CBS Affiliates

Phil Blauer has been promoted to weekend evening anchor at KFMB, the CBS-affiliate in San Diego.

Blauer joined KFMB as a weekday general assignment and investigative reporter in 1998. Prior to that, he spent 15 years as the main anchor at KESQ in Palm Springs. Blauer will co-anchor the KFMB weekend newscasts at 5, 6:30 and 11 p.m. with Marcella Lee.

Blauer replaces Craig McKee, who joined Milwaukee’s WISN in March.

Brittni Smallwood has joined WIVB, the CBS-affiliate in Buffalo. She comes from WETM, the NBC-affiliate in Elmira, NY, where she co-anchored the morning newscast.

Smallwood, who will report for the morning and noon newscasts, is one of two that joined WIVB from WETM today. The other is Steve Vesey, who will join WIVB’s sports team.

“Brittni comes to News 4 with a lot of talent and ambition and she will be a terrific fit with our team,” news director Joseph Schlaerth told TVSpy. “She knows how to report hard news and how to tell a great story and we look forward to helping her grow as a journalist.”

WUSA‘s morning newscast was suspended for 20 minutes today after anchors and production staffers were forced to evacuate the building because of a fire alarm.

The alarm sounded at 5:01 a.m., just as morning meteorologist Howard Bernstein was beginning his forecast (video above). “If you see me running for the doors, it’s not a drill,” Bernstein joked as he continued his forecast. Read more

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney used a recent one-on-one interview with WBTV as an opportunity to clarify his position on gay adoption.

Following President Obama‘s declaration of support for same-sex marriage last week, Romney has continually fielded questions about gay rights and, in an interview with the Fox Business Network last Thursday, he raised eyebrows when he said that it’s “fine” for gay couples to adopt.

Speaking with WBTV’s Paul Cameron, Romney backed away from that statement. Read more

Steve Vesey is joining the sports team at WIVB, the CBS-affiliate in Buffalo. He joins the station from WETM, the NBC-affiliate in Elmira, NY.

WIVB’s has lost both of their sportscasters this year. Sports anchor Paul Peck left the station, and the television business entirely, in March. Sports director John Murphy is leaving next month, reportedly to take a multimedia job with the Buffalo Bills.

“It was an unusual situation,” WIVB news director Joseph Schlaerth told the Buffalo News. “I don’t have an exit date for Murph . . . but we expect that he will be spending time with Steve to help ease the transition.” Read more

In an interview on Wednesday in Colorado, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney grew frustrated with KCNC reporter Shaun Boyd when she asked him a viewer’s question about medical marijuana (after she had pressed him on the issue of same-sex marriage).

Romney was still talking about the incident on Thursday and, on Friday afternoon, it was at the center of an on-air argument between MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall and Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carney (video above). Read more

Meteorologist Ed Curran has returned to WBBM, Time Out Chicago’s Robert Feder reports.

Curran, a veteran Chicago meteorologist, left the CBS O&O in 2010 in a contract dispute. He returned this week on a freelance basis, filling in for morning meterologist Megan Glaros. He will also appear on the Saturday and Sunday evening newscasts this weekend.

“It’s wonderful to be invited back to fill in at WBBM,” Curran told Feder. “Visiting the station Tuesday, and coming in to work on Wednesday, I got a really warm reception from all my friends there. So many of these people have had such a positive impact on my career in TV.”

Mitt Romney fielded questions with the poise of a seasoned presidential candidate during a series of one-on-one interviews with Denver reporters on Wednesday, but at one point he became frustrated with KCNC‘s Shaun Boyd when she asked him a question that a viewer had shared on the station’s Facebook page.

After pressing Romney on the issue same-sex marriage, Boyd asked him a viewer’s question about medical marijuana.

“Aren’t there issues of significance that you’d like to talk about?” Romney shot back. Read more

After 19 years at KMOV, Marc Cox is leaving the St. Louis CBS-affiliate to become a financial adviser.

“I recently signed a new two-year contract, but the question for me was where will television news be 15 or 20 years from now? That is a big debate even among news veterans,” Cox told On Wall Street.

Cox joined KMOV in 1993 as a general assignment reporter and was promoted to weekend anchor the following year. In 1996, he was named morning co-anchor. Most recently, he has been a general assignment reporter for the station. His last day will be later this month.

WBTW, the CBS-affiliate in Myrtle Beach, has announced the addition of a weekend morning newscast.

The hourlong newscast will air at 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday beginning May 19. It will be anchored by Libba Holland with meteorologist Andrew Phillips.

Holland has been an associate producer and digital journalist at WBTW since 2010. She reports for the weekday newscasts and hosts a segment called “Dish It Out” segments on the weekday morning newscasts. Phillips will continue to be the meteorologist for the weekend evening newscasts at WBTW.