August 28th, 2008

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release

August 28, 2008

“CHANNEL 13 NEWS AT 9 ON FOX 17” TO PREMIERE SEPTEMBER 2^nd

New 60 minute 9pm Newscast to premiere Tuesday, September 2nd

Program anchored by Lynn Melling, Meteorologist Ed Wilson and Sports Director Keith Murphy

WHO-TV welcomes four new employees from KDSM news staff

DES MOINES, IA – “Channel 13 News at 9 on Fox 17” will premiere with its hour-long newscast this Tuesday night, September 2^nd, at 9pm on KDSM Fox 17.  The newscast will be anchored by long-time weekend evening anchor Lynn Melling, veteran Chief Meteorologist Ed Wilson and award-winning Sports Director Keith Murphy. 

On July 9^th, WHO-TV (NBC 13) and KDSM-TV (FOX 17) announced an agreement in which WHO-TV will produce a newscast on KDSM.  The newscast will air 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM Monday through Friday and from 9:00 PM to 9:30 PM Saturday and Sunday. 

“We’re excited about expanding the “Channel 13 News” brand and taking this product to the next level,” says Regional Vice President and General Manager of WHO-TV, Dale R. Woods.  “This is a tremendous new opportunity to service central Iowa viewers.”

“KDSM FOX 17 is excited to extend the current half hour of local news coverage for our viewers to an hour-long newscast on weeknights,” said Mike Wilson, General Manager for KDSM.  “With the Channel 13 news team and resources we will be able to bring Central Iowa great coverage and more in-depth stories of local community news, sports and weather.” 

WHO-TV is also welcoming 4 members from the KDSM News team to Channel 13 News:  Reporter Elias Johnson, producer MaCay Wiesemann, photojournalist Brandon Bingham, and editor Chad Dormer.  Johnson will primarily report for “Channel 13 News at 9 on Fox 17” while Wiesemann will be the weekday producer of the newscast. 

“We feel fortunate to have such talented individuals joining our news team that have real day-to-day experience producing a 9pm Newscast,” says WHO-TV News Director Rod Peterson.  “We will draw on that experience as we put this new newscast on the air.”

About the Anchor Team

Lynn Melling joined the Channel 13 News team in 2005 and has anchored weekend evenings and report 3 days a week. She came to the station from KTUU-TV in Anchorage, AK where she was anchoring their weekend newscasts and reporting during the week.

Prior to Alaska, Melling was a reporter at WBOC-TV in Salisbury, MD. She graduated with a broadcast journalism, international studies and Spanish triple major from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, in May 2001.  While in college, she interned at WCCO-TV, KSTP-TV and WMNN news radio in Minneapolis.

Melling is an accomplished journalist earning first place honors in investigative reporting from SPJ Pacific Northwest Excellence in Journalism as well as first place awards for Breaking News and News Feature from the Alaska Press Club.  She spent her junior year of college studying in Madrid and traveling around the rest of Europe.  While studying abroad, she spoke Spanish for a live talk-radio show once a week.

Chief Meteorologist Ed Wilson is a 20 year veteran of WHO-TV and has spent his career forecasting Iowa weather.  Wilson grew up in Grundy Center, Iowa where he and his meteorologist grandfather studied Iowa storm systems when Wilson was a child.  Those early experiences led him to the profession he loves - predicting Iowa weather on a daily basis.  Ed got his start at KIMT-TV in Mason City before coming to WHO-TV in 1988.  Ed earned his Certificate of Meteorology from Mississippi State University.

Sports Director Keith Murphy came to WHO-TV 13 in the summer of 1996 and has truly changed the way central Iowans perceive “sports”.  It isn’t just sports with Keith, it’s also fun.  Even the non-sports fans enjoy Keith’s genuine wit, cutting edge writing and unconventional delivery.  In addition to anchoring at 6 & 10, Keith also hosts and produce central Iowa’s the only TV sports call-in show, “Sound Off with Keith Murphy”, every Sunday night at 10:35pm.  It’s a show where the fans have a voice and is both informative and very entertaining, even for non-sports enthusiasts.

Previously to WHO-TV, Murphy was Sports Director at WOI-TV in Ames where in addition to anchoring sportscasts, he also did the play-by-play for all Iowa State Cyclone basketball games.

About WHO-TV Channel 13

WHO-TV Channel 13, owned by Local TV LLC, is celebrating 54 years of broadcast service to central Iowa.  Channel 13 News prides itself on bringing viewers rich, local content that other stations won’t commit to.  From exclusive investigations to ground-breaking, creative coverage of the big daily story, Channel 13 News lives up to its word of “See the Difference.”

Local TV LLC is a broadcast holding company created in 2007 to acquire nine heritage television stations in eight mid­sized markets.  In 2008, the company acquired eight Fox Affiliates previously owned by News Corporation.  Local TV is owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners, management and a consortium of bankers and high yield lenders who drank the Kool-Aid and are as enthusiastic about our future as we are.  Stay tuned.

About KDSM Fox 17

KDSM-TV is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI), one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies, which owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 58 television stations in 35 markets.  Sinclair’s television group is affiliated with all major networks and reaches approximately 22% of all U.S. television households.  For more information, please visit Sinclair’s website at www.sbgi.net.

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Press Contact:

Pam Taylor

859-331-9100