FOX Affiliates

Jennifer Dowling has jumped from WWMT in Grand Rapids to rival WXMI, MLive.com reports.

Dowling was a crime and courts reporter and fill-in anchor at CBS-affiliate WWMT. She joined the station in 2010 from WILX, the NBC-affiliate in Lansing, MI. She has also worked at KEVN in Rapid City, SD, KTIV in Sioux City, IA and WHO in Des Moines.

The Michigan native began at Fox-affiliate WXMI last week.

Rick Mecklenburg has joined WXMI, the Fox-affiliate in Grand Rapids, as chief meteorologist.

Mecklenburg officially joined the station on May 1. He made his on-air debut last week.

Mecklenberg is a former chief meteorologist at WSBT, the CBS-affiliate in South Bend. He filled in on WXMI after the departure of chief meteorologist Peter Chan last year. [via NewsBlues]

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced today that it has reached a new, long-term deal with Fox to renew the affiliation agreements for 19 stations that Sinclair owns and/or programs.

The new agreements go into effect at the beginning of next year and run through 2017.

“We are very pleased to have reached agreement to renew all of our affiliations with Fox Broadcasting, allowing us to continue as the largest Fox affiliate group,” Sinclair CEO David Smith said in a statement. Read more

Baltimore Fox-affiliate WBFF is reportedly trying to revive its regular “Fugitive Files” segment in the wake of a controversy involving a high-profile suspect’s on-camera apology.

In April, WBFF drew the ire of the Baltimore Police Department after it taped an interview with a man wanted for a brutal St. Patrick’s Day assault and failed to notify the authorities about it.  The man turned himself in following the interview, but police felt that the station’s failure to tell them about it was a breach of trust.

Now, according to the Baltimore Sun, WBFF is trying to get back in the good graces of the department in an effort to revive “Fugitive Files,” which it has been airing since 2007. Read more

Eight people were laid off last month in a round of cuts at Raycom Media’s WPGX, the Fox-affiliate in Panama City, FL.

“There have been changes,” Raycom vice president Jeff Rosser told the Panama City News Herald. “Our industry got reset in 2008 and we are adjusting.”

The layoffs include six full-time and two part-time employees. The hub for the station is now located in Birmingham, according to the News Herald. Rosser said the station remains open and will continue to have local programming.

Batman stopped by WTTG on Wednesday and did the weather during the Fox station’s morning newscast.

The Batman that visited WTTG was not Christian Bale, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, or even Adam West, but rather a local business man named Lenny B. Robinson who dresses up as the caped crusader to cheer up sick kids in the hospital. Video inside… Read more

WJBK, the Fox O&O in Detroit, is paying tribute to Dale Pegg, a photographer who has worked at the station for 42 years (video above).

“I wouldn’t do anything else,” Pegg said. “I’ve met a lot of wonderful people, on and off camera. It’s been a good career. But it’s time for me to move on.”

Indianapolis Fox-affiliate WXIN will launch a 6 p.m. newscast this fall, the station announced today.

“Our hour at 6:00 will continue our mission — at any hour of the morning, day or night — of being the go-to place for the big stories as they happen,” news director Lee Rosenthal said in a statement.

WXIN said several new on-air faces, as well as production staffers, will be hired in preparation for the newscast’s September 10 debut. The newscast will bring WXIN’s weekday local news hours to 50 per week, the highest in the Indianapolis market.

Dick Brenann, who was ousted from WNYW in March after 11 years at the Fox O&O, is back on the air in the New York market.

Brennan has been reporting on a per diem basis for WCBS, a station spokesperson tells our sister site FishbowlNY. His reports have aired on the New York CBS O&O beginning in mid-April.

At WNYW, Brennan was a political reporter. He has reported on a variety of subjects, from severe weather to the campaign finance trial of former Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards.

General assignment reporter David Dunn is leaving WDAF, the Fox-affiliate in Kansas City, according to Bottom Line Communications.

Dunn has been a general assignment reporter at WDAF since 2007. He has also worked at KSPR in Springfield, MO and KQTV in St. Joesph, MO, and as a marketing consultant at Clear Channel Communications.

Dunn, a Kansas City native, signed off from WDAF on Sunday. He has reportedly accepted a job outside of television.