Posted on Monday, October 2, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
CBS46 is adding a 9 p.m. newscast on sister station Peachtree TV starting October 16 and it will run seven days a week.
Sharon Reed and Ben Swann - regular evening anchors on CBS46's 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts - will anchor the 9 p.m. as well.
There are no other 9 p.m. newscasts in the market.
"We know Atlanta is an early commuter market due to traffic and the 9 p.m. news will be a great opportunity for viewers to get a complete newscast and get a full night's rest," said CBS46 & Peachtree TV Vice President/General Manager Mark Pimentel in a press release.
Chief meteorologist Paul Ossmann, meteorologist Ella Dorsey and sports director Fred Kalil will join the newscast as well.
With the added responsibility, both Swann and Reed will be on the anchor desk for three and a half hours per day, a relatively heavy on-air workload for anchors.
CBS46 airs local news from 4 to 6:30 p.m and Reed works two of those hours, except for the 5:30 to 6 p.m. slot, when Tracye Hutchins spells her. Swann works the 4 p.m. hour and from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Hutchins anchors only the 5 p.m. hour, sharing chair time with Swann for 30 minutes, then Reed for another 30.
On weekdays, the newscast will supplant repeats of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" on Peachtree TV.
Meredith, which owns CBS46, recently purchased Peachtree TV from Time Warner/Turner as Time Warner tries to complete a merger with AT&T. Over the previous six years, Meredith had been operating the station in a lease agreement.
In recent years, local broadcasters have found adding newscasts is cost efficient and brings in more revenue than buying syndicated programming. Fox 5 now airs 10.5 hours of local news on weekdays, including repeats, more than any other broadcaster in town. NBC affiliate 11Alive features two evening newscasts on its sister WATL-TV station at 7 p.m. for 30 minutes and 10 p.m. for an hour. The 7 p.m. newscast debuted this spring. It also airs a morning show on WATL at 7 a.m. called "The Morning Rush."
