Hartford CBS affiliate WFSB was evacuated Friday afternoon due to a bomb threat. Anchor Dennis House tweeted the news:

WFSB evacuated due to bomb threat. twitter.com/DennisHouseWFS…

— Dennis House (@DennisHouseWFSB) May 24, 2013

Employees were allowed back into the station shortly before 6pmET; House told TVSpy that the 6 p.m. newscast will go on as scheduled.

As Michaela Pereira signed off from the KTLA anchor desk Friday, her soon-to-be colleague Chris Cuomo appeared on the newscast to welcome her to CNN (video after the jump).

Pereira will be the news anchor for “New Day,” the CNN morning newscast anchored by Cuomo that will launch next month. Joking that CNN “really needs her,” Cuomo welcomed Pereira and praised the veteran KTLA morning team.

“I will say this, as one broadcaster to others: you guys really make some magic in the morning,” Cuomo said. “I’ve loved watching you for so many years, every time I’m in LA,  no matter who I’m working for. I love it. You guys are a beautiful TV family there.”

Watch after the jump. Read more

Nexstar’s Fresno NBC affiliate KSEE will soon have a new housemate. The station group plans to move its newly acquired CBS affiliate KGPE into the building of its newly acquired NBC affiliate KSEE in a consolidation move similar to what they’ve done in other markets.

Matt Rosenfeld, president and general manager of both KSEE and KGPE, told TVSpy, plans are to give both stations a new newsroom, new studios, new sets and high definition by the end of the year. “That’s something we would have not been able to do without Nexstar. Individually, we could not have gone HD,” Rosenfeld told the Fresno Bee. “We will co-locate — my new favorite word — into this building once the build-out is completed.”

According to the Bee, the stations will continue to share reporters but will maintain separate anchor staffs. But what hasn’t been addressed is what happens to the studio staff of both stations after the move. KSEE employees are represented by IBEW and SAG/AFTRA, while KGPE’s employees are non-union. Rosenfeld did not rule out the possibility of layoffs with either the Bee or TVSpy, Read more

Larry Conners is speaking out about getting fired from St. Louis CBS affiliate KMOV on a rival station.

Conners, who is planning on exploring legal action against KMOV, sat down with KTVI anchor Charles Jaco in an interview that will air on the St. Louis Fox O&O Sunday (preview above).

“I wouldn’t have even brought the subject up if there had not been the so-called rogue agents story going on. Because remember, I had been through this for months. I never said anything up to that point. It was only based on the news story breaking and I thought, I’m seeing all these cases come up, and they supposedly were going after different groups and individuals. I raised it and put it out to the forum to start conversation,” Conners said.

A reporter and a photojournalist for Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE deliberately crashed a trailer for a report on towing safety this week.

The report, which aired Wednesday, featured an interview with a woman whose husband and three-year-old daughter died after a trailer came unhitched from an oncoming pickup truck while they were driving. Reporter Boyd Huppert and photojournalist Jonathan Malat staged the crash to demonstrate the consequences of not “properly pack, haul and tow items like canoes, kayaks and mattresses.”

Poynter’s Al Tompkins takes a behind-the-scenes look at the process of putting the report together:

“The people in HR were rightfully concerned about how we were going to do this,” Huppert said. “We had a couple of first responders, officers from the highway patrol and Minnesota Department of Transportation folks there helping up.” He continued: “At one point our news director told me if I didn’t feel safe driving the vehicle that was towing the trailer that she would drive it. No way was I going to let that happen.”

The MNDOT workers rigged a closed test track road with a couple of bumps intended to jar the improperly attached trailer loose when it hit. Malat attached GoPro miniature cameras to the tongue of the trailer, to the top of the trailer, down low on the back of the truck, inside the truck, and high on the truck. “I did tell my chief photographer that we might tear up some gear on this one,” Malat said. “Dumb luck we didn’t.”

Watch the report after the jump. Read more

WFAA reporter Jonathan Betz is leaving Dallas for New York City, he announced on Facebook Thursday.

“I can’t say exactly where I’ll be working yet, but I’ll still be doing the news,” Betz wrote, according to Dallas media blogger Ed Bark. “It’s a great opportunity, and I’m extremely excited.”

Betz joined WFAA, the ABC affiliate in Dallas, in 2008. He has also worked at KHBS-KHOG in Fayetteville and WWL in New Orleans.

Yesterday we reported Morgan Freeman dozed off during an interview with the Seattle FOX affiliate KCPQ morning show.

It looks like Freeman knows how to handle a gaffe. The veteran actor got in on the joke last night telling fans on his facebook page, “Regarding my recent interview, I wasn’t actually sleeping. I’m a beta tester for Google Eyelids and I was merely taking the opportunity to update my Facebook page.” He also posted the picture of him giving thumbs up while fully awake. Well played sir. Well played.

[Today.com]

Pro wrestler Hulk Hogan stopped by Tampa CBS affiliate WTSP this week to show off his 24-inch “pythons,” call people from Miami “lunatics,” and promote his restaurant, his line of vitamins and TNA Impact Wrestling.

WTSP meteorologist Bobby Deskins painted on a fake Hoganesque mustache and made only one steroid reference as he guided Hogan through the weathercast. “I’m juicing by the way, can you tell?” asked Deskins. “What kind of juice you taking?” asked Hogan. “Carrot juice or Orange juice?”

[Yardbarker]

Newscasts at Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX were temporarily moved this week after a broken sprinkler flooded the studio (video above).

“It was only one sprinkler near the front of our news studio — we had water damage to some of our news set and electrical gear,” KTVX news director George Severson told 24 Salt Lake.

The studio was repaired in time for the station’s 10 p.m. newscast Thursday.

WCCO is re-tooling its morning anchor lineup right after May sweeps. The CBS owned Minneapolis station is moving current anchors Mike Binkley and Angela Davis to Sunday evenings and replacing them with Jason DeRusha (pictured right) and Jamie Yuccas (pictured left) beginning June 2.

“The expectations are very high at WCCO and we feel like we can do better in our morning show,” WCCO news director Mike Caputa told the Pioneer Press. “This isn’t about any performance issues with Mike or with Angela, they’ll still be in high-profile positions at the station, but we’re making this decision so that we hopefully can continue to grow and that we’ll be in a good position in the future. We’re hopeful that everybody will be at the television station for a long time.” Read more