THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507070382
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
It didn't take long for the new bosses at CBS affiliate WTKR to begin tinkering with the station's presentation of local news. Just days after assuming ownership of Channel 3, The New York Times Co. made plans to launch two early-morning local weekend newscasts.
They start on Saturday.
WTKR news director Barbara L. Hamm said the broadcasts - ``TV3 News Saturday Morning'' and ``TV3 News Sunday Morning'' - will run from 6 to 9 a.m.
Hamm hinted that more changes are in store for the news operation that finished third at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. in the latest Nielsen ratings.
Those ratings also revealed that the Saturday morning newscast recently launched by archrival WAVY came in No. 1 among adult viewers watching between 6:30 and 8 a.m. Channel 10 recently announced that the station's audience has grown by 24 percent since the early-morning show was started earlier this year.
With an eye on that ratings windfall, WTKR assigned Peninsula anchor Ann Keffer and Kurt Williams to co-anchor the early-morning Saturday and Sunday newscasts. Tal White will report on the weather.
``Our research shows us that people want local news at that time and on those days of the week,'' Hamm said.
She said they will be straight-up newscasts - ``not a fluff piece.''
Williams, who had been sharing weekend anchor duties with Jan Callaghan, will leave that assignment to Callaghan alone, said Hamm. by CNB