WTAE names new weekend anchor
April 2, 2013
Matt Belanger named new anchor/reporter at WTAE. (WGAL-TV Photo)
WTAE-TV (4) announced today that Matt Belanger will join the station as a weekend anchor and regular reporter. Belanger will join Shannon Perrine on the 6:30 and 11:00 p.m. weekend newscasts. Perrine has anchored these newscasts alone since Jake Ploeger’s departure in January, 2009.
Mr. Belanger comes from sister station WGAL-TV (8) in Lancaster, PA where he worked as a government and investigative reporter. He has won two regional Emmys as well as a number of first place awards from the Associated Press. A Susquehanna Valley native, Belanger graduated from Elon University with a BS in Broadcast Communications and a minor in Political Science.
His start date is April 24.
So where does this leave Ms. Perrine, who was the best current weekend anchor on Pittsburgh? I hope this means she received some kind of a promotion.
Shannon Perrine isn’t going anywhere. It will be the first time in a little over 4 years that she won’t be alone at the anchor desk. Says so in the first paragraph…
Shannon Perrine doesn’t need help on the weekend. Maybe Four needs to decide who they want on the week days. Between Mike Clark flipping from the morning to the evening, to Andrew Stockey being a news guy, then a sports guy, and now, somewhere in between, it seems to me they have bigger worries than to add an unnecessary anchor to the weekend.
I think Matt Belanger will fit right in at Channel 4. I moved to Lancaster from Pittsburgh in 2009 and can tell you first hand that he was a good guy at WGAL 8.