Reno Anchor lands in San Diego

Neda Iranpour has joined XETV San Diego 6 News as the co-anchor for the 10pm newscast teaming up with Jim Patton and Meteorologist Sabrina Fein.

Iranpour comes to San Diego 6 News from CBS affiliate KTVN in Reno where she was the morning show co-anchor and reporter.  

While working at KTVN, she also worked weekends as an anchor/reporter at KOVR, the CBS affiliate in Sacramento.

It's a homecoming of sorts, Iranpour started her broadcasting career right here in San Diego as a writer/field producer for KUSI.  She then went to KSWT, the CBS affiliate in Yuma where she wore many hats including anchor/reporter/weathercaster/sportscaster/producer and photographer.

Neda received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas in Austin. She is also working on her degree in meteorology from Mississippi State.  

Des Moines Anchor Headed to Back to School

When the Feb Book ends KCCI news anchor and reporter Amanda Lewis is leaving the business and  will join the Des Moines school district’s communications team.

As a district employee, Lewis will coordinate media requests, oversee internal communications and produce news updates for the district’s website, TV channel and social media platforms.

She will earn an annual salary of $62,500.

Phil Roeder, director of community relations for the district, said the skills Lewis built as a journalist will serve her well in her new position.

“Given the work that we do, having somebody with journalism experience is going to bring a lot to the table,” Director of Community Relations Phil Roeder said. “We work with the news media on close to a daily basis…(Lewis) brings a lot of experience to the job from Day 1.”

H/T Des Moines Register

Back on the Air in Sin City

After missing from the air for weeks, KLAS investigative reporter George Knapp is back on the air after health scare that kept him from work.

He lost about 30 pounds after a bout of sepsis, a blood infection that often is fatal.

He credits his wife, Anne, for taking charge and getting the immediate medical attention he needed “because I was not thinking clearly at all and wanted to die.”

H/T Las Vegas Review Journal 

Former San Fran Anchor Running for Office

A fixture on Bay Area television screens for more than a decade is going to try her hand at politics this year by running for an open seat on the Oakland City Council.

Longtime news anchor Dana King, who retired from KPIX just over a year ago, says she will seek to replace Pat Kernighan, who is not running for re-election in a district that includes Chinatown, the relatively affluent Grand Lake and Trestle Glen neighborhoods and the working class San Antonio district.

"I don't come from (the political) world, but there are many parallels to journalism," King said. "I've spent 25 years figuring out what is the truth in a story. I think that's pretty good training of what's required of a city council member."

King, 53, who is a full-time artist, moved from Sausalito to Oakland in 2012 after buying a San Antonio-district live/work studio. She started considering a council bid after learning of Kernighan's retirement.

"I suppose I might be looked at as a carpetbagger, but I chose to move here because I want to be part of this exciting, vibrant community," she said.

H/T Contra Costa Times

Gannett Sees Revenue Drop

Gannett reported their fourth quarter financial results Today and TV took a hit.

Gannett's broadcasting segment revenue was down almost 16% from the fourth quarter in 2012.

The decline, Gannett said, was driven primarily by the absence of $85.8 million of incremental politically related advertising during the fourth quarter of 2012 partially offset by a substantial increase in retransmission revenue.

Retransmission revenues were $38.9 million in the quarter, an increase of 31.5% from the fourth quarter in 2012. 

With the money TV groups are banking off retrains deals you can see why they are scared to death of Aereo.

H/T TVNewsCheck 

Recycling the News Set

KTEN, the NBC affiliate located in the small market of Denison, Texas, is excited to put their new news set on the air.

“In all, there are 140 plugs powering the new high definition set, more than a mile of cords, 84 lights and 23 monitors. It took a total of 51 days to transform how you see KTEN from home,” the station said all giddy. 

Some people might think the set looks very much like the old KXAS set in Dallas.

And there's good reason for that.

It is the same set. 

So now you know, old news sets never die....they just go to Denison, Texas.

H/T Newscast Studio

The New NBCNews.com To go Online Tonight

After a number of delays, NBC News revamped website is expected to go online later Today.

NewscastStudio says that NBC News is readying to launch a complete reimagining of its online home, NBCNews.com, later today — a retooling that focuses on converged digital storytelling, showcasing visuals and new advertising opportunities.

The relaunch, which has been in the works for over a year, marks a key milestone in the split of the MSNBC and NBC News brands online.

“We got our site back!” said NBC News president Deborah Turness in a press event Tuesday morning, a statement that reflected the years-long process of slowly splitting the network’s online presences from its now defunct partnership with Microsoft.

Last year, the msnbc.com domain officially become dedicated to the cable network only, with NBC News reporting and show sites moved over to the nbcnews.com URL.

The switchover to the new site is expected to take place Tuesday evening — a launch date that’s designed to allow the network to get the site online before the Olympics begin. It’s also worth noting that the launch will also, presumably, beat out CNN.com’s new site debut, which was scheduled for November but then delayed to an unknown date.

Fox News Tops Cable Ratings

A busy news week put Fox News on top of the cable ratings for the first time since the Boston Marathon bombings.

Deadline writes that for the week of January 27-February 2, Fox News averaged 2.265 million viewers in prime with a 1.8 household rating. 

