UPDATE: WKRG will add a 9:00 a.m. newscast, starting March 30th.

WKRG-TV 5 / Mobile, AL – Pensacola – Ft. Walton Beach, FL (“WKRG News 5”)

UPDATE: The new half-hour 9:00 a.m. newscast will start March 30th, according to Lagniappemobile.com. They also say that other newscast additions and/or expansions are in the works, currently in the planning stages and it will be announced at a later date.

---

 

FIRST ON THE BLOG: If you like newscast exclusivity, then WKRG will offer one for you. The condition is that you must live in Lower Alabama and in the Western Florida Panhandle for this new newscast.

WKRG 5 will add a new half-hour newscast at 9:00 a.m., starting later this month. The new newscast, anchored by WKRG 5 veteran Devon Walsh, will offer the area with the only local newscast at 9:00 a.m., since WALA 10 finishes their morning newscast at 9:00 a.m. This is the first time in 6 years that WKRG 5 will be broadcasting at 9:00 a.m. again, the last time in 2009 when station cutbacks as well as Media General cutbacks forced WKRG 5 to discontinue the 9:00 a.m. newscast; so this is a second go-around for the newscast.

With the new newscast too, Devon Walsh moves to anchor the Noon with Bill Riales and the 5:00 p.m. with Peter Albrecht, who rejoined the station in 2013 after leaving WKRG 5, 10 years earlier. Mel Showers and Rose Ann Haven, two long-time veterans at WKRG 5, will continue to helm the weeknight 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts. Avery Cotton (not Coffman, I apologize) took Devon’s place in the weekday morning 5:00-7:00 a.m. shift.

In this future, this could be the first of many addition for the station. Remember that WKRG 5 is now a sister station to WFNA 55, the CW station. WFNA 55 was brought by Media General after LIN Media was starting to break apart and sell all its assets to Media General. Since WKRG 5 was already owned by M.G., the fate of WALA 10 and WFNA 55 was up in the air and in the end, WALA 10 was sold to Meredith Corporation while WFNA 55 was sold to M.G. and partnered up with WKRG 5.

So now you know what has happened. And WFNA 55 may now carry more newscasts from WKRG 5 in the future. We will see what will happen.

In the meantime, 9:00 a.m. news is coming to DMA #59 and the area should be proud of it. I know I would.