A WXMI photographer suffered fractured leg after he was involved in a crash while driving the station’s live truck Friday morning.

The photographer was traveling on U.S. 131 Friday morning when he “hit an arrow board traffic sign where a work crew was making an emergency repair to a pothole,” according to WXMI. The live truck spun out and crashed, and he was pinned inside the vehicle. He was alert and talking as he was extricated from the truck and taken to a Grand Rapids hospital for treatment.

The crash resulted in lane closures on U.S. 131 as emergency crews removed the photographer from the live truck and cleared the accident scene.

Ten days before he was charged with murder, a Michigan landlord granted Grand Rapids Fox affiliate WXMI extensive access to the murder scene (video after the jump).

WXMI reporter Mitch Fick interviewed Marion Conley, who was charged this week with the murder of one of his tenants, on March 10. In the interview, Conley showed Fick where the body was found and laughed about how police searched his house for the murder weapon.

“You can take a picture if you want to,” Conley told Fick. “There’s two puddles over there.”

“When I sat down with Mr. Conley there at the house where Jodi Snyder was found dead, he was open, cordial, downright hospitable,” Fick said on WXMI Thursday. “He showed me all around the home, talked to me about where the body was found … and answered all my questions very honestly. He made no impression whatsoever that he could have been committing any sort of crime.” Read more

Grand Rapids Fox affiliate WXMI has launched weekend morning newscasts.

The newscasts, which debuted Saturday and will run both mornings from 5 to 9 a.m., will be anchored by Tim Doty and Leigh Ann Towne.

The station has also hired meteorologist Kelly Smith for the newscast. Smith joins WXMI from KDLT, the NBC affiliate in Sioux Falls, S.D.

WXMI reporter Courtney Perna punctuated her 6 p.m. live shot about snowy road conditions in the area by encouraging viewers of the Grand Rapids FOX affiliate to enjoy the powdery goodness that had fallen on the area. You can watch the video after the jump.

In the true spirit of “show don’t tell,” Perna performed a perfectly executed backwards “trust fall” into the eighteen inches of snow behind her and began creating a snow angel. Though we at TVSpy can’t pretend we haven’t seen this move before, we were impressed that she was wearing a skirt when she did it. See the video inside. Read more

Grand Rapids CBS affiliate WWMT is launching weekend morning newscasts later this month.

The newscasts will air Saturdays from 6 to 8 a.m. and Sundays from 7 to 9 a.m. beginning January 19. Jessica Harthorn (left),a veteran WWMT reporter, will anchor. She will be joined by meteorologist Cyndi Kahlbaum (right).

“These weekend morning newscasts will deliver breaking news and severe weather coverage while also reflecting more of a ‘Face the Nation’ feel on the local level,” VP-GM Jim Lutton said in a statement. “We will incorporate major live interviews, debate the hot issues and report live on the scene of developing stories with a dedicated reporter.”

Heather Walker has joined WOOD, the Grand Rapids NBC affiliate, as a reporter.

“WOOD-TV has such a great reputation around the country for its investigative work,” said Walker. “I’m thrilled to be a part of the team and to start telling West Michigan’s stories that matter.”

Walker comes to WOOD from CBS affiliate KIMA in Yakima, WA where she was an investigative reporter and anchor.

According to MLive.com, Walker is expected to make her debut on the WOOD news at 10 and 11 p.m. sometime next week.

Emily Richett is leaving WXMI after almost seven years as a feature and entertainment reporter for the Grand Rapids Fox affiliate.

“Being a FOX 17 News Reporter and sharing stories about the people, places and good news in our community has been a dream job,” she wrote on Facebook Monday. “But after 6.5 years, I’ve decided it was time for the next story in my career.”

Friