11 Alive's morning show adds WATL hour at 7 a.m.

By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Wednesday, July 22, 2015

WXIA-TV's Atlanta Alive morning show, which airs from 5 a.m to 7 a.m. weekdays, has added an extra hour on sister station WATL-TV from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.

The team is Vinnie Politan, Jaye Watson and meteorologists Chesley McNeil and Tracey Humphrey, plus traffic guys Crash Clark and Fred McFarlin. Politan joined the station last year from HLN.

This gives Fox 5's "Good Day Atlanta" direct competition during that hour for local news. WGCL, WSB and WXIA are each obligated from 7 to 9 a.m. to air their national morning programming with occasional inserts for local weather and traffic. WXIA is required to carry "The Today Show."

"The 7 to 8 a.m. time period is a critical 'get out the door' hour typically with the heaviest traffic, so we're staying on the extra hour to provide our audience with the latest information on traffic, weather and breaking news," said 11Alive News Director Jennifer Rigby in a press release. "We're fortunate to have the networks of 11Alive to give us another channel to deliver local news, weather and traffic in an important time period."

The new morning show had a soft launch this week but it officially starts Monday when Politan returns from vacation.

WATL already airs 10 p.m. news using the resources of the 11 Alive news team.

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