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Kimmel, Vessel and the 4pm news: KEYE speaks
Nothing on my beat results in more contact from you guys than the machinations of local television news. Lately I’ve been bombarded with e-mail messages wondering what’s up at KEYE.
First there were reports that Troy Kimmel was returning as the CBS affiliate’s chief meteorologist, which led to speculation about the status of Susan Vessel. Then came the announcement that the station would be discontinuing its 5 p.m. newscast, shuffling its early evening lineup and placing an expanded newscast at 4 p.m.
“Troy Kimmel is our chief meteorologist. Susan Vessel will be doing weekends with us until further notice,” said Amy Villarreal, KEYE’s general manager. And that’s all she offered on that.
She was more forthcoming about the afternoon shake-up.
“It’s something we’ve been thinking about for a while,” Villarreal admitted. The impending expiration of a syndication contract for the game show “Deal or No Deal” offered a window to make some scheduling changes.
“We’ve been looking at how we grow our news presence,” she said, and an expanded, hour-long local newscast seemed to offer opportunities.
“There are some things I can’t tell you about right now,” Villarreal said, but she indicated that viewers can expect to see more lifestyle and interview pieces in addition to hard news. She pointed to the station’s quirky “We are Austin” profiles as an example.
The 4 p.m. newscast kicks off on September 15, 2009.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment Categories: Local news
Comments
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By Steave
October 29, 2009 10:36 AM | Link to this
Nice story you got here. It would be great to read something more about this matter.
By Winchester
July 22, 2009 10:38 AM | Link to this
So the plan is to increase viewership by shifting the news to a time when more people are at work? Brillant!
By goldendrilla
July 22, 2009 8:14 AM | Link to this
Until Austin teevee gets serious about covering news and giving more than a "Chilly today, hot tamale" weather segment shifting the newscast times won;t amount to much. 4pm is not a highly watched news slot anyway. They'd be better off just going seamless from 4-5:30p and catching as many people coming home as possible. Really looks like an attempt to distance any news lead-in from Katie and the CBS EN dismal numbers.
By Dale Roe
July 21, 2009 4:40 PM | Link to this
I think I covered that when I wrote, "the station would be discontinuing its 5 p.m. newscast …"
--d.
By And yet ...
July 21, 2009 4:27 PM | Link to this
You still ignore the fact they are CANCELING their 5 p.m. news when the 4 p.m. show starts. That's kinda a big deal.