With the exception of some election coverage weeks, this is only the second time Fox News has come in the top spot since 2005. Typically first-place USA Network was No. 2 among ad-supported cable networks last week with 2.214 million viewers, while ESPN was in the third spot with 2.078 million. History was fourth with 2.022 million and TBS was in fifth place with 1.837 million viewers over the week. 

Last week also marked the best result FNC has seen since it revamped its primetime lineup for the first time in years and added The Kelly File on October 7 last year.

Get the Hell out of the Road!

WABC Reporter Kristin Thorne was just about to go live from a snow covered street in New York, when a driver just about hit her.

The driver laid on the horn (as any good New Yorker will do) as he came within a few feet of hitting the Reporter.

You gots to love New Yorkers.

Let's cue up the video:

Traffic Reporter Sacked after DUI Arrest

Yesterday, FTVLive told you that after 30+ Traffic and Entertainment Reporter Rusty Gatenby has been kicked to the curb.

Now we know why he was sacked.

On Jan. 19, at 1:23 AM Gatenby was arrested for DUI after allegedly blowing a .134, according to the South Lake Minnetonka Police Department incident report.

Very embarrassing. I’ve had a clean record my whole life,” Gatenby told the Star Tribune. 

“I wish I could handle this privately,” Gatenby said.

But this didn’t happen in private. A police stop is public.

Was this his first DWI arrest?

“Yes,” he said. “And it was in the neighborhood and I had health issues with a member of my family I was dealing with; I was literally on neighborhood roads to go home.”

He said he was pulled over for not coming to a complete stop at a sign about 3 miles from his residence.

And now he's out of a job. 

Houston Anchor is M-I-A

KRIV Weekend Anchor Ford Atkinson has not been seen on the air since mid-December and no one is saying why?

 Atkinson has been anchoring the station's Weekend newscast since 1997, but hasn't been on the Fox O&O for a month and half.

Both his Twitter and Facebook accounts stalled at that time too.

A Fox spokesperson told Mike McGuff back in December that Atkinson was on vacation.

Either that is one hell of a vacation or someone is lying.

Wanna bet which it is?  

From Tulsa to Austin

Word out of Tulsa is that KJRH Managing Editor Tim Vetscher is leaving the station and is headed to Austin.

Sources say that Vetscher is going to be named the new News Director at KXAN.

Chicago Anchor back on the air After Accident

FTVLive told you about a month ago that Chicago Anchor Linda Yu was hurt in a motorcycle accident.

Yu, the longtime Anchor at WLS broke her leg when she was riding on the back of the bike when the accident happened. 

But this is the important Feb book and sometime you have to play hurt. The 67 year old Yu has returned to the air during her recovery to help the station out.

Vince Lombardi would be proud.

Yu joined WLS in 1984 after five years on NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5. She currently anchors the top-rated 4 p.m. weekday newscast.

Changing Channels

Napoli Management Group is proud to announce the following client placements:

Sally Kohn joins CNN as a contributor on both television and CNN.com.  Sally writes for The Daily Beast and is also a freelance writer for Salon.com.  Previously, Sally was a contributor for Fox News.

Andrea Nakano adds freelance duties as a fill-in sports anchor with CBS’s KPIX in San Francisco as she continues with NBC’s Comcast SportsNet Bay Area as a sports reporter and anchor.

Kayna Whitworth has been promoted to weekday morning anchor for WHDH in Boston from weekend morning anchor.

Katy Morgan becomes the new Chief Meteorologist for WZTV in Nashville.  Previously, she was a weekend and weekday meteorologist for WXIX in Cincinnati.

Kim Fischer has been promoted to primary anchor for KTVX in Salt Lake City from anchor and reporter.

Vicki Gonzalez joins KSNV in Las Vegas as a reporter.  Previously, she was an anchor/producer for KFXV in Harlingen, TX.

Molly Rokasy becomes the morning anchor for FIOS 1’s news service to Westchester County NY from anchor and reporter at News 12 The Bronx.

Meagan Farley joins KOTV in Tulsa as weekend anchor and reporter.  She leaves WTEN in Albany where she was a reporter and fill-in anchor.

Ella Dorsey moves to Knoxville as weekend meteorologist for WBIR.

Kevin Jeanes becomes the Chief Meteorologist for KOLD in Tucson.  Previously, he was the weekend meteorologist for WWBT in Richmond.

Justin Lock is named the permanent morning meteorologist for WCSC in Charleston.  He has been there since early 2013 and prior to that he forecast for mornings at WGCL in Atlanta.

The journalists in this post are represented by Mendes J. Napoli, Laurie Jacoby, David Ahrendts, Jean Sage, Sue McInerney, Liz Sherwin, Liz Hart, Al Corral and Gary Brown of Napoli Management Group.  You can reach Napoli Management Group by calling 310-385-8222 or by sending an email to nmg@tvtalent.com.  Please visit us on the web at www.tvtalent.com.

Longtime DC Reporter Leaving NBC O&O

Longtime WRC Consumer Reporter Liz Crenshaw says that after 30+ years, she is leaving the station this Summer.

Crenshaw broke the news on Twitter:

She says she plans to spend more time with her family and see what next opportunity lie ahead.