KD adds meteorologist; WPGH adds WPXI produced newscast

It’s no secret that people whine about the weather… but they also whine about Pittsburgh’s weather coverage and how much time in gets on local newscasts. Truthfully, that is true in just about any market, not just Pittsburgh. Lately WTAE-TV (4) has been hyping their team of five meteorologists. But soon KDKA-TV (2) will, we think, be able to do the same. Tribune-Review writer Rob Owen noted Monday that KD has hired Falicia Woody who most recently worked at Youngstown’s WKBN-TV. She will start next week, but no air date has been set for the new hire. As such, it remains to be seen if she’s an “addition” or a “replacement”, though none of the others have announced a departure.

A little ways up the Parkway North, WPXI (11) is preparing to start a second newscast for their next door neighbor, WPGH-TV (53). Cox-owned WPXI has produced Sinclair-owned WPGH’s 10:00 p.m. news since the mid-2000s when Sinclair shuttered their own news operation. The newscast will air at 6:30 p.m. and will, in effect, continue the Channel 11 newscast from 4:00 – 6:30 p.m. and, with the change of the channel, equal the footprint of KDKA’s 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. slot. Veteran anchor David Johnson will be joined by Liz Kilmer for this 30 minute newscast. This means the second airing of “You Bet Your Life” will be dropped. The first airing at 6:00 p.m. will move to 12:30 a.m. – which gives us an idea of how well that’s working out! The 6:30 newscast will be flanked by episodes of Big Bang Theory at 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. Look for the new schedule mid-March.

And circling back to a question Rob Owen received last week. “When is KDKA going to let Jon Delano out of his attic?” The answer is uncertain. CBS (Viac… Paramou… whatever they are now….) has had one of the most stringent COVID-19 distancing policies of any television company around. Field reporters were masked longer than other stations masked well into 2021. In the recent surge of the Omicron strain, the meteorologists again took turns from their living rooms. Delano is hardly the only one producing his segments via Zoom and “phoning it in”. Pam Surano is doing so from her living room as well as she continues to take care of her daughter who is recovering (very well I might add) from an accident that left her paralyzed in late 2020. (On a personal note, having spent the majority of 2021 working virtually on an unrelated project led by Mr. Delano, I can tell you that he has left the confines of his attic… and even his home… more than once!) If we are truly nearing the end of the pandemic portion of the COVID-19 world and entering the phase where it’s just another virus, it will be interesting to see if television stations revert back to “normal” practices, or if reporters will continue to work at home with the technology available.