CW Affiliates

Mark Boe has been named vice president, station manager and director of sales at KSTW, the CW-affiliate in Seattle.

Boe joins KSTW from Tribune Broadcasting, where he was the director of sales for the Pacific Northwest region, overseeing KCPQ-KZJO in Seattle and KRCW in Portland.

“Mark is an incredibly talented and experienced broadcaster,” KSTW general manager Ron Longinotti said in a statement. “We are very fortunate to have someone with the extensive local, regional and national perspective that Mark brings to the table and we know that KSTW will continue to grow and thrive under his leadership.” 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.

WPIX, the CW-affiliate in New York City, launching a content partnership with Patch, AOL’s online local news platform.

The “Patch on PIX” segments, shot daily, will spotlight popular stories from Patch sites throughout the tri-state area. The segments will air beginning this week on the 5 p.m. newscast and are expected to eventually expand to the morning newscast.

“In our continuing goal to better serve our local communities, PIX11′s partnership with Patch will deliver valuable content to our viewers, creating a richer and deeper news experience,” WPIX news director Bill Carey said in a statement.

A rotating cast of WGN substitutes will fill in for Mark Suppelsa this month, Time Out Chicago’s Robert Feder reports.

Suppelsa, who anchors the 5 and 9 p.m. weeekday newscasts on the Chicago CW-affiliate, announced on Friday that he would take a month away from the anchor desk to seek treatment for an alcohol addiction. He expects to be back in June.

Micah Materre and Lourdes Duarte are handling Suppela’s responsibilities this week and next. Tom Negovan and Dan Ponce will anchor through the end of May, WGN news director Greg Caputo told Feder.

Mark Suppelsa, the 5 and 9 p.m. anchor at WGN, has announced that he will take a month off from the Chicago CW-affiliate to be treated for alcohol addiction. Suppelsa shared the news with WGN staffers in a note on Friday:

I’m driving soon with my family to Hazelden in Minnesota where they’ll drop me off for a month long alcohol recovery program. I have felt for some time that this would become necessary and I’ve now crossed a bridge in my life where I want and need to do this. It’s my choice. No one is forcing me to do it.

Simply put, I have been abusing alcohol at the end of my work day as my family slept. It was my secret and I became very accomplished at hiding it. I do my best to function at a high level and I know that it is my responsibility to correct anything that potentially interferes with my family or my work. Read more

The 10 p.m. newscast on Charlotte CW-affiliate WJZY is moving to sister station WMYT, a MyNetworkTV affiliate.

The newscast has been produced for WJZY by Charlotte CBS-affiliate WBTV since 2003. It will air this week on both stations, but beginning next Monday, it will air only on WMYT.

In a statement, WJZY-WMYT vice president and general manager Shawn Harris said the change is a result of independent research on evening news viewers in the Charlotte market that found the MyNetworkTV-affiliate to have a more “news-friendly” audience. Read more

The producers at Detroit CW-affiliate WKBD had a little fun with anchor Syma Chowdhry yesterday morning.

Chowdhry was reporting a story about a cow-kissing event when a photoshopped picture of her kissing a cow appeared in an over-the-shoulder graphic. “I did not kiss a cow!” she exclaimed.

“That cow looks a little disturbed, in that picture,” weather anchor Jill Washburn remarked.

“No it doesn’t,” Chowdhry said. “It’s smiling on the inside.” Video after the jump… Read more

Sinclair Broadcast Group has reportedly inked a shared services agreement to manage Columbus CW-affiliate WWHO, which would give the company a virtual triopoly in the market.

Sinclair owns ABC-affiliate WSYX and manages Fox-affiliate WTTE for Cunningham Broadcasting.

While WSYX and WTTE currently operate out of the same building, Sinclair CFO David Amy told Broadcasting & Cable that there were no immediate plans to move WWHO’s operations into the same complex. Read more

After being part of KWGN‘s morning team for over a decade, Angie Austin has departed the the Denver CW-affiliate.

Austin told the Denver Post this week that KWGN decided not to renew her contract, which came as a surprise to her.

“When my contract expired in a few months ago, my news director (Ed Kosowski) told me he was offering me a morning anchor position, so I knew I was being renewed,” Austin told the Post via email.  “When he met with me last week and told me it was my last day at the station.. to say I was surprised would be an understatement.” Read more

The New York Daily News reports WPIX will try out a studio audience next Monday as a way to boost ratings during February sweeps. The crowd, expected to total 22 people, will be made up of guests selected from an online contest:

Fans of the newscast, anchored by Sukanya Krishnan and Frances Rivera, can enter the contest at the station’s website.

The station will do the 8 a.m. hour of the morning news with the audience present and the anchors are expected to interact with the crowd. Read more

In a weather update that began as a Valentine’s Day joke and ended as an advertisement for lingerie store Frederick’s of Hollywood, KTLA invited two lingerie models on to do the weather Tuesday morning (video above).

Dressed as cupid, AMS-certified meteorologist Henry DiCarlo handed his green screen over to the buxom models.

“I have two young boys at home and this is not how they want to picture their father,” DiCarlo said, wearing red tights and wings.