WLWT-TV premieres the city’s third 10 p.m. newscast on Jan. 11 by pre-empting “Hogan’s Heroes” on sister Me TV Channel 5.2.
Promos aired during the Bengals-Broncos game Monday night on Channel 5 featured news anchor Sheree Paolello, meteorologist Kevin Robinson and sports director George Vogel. That’s three-fourths of the 11 p.m. team who will do half-hour newscasts at 10 p.m., says Richard Dyer, Channel 5 president and general manager. All are Cincinnati natives.
Why not main co-anchor Mike Dardis, who came to Channel 5 from Seattle in 2012?
“We feel that having one anchor fully focused and preparing for the 11 p.m. newscast is best for our operation,” Dyer said.
“We will feature the very latest and updated top stories of the day,” Dyer says. .”Me-TV Cincinnati has been one of the top performing affiliates in the country since its 2011 debut and we're pleased to offer a nightly newscast option to those viewers at the earlier 10 p.m. hour.”
Channel 5 will compete for local news viewers with WXIX-TV (Channel 19), which pioneered the 10 p.m. news here in 1993, and WKRC-TV, the city’s top-rated news operation which broadcasts at 10 p.m. on sister station WSTR-TV (Channel 64). Fox 19 airs a one-hour newscast; Star 64 does a half hour.
WKRC-TV uses different anchors for its 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, although much of the news is very similar. Brad Johansen, Sydney Benter and meteorologist Erica Collura present the 10 p.m. news, while Channel 12 main anchors Rob Braun, Cammy Dierking and meteorologist Tim Hedrick do the 11 p.m. news.
The Me TV nostalgia channel can be seen with an antenna on Channel 5.2, or on Time Warner Cable (993 in Ohio; 188 in Kentucky) and Cincinnati Bell Fioptics (Channels 23, 291). It airs reruns of “Gilligan’s Island,” “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke,” “M*A*S*H,” “I Love Lucy” and “The Brady Bunch.”
