Veteran investigative reporter Steve Wilson, who spent nearly a decade with Detroit’s WXYZ before leaving in 2010 after his contract was not renewed, is returning to TV with WJXX-WTLV in Jacksonville.

WXYZ reporter Ross Jones announced the move this week on the Michigan Radio and TV Buzzboard.

“Bad guys in Florida: your days are numbered,” Jones wrote on the forum. “On Monday, Steve Wilson was named investigative reporter at the Gannett station in Jacksonville.” Read more

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Howard Shapiro, the chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, died on Thursday from complications of pneumonia. He was 86.

“A larger-than-life figure in Chicago business and broadcasting for decades, Howard guided Weigel Broadcasting from a struggling single UHF television station in Chicago to a company with more than ten stations in three markets as well as involvement in two national broadcast networks,” the company said in a statement.

Weigel Broadcasting owns and operates stations in Chicago, Milwaukee and South Bend, IN. Read more

In honor of Memorial Day weekend, News Corp.-owned WWOR, headquartered in Secaucus, NJ, is kicking off a yearlong series honoring marines, soldiers and other military personnel in the Tri-State area (video above).

The “Hometown Heroes” series will air on the MyNetworkTV-affiliate’s 10 p.m. newscast, anchored by Brenda Blackmon and Harry Martin. Beginning this weekend and continuing through Memorial Day of 2013, the station will spotlight a different local person in the military each night.

Dawn Dugle is out as news director at KHBS-KHOG, after just over two years with the Hearst-owned station in Fort Smith-Fayetville.

KHBS-KHOG vice president and general manager Brian Sather confirmed Dugle’s departure with TVSpy but declined to elaborate on the nature of her exit.

Dugle was named ND at KHBS-KHOG at the beginning of 2010, after working as assistant ND for 18 months at WAPT, Hearst’s station in Jackson, MS.  Before WAPT, Dugle worked as an executive producer at KEYE in Austin and a news producer at WTVT in Tampa.

No word yet on who will replace Dugle at KHBS-KHOG.

KTVK, the independent station in Phoenix, has hired Dennis Welch as political editor, TVNewsCheck reports. He will begin June 1.

Welch will oversee the station’s political coverage and co-host “Politics Unplugged,” the station’s political affairs show. He joins KTVK from the Arizona Guardian, where he was owner and editor. He has been a frequent guest on “Politics Unplugged” for the past several years.

“Dennis gives us a first-rate political reporter who really knows Arizona’s political landscape,” executive news director Brad Remington said.  Read more

Local newscasters have become the regular butt of jokes on Conan O’Brien‘s show and on Thursday night he took aim at the KTLA morning team.

In a segment titled “Why China Is Kicking Out Ass,” O’Brien played a clip of a recent “dance party Friday” at KTLA (video above).

“Those are news broadcasters,” O’Brien said following the clip. “They’re there to tell us what’s happening in the world.”  (Somewhere WKRC’s Bob Herzog is smiling, or cringing).

Sean Mooney has been hired as the weekend co-anchor at KVOA, the NBC-affiliate in Tucson, according to Inside Tucson Business.

Mooney runs his own production company, Moonrise Productions, in Tucson. He was most recently a reporter at Fox Sports Arizona, and has previously worked at WWOR in New Jersey and WBZ in Boston.

He will replace Brandon Gunnoe, who is leaving Tucscon for a job at WHDH, the NBC-affiliate in Boston. Mooney will co-anchor with Rebecca Taylor.

Teresa Garcia joins CBS Newspath as a Los Angeles-based correspondent. Most recently, she was a reporter and anchor at KGO in San Francisco.

Alexandra Limon, a reporter at KGPE in Fresno, is joining KIRO in Seattle.

Michelle Valles has joined KNBC in Los Angeles as weekend morning anchor. She comes from KEYE in Austin, where she worked in the same role. Read more

This week, WCVB is hiring an investigative reporter/producer, as well as a photojournalist. Meanwhile, KOAA is hiring a multimedia content manager, and KRON is in need of a video journalist. Get the scoop on these openings and more below, and find additional just-posted TV gigs on mediabistro.com.

• Investigative Reporter/Producer WCVB (Needham, MA)
• Photojournalist WCVB (Needham, MA)
• Multimedia Content Manager KOAA (Colorado Springs/Pueblo, CO)
• Video Journalist KRON (San Francisco, CA)
• Transmissions Coordinator WRNN (Rye Brook, NY)

Find more great TV jobs on the TVNewser job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented TVSpy pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

KTTV is shaking up its morning team, and today Jillian Reynolds offered a teary on-air apology to her longtime co-anchor Dorothy Lucey, who is departing the Los Angeles Fox O&O after 17 years.

“I’ve said some dumb, dumb things and I just want to say, I think that’s what’s made this show what it is–that you and I have not always agreed,” Reynolds, who is becoming a freelance employee with KTTV, told Lucey as they both cried (video above).  The LA Times piece Reynolds refers to is here.