

Popular blog Arkansas TV News reports Brad Ginsberg has joined KHBS/KHOG-TV as the assistant news director for the ABC/CW affiliate.

The station is located in the Fort Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers market.

Ginsberg previously worked as an executive producer and digital executive producer at WLKY-TV in Louisville, Ky., where he helped the station’s “transition to advanced newsgathering technology,” according to a press release.

Everything You Wanted To Know About Arkansas’ Broadcast Television Markets

Within , there are four different media markets, as defined by Nielsen Media Research (2014-2015)

• The largest in the state, Little Rock-Pine Bluff, is ranked 56th in terms of population size.  It has a station from every major U.S. television network within its market: KARK (NBC), KATV (ABC), KTHV (CBS), KLRT (FOX), KASN (CW) and KARZ (MyTV).  KTHV has consistently been the market leader in ratings for the area. All stations mentioned above broadcast their newscasts in high definition.
• The second largest market is also hyphenated: Fort Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers. It’s ranked 101st by Nielsen and its DMA also includes a small portion of southeast Oklahoma. Stations include: KFSM (CBS/MyTV), KFTA (FOX), KHBS (ABC), KHOG (CW) and KNWA (NBC). KFSM has been the ratings leader for years. KHBS/KHOG broadcast their newscasts in 16:9 enhanced definition, not HD.
• The Monroe-El Dorado market, #137, shares a good portion of its south Arkansas coverage area with northern Louisiana. Stations include: KNOE (CBS), KTVE (NBC), KMLU (ABC) and KARD (FOX). KNOE has been the market leader in news for more than 25 years; KNOE airs its newscasts in high definition. KTVE’s news operation is partial HD; studio cameras are not high definition, but their field cameras are.
• Jonesboro, ranked 181st by Nielsen, has ABC affiliate KAIT and NBC affiliate KJNE-LP (as a subchannel of KAIT) within the DMA borders in terms of national network affiliates. The market is served by other stations from the Little Rock-Pine Bluff market, predominantly. KAIT began broadcasting newscasts in HD in October 2011. It’s also the smallest media market in the state.

(Above was updated February 1, 2015)

That covers just one of several states we’ll be covering. If you work for one of these affiliates and have news about new hires, on-air graphic updates, HD overhauls, or anything that would be of interest to this local news blog, please let us know.. I’m not necessarily talking about station gossip, but that works, too. If someone uttered a profane word on-air, for example, that’d be something. Station sales, downsizing, things like that are also newsworthy. You can do so anonymously, of course, but have to prove you work for the station in question for credibility purposes by sending us an email to southtvnewser@gmail.com.