Peter Daut, a reporter at KDFW, is leaving Dallas for a position as morning anchor at WSOC-WAXN in Charlotte.

Daut, who has been at KDFW since 2008, will begin at WSOC-WAXN in early March. He will be paired with Allison Latos to helm the 4:30 to 7 a.m. newscast on WSOC and the 7 to 9 a.m. newscast on WAXN. The shuffle is an expansion of Latos’ role at the Cox duopoly — she currently anchors the 4:30 to 7 a.m. newscast with Scott Wickersham.

Wickersham will join Natalie Pasquarella as co-anchor of the 5:30 p.m. WSOC newscast. He will also continue to provide investigative reporting for the station.

WCNC, Charlotte’s NBC-affiliate, will be making changes to the 4 p.m. newscast later this month.

The re-launched newscast will be expanded from 30 minutes to a full hour, and will combine features on health, finance, real estate and social media with traditional news coverage, WCNC executive news director Corrie Harding told the Charlotte Observer.

Sonja Gantt (pictured) will take over the anchoring duties from Dion Lim and Bobby Sisk beginning January 30. Gantt, who currently helms the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts, will be replaced by Lim at 11 p.m. Sisk will contribute to the new newscast, as well as continuing to anchor the 5:30 p.m. program.

A memorial fund has been established for former WSOC reporter Ken Ward, who died last week days before he was due to start at WFTS in Tampa.

The fund was established by Ward’s widow, Leticia, and will go toward funeral expenses and memorial fees, as well as to ship items Ward wanted his son to have, according to Qcitymetro.

He worked at WSOC for a year before his death. His first day at WFTS, where he was going to be a reporter, was slated for January 9. Ward’s cause of death remains unknown.

A cause of death has not yet been determined for reporter Ken Ward, according to the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s office.

Ward died this morning, less than a week after his last day at Charlotte ABC-affiliate WSOC. He was set to join Tampa ABC-affiliate WFTS as a reporter next week.

WSOC general manager Joe Pomilla says the station has no information on the cause of Ward’s death. “All I know is that the ME stated the cause of death was unknown at this time,” he tells TVSpy in an email.

Bill Fish, an investigator at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s office, confirms Ward’s cause and manner of death are “pending.”

WFTS news director Doug Culver confirms Ward was scheduled to start at the station on Monday. He says the reporter had planned to stop by the newsroom later this week to say hello. Read more

Ken Ward, who until last week was a reporter at WSOC in Charlotte, died this morning of unknown causes. He was 44.

Ward’s last day at WSOC was December 30. According to the station, he was set to join WFTS, the ABC-affiliate in Tampa, as a reporter this month.

According to Qcitymetro, Ward’s body was picked up from the Presbyterian-Huntersville Hospital at 6 a.m. this morning. The cause of death was not immediately known. A statement on the WSOC website confirms Ward’s death, but does not provide additional details.

Ward joined the station in January 2011. He was a reporter for the morning newscasts on ABC-affiliate WSOC and sister station WAXN.

Early Saturday morning Charlotte CBS-affiliate WBTV mistakenly reported that Billy Graham had died.  About a half hour later, the station retracted the report, blaming it on “some incorrect information” received from CBS News.

WBTV news director Dennis Milligan posted a statement on the station’s website following the mix-up.  Here’s what happened, according to Milligan:

On Saturday during its early morning newscast,  WBTV News mistakenly reported the passing of the Rev. Billy Graham. Our show producer read what he thought was a breaking news crawl about Rev. Graham on an off- air network feed. Read more

Shortly after 6:30 on Saturday morning, Charlotte CBS-affiliate WBTV reported that Billy Graham had died.  The news was especially significant considering that Graham was born in Charlotte and has been a social luminary in North Carolina for decades.

In fact, the influential Christian leader was very much alive after spending a “restful night” at an Asheville hospital as he battles pneumonia.

Just before 7 a.m., WBTV anchor Kristen Miranda corrected the station’s mistake. Read more

WCCB morning anchor Anna Kooiman, who has been with the Charlotte Fox-affiliate since 2008, is set to join the Fox News Channel.

In a move first reported by NewsBlues and confirmed by TVNewser, Kooiman will join FNC next month as a New York-based correspondent covering health and fitness as well as general assignment reporting.

Kooiman has regularly covered health and fitness at WCCB, while also working as a part-time fitness instructor.  According to her website, she regularly teaches up to 10 fitness classes a week.

Before joining WCCB, Kooiman worked as a reporter-anchor with Toledo NBC-affiliate WNWO.  Video of Kooiman inside… Read more

There may be no other TV personality in the country who takes Halloween as seriously as WCNC morning weathercaster Larry Sprinkle.

Sprinkle, who has been with the Charlotte NBC-affiliate since 1985, doesn’t just dress up for Halloween, he dresses up several times during the course of a Halloween morning newscast.

This morning, Sprinkle wore ten (ten!) different costumes during WCNC’s two-and-a-half-hour-long morning show. Also, all of Sprinkle’s costumes are original characters, created by, as he puts it, “a very strange mind.” Video inside… Read more