Columbia, SC

Kara Gormley Meador, a former anchor at WIS in Columbia, has announced plans to run for the South Carolina state senate seat held by Republican Jake Knotts.

Meador, who left the NBC-affiliated WIS in 2010 after almost 15 years with the station, said her experience reporting on Knotts influenced her decision to run.

“Some of the stories that I covered had to do with some questionable decisions made by Senator Knotts, and I uncovered a lot of different things through investigations,” she told The State. “When people came to me with this decision to run, it just happened to be I lived in the same district.”

Meador faces a June primary against Knotts and another Republican candidate, Katrina Shealy.

>Update: Officials in Lexington County say Meador is likely ineligible to run due to a recent redrawing of State Senate districts, The State reports.

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The brother of South Carolina Lt. Governor Ken Ard flipped out when he found WIS reporter Jody Barr at his business last week, asking questions about Ard’s 2010 campaign.

Ard is currently facing a state grand jury investigation into how he funded his campaign and his brother Sammy–who donated a maximum amount–testified before the grand jury last Wednesday.  Barr went to Sammy’s auto body business on Thursday to try and gain information about his testimony, and things quickly went south.  Video inside… Read more

The WIS morning show was briefly interrupted yesterday by an unlikely source — a squirrel.

The Columbia, SC NBC affiliate was moving right along with their morning broadcast when the station was knocked off the air (in the middle of a report by meteorologist  Ben Tanner on Tropical Storm Emily) around 6:15 a.m.

The cause, according to the station’s website, was “a sneaky squirrel” who crawled into the electrical breakers that provide power to the station’s studio. Although the station’s generator powered up immediately, there was still a few minutes of dead air  due to newsroom computers that needed resetting. Tanner continued his weather report once the station was back up, saying, “It appears we had a bit of a power surge!”

Watch the video after the jump. (h/t NewsBlues) Read more

Jonathan Oh, a web producer and new media coordinator with WOLO, has been promoted to daytime meteorologist at the ABC-affiliate.

Oh, who worked as a reporter and meteorologist at crosstown rival WACH before joining WOLO, will work the station’s 6 a.m. and noon newscasts, which are set to be filmed in WOLO’s new street-level studio in downtown Columbia, SC.

“We’re delighted Jonathan will be on the air in Columbia doing weather again, this time with ABC Columbia,” said Chris Bailey, WOLO’s vice president and general manager, in announcing the move. “Jonathan is a great team player and very techno-savvy and will continue in his role as New Media Coordinator for our station.”

Oh, who describes himself as “fun, nerdy, techie” in his Twitter profile, is a media renaissance man. In addition to being a member of the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association, Oh has experience producing and anchoring live streaming news coverage for WOLO.

Rashida Jones, who has served as director of live programming at The Weather Channel since 2009 (and is not the actress daughter of Quincy Jones known for roles on “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”), has been tapped to lead the newsroom at WIS, a Raycom-owned NBC-affiliate in Columbia, SC.

WIS general manager Donita Todd confirmed the move to TVSpy today, saying that Jones’s first day as WIS’s news content director will be August 1st.

Jones has spent most of her career with The Weather Channel, which she joined as a producer in 2004. Before joining TWC, Jones was a producer for WTKR working on the CBS-affiliate’s 11pm newscast.

She is replacing Brad Neuhoff, who departed WIS this month to become the news director at KOIN in Portland, OR.

Brad Neuhoff is heading cross country — all the way across. He’s leaving his gig as new director of WIS in Columbia, SC (market #78) for the news director job at KOIN in Portland, OR (market #22)

Neuhoff had been at WIS since 2007. Before that he had stints as EP at KSTP in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and senior producer jobs at KWGN in Denver and KCOP in Los Angeles.

Neuhoff is one of twelve news directors in the country to be chosen for the Kneeland New Media Leadership Forum. He starts at KOIN July 5.

KOIN’s news operation was once run by Jeff Alan, who was living under that assumed name for 24 years. He was arrested, charged and would later plead guilty to multiple counts of fraud. In September, the judge threw the book at him sentencing him to the maximum 18 months in prison for his crimes.

Lynn Heider was news director after Alan was fired. An interim news director has been in place since she departed in December.

Stewart Moore, the co-anchor of WIS‘s morning newscast, is leaving Columbia, SC for Orlando and a job with WESH.

Moore will begin work as a weekend anchor and weekday reporter for the NBC-affiliate on August 1st.

“Stewart has experience as both an anchor and a reporter,” said Bob Longo, WESH’s news director, in announcing the move. “We believe his experience and personality will make him someone weekend viewers will really enjoy watching.”

A graduate of Florida State, Moore began his career with Tallahassee’s WTXL before joining WIS in 2007. “I’m thrilled to be coming back to Florida,” he said. Video of Moore inside… Read more

WACH‘s tiff with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley picked up steam this week as the likes of Politico and The Huffington Post covered the back-and-forth stemming from a critical Facebook post.

Still waiting on an apology from Haley for describing the Fox-affiliate as a “tabloid news station,” WACH covered the online dust-up during a recent newscast (video above).

WACH’s recent story about a forthcoming book that contains details of Nikki Haley‘s alleged extramarital sex life set off a war of words this week between the newly elected Governor of South Carolina and the Columbia Fox-affiliate.

Now WACH viewers, armchair pundits, and Facebook fans are weighing in on the tiff, which included Haley’s assertion that WACH peddled “tabloid news.”

David Olmsted, WACH’s president and CEO, issued a statement on Tuesday calling for Haley to apologize.  The governor is standing by her comment on Facebook.

What do you think of WACH’s coverage and Haley’s criticism? Leave your comments below…

Here’s a collection of what people are saying so far:

I think the Govenor was restrained in her comments. ‘Sleazy’ is more apt description of WACH’s running of this story.

Perhaps WACH ‘News’ Director Bryan Cox should consider resigning or perhaps WACH’s owners should demand it –to signal viewers that WACH does indeed have some standards.

Thank you Mr. Cox for standing up for what is right.

This is exactly the type of newscasting that has average viewers throwing up their hands and asking for fairness in the media.

Read more

WACH, a Fox-affiliate in Columbia, SC, is demanding that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley apologize for a recent Facebook post in which she said the station “has no concept of journalism.”

The pointed criticism came after WACH posted a story about a new book from political advisor Will Folks, who claims that he had a sexual affair with Haley several years ago. Haley has vehemently denied Folks’s claims, which first surfaced last spring in the lead-up to the 2010 gubernatorial election, saying that she has been “100 percent faithful” to her husband.

David Olmsted, WACH’s president and CEO, issued the following statement regarding Haley’s Facebook comments:

The WACH Fox news department has published or broadcast more than 100 stories pertaining to Gov. Haley during the past year. Despite that voluminous amount of reporting, there is not a single documented instance of the governor challenging the accuracy of any fact in any of those reports. Read more