Posted by chicagomedia.org on July 07, 2008 at 12:18:51:
WGN Expands News at Midday, Evening
Tribune CW affiliate WGN Chicago announced today that this September it will premiere a new evening newscast and an expanded midday edition that will air 90 minutes.
WGN Evening News will air Monday-Friday from 5:30 to 6 p.m., co-anchored by Mark Suppelsa and Allison Payne. WGN Midday News will air weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. with co-anchors Steve Sanders and Micah Materre. WGN's Tom Skilling will serve as chief meteorologist for both newscasts.
"More local news programming throughout the day has been our objective for some time now. Our current newscasts are well-established with viewers, all ranking No. 1 in the ratings in the morning, at noon and at 9. This truly allows us to expand from a position of strength," said Tom Ehlmann, the station's VP-general manager.
Anchor Mark Suppelsa will join WGN News and begin co-anchoring WGN News at Nine with Allison Payne later this month. Suppelsa is currently news anchor of Eric & Kathy's morning show on WTMX-FM, a role in which he will continue. Prior to joining WGN, Suppelsa spent five years at Fox's Chicago O&O, WFLD, anchoring Fox News Chicago at Nine for three-and-a-half years. He spent 10 years at Chicago's NBC O&O, WMAQ as a weekend anchor, reporter and early evening news anchor.
Anchor Steve Sanders is a veteran broadcast journalist who began at WGN in 1982 as a general assignment reporter. Sanders will begin co-anchoring WGN News at Noon with Micah Materre later this month. For nine years, he anchored the Midday News, subsequently titled WGN News at Noon. Sanders then went on to anchor WGN News at Nine for 15 years. Prior to WGN, he was a reporter and weekend anchor at Birmingham's WVTM.
With the September launch of the additional newscasts, WGN News will produce 37 hours of local news a week including WGN Morning News, WGN Midday News, WGN Evening News and WGN News at Nine.
(TV Newsday)