Dallas-Fort Worth

Calvert Collins is joining KDFW, the Fox O&O in Dallas, as a general assignment reporter. Her first day on the air will be June 18.

Collins, a Dallas native, returns to Texas from Las Vegas, where she was a reporter and fill-in anchor at CBS-affiliate KLAS. Prior to that, she served in the same role at KPTM in Omaha.

“It is a dream come true for me to return to Dallas-Fort Worth to work for KDFW,” Collins said in a statement. “I am a seventh-generation Texan, born and raised in Dallas, who rarely missed a FOX4 9 o’clock newscast growing up. I am thrilled to begin the next chapter of my life in my hometown.”

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Adrienne Bankert is joining KTVT as co-anchor of the weekday morning newscast, the Dallas CBS O&O announced today.

Bankert joins KTVT after eight years at KCRA-KQCA in Sacramento, where she anchored the morning and noon newscasts and hosted “Common Ground,” a monthly newsmagazine. She begins at KTVT on June 25.

“Adrienne is intelligent and engaging,” KTVT president and general manager Gary Schneider said in a statement. “I think our viewers will enjoy her personality and appreciate her genuine interest in the community.”

A station spokesperson tells TVSpy that Bankert will replace Lisa Pineiro, who has anchored the morning newscast since 2010.

WFAA evening anchor Gloria Campos has signed a new contract that will take her off the 6 p.m. newscast beginning this fall, Dallas media blogger Ed Bark reports.

Campos has worked at the Dallas ABC-affiliate since 1984. She currently anchors the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts with John McCaa. Under the terms of her new contract, which continues through February 14, she will anchor only the 10 p.m. newscast, along with “filling in where needed and doing special reports,” according to Bark.

WFAA has not announced yet announced Campos’ replacement anchor at 6 p.m. The changes will take place in September.

KXAS has released a statement about the arrest of anchor Jane McGarry for driving while intoxicated over the weekend:

NBC 5 confirms Jane McGarry, the anchor of NBC 5 News at 5 p.m. and Nonstop Nightly at 6:30 p.m., was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor driving while intoxicated. This incident happened on Sunday morning.

According to station management, McGarry will remain off the air as the company looks into the matter. NBC 5 management says it will make no further comments at this time.

McGarry, a longtime anchor at the Dallas NBC O&O, was pulled over for failing to signal a lane change. She was released on bail early Sunday morning.

Jane McGarry, an anchor at Dallas NBC O&O KXAS, was arrested over the weekend for driving while intoxicated, the Dallas Morning News reports:

McGarry, who has worked for the station since 1982, was driving a 2007 Porsche north on the Dallas North Tollway near Lemmon Avenue when a trooper pulled her over about 1:30 a.m. for failing to signal a lane change.

The 56-year-old reporter had bloodshot, droopy eyes, swayed while standing and “used a loud tone of voice,” according to her arrest report.

McGarry has no previous DWI arrests. “NBC5 station management is looking into the matter this evening and has no further comment,” KXAS vice president of programming Brian Hocker said in a statement Sunday.

A water-skiing squirrel named Twiggy wreaked havoc on the KDFW newscast this morning.

Reporter Fiona Gorostiza was holding Twiggy while reporting from Dallas’ Mayfest when the squirrel jumped out of her hands and onto her photographer.

“The water skiing squirrel was a fiasco,” co-anchor Tim Ryan said later in the newscast. “It was a bust.”

“It was pretty funny, though,” Lauren Przybyl responded. Watch the video after the jump… Read more

Earlier this year, KTVI anchor-reporter Teresa Woodard landed a job at WFAA in Dallas. The move meant that she would be working in her hometown, but it also meant that she would be leaving her husband, KMOV reporter Mark Schnyder, behind in St. Louis.

Now the couple has found a way to once again work in the same market.

Schnyder, a Houston native, has lined up a job as a freelance reporter at Dallas NBC-affiliate KXAS.

“Rarely do two married reporters get jobs in the same market at the same time,” Schnyder told mikemcguff.com this week. “Somehow we have managed this challenge and there’s a very strong chance this will be our last move in TV. Dallas is home and it’s a big market…what more could we ask for?” Read more

Former KXAS anchor Grant Stinchfield, a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in Texas, has bought ad time on the Dallas NBC O&O to run ads attacking his former station.

“I used to bring you the news every night, but here’s what you didn’t know: too many times NBC refused to to let me tell the stories that you needed to hear,” Stinchfield says in the ad (watch above). “Was it liberal bias or simply the fear of losing ad dollars? I believe it was both.”

Dallas media blogger Ed Bark reports Stinchfield’s ad ran on the KXAS 4 p.m. newscast yesterday and will run again today. The NBC O&O released a statement yesterday on the decision to air the ad. Read more

KXAS, the NBC O&O in Dallas, has won the Texas Freedom of Information Award, presented annually by the Texas AP Broadcasters and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

The winning piece, by investigative reporter Scott Friedman and researcher Shane Allen, followed a trail of police records to see what the consequences were for drivers who were caught going more than 100 miles per hour in several North Texas cities.

“We spent months searching through municipal court records and stacks of traffic tickets because we felt this was an important story to pursue,” Friedman said in a statement. “It really affects the safety of everyone on our roads.”  Watch the report inside… Read more

Former WAGA anchor Mark Hayes will join KXAS, the NBC O&O in Dallas, next month.

Hayes announced last week that he would say goodbye to the Atlanta Fox O&O after ten years as the morning anchor. He will join KXAS in the same role, sharing the anchor desk from 4:30 – 7 a.m. with Deborah Ferguson.

“When a viewer turns on the news in the morning, Mark is the kind of person they want to see,” KXAS vice president of news Susan Tully said in a statement. “He has a warm delivery and makes the early wake-up just a little more enjoyable. Mark had a deeply loyal following in Atlanta because of his personable approach to giving viewers their first news of the day.” Read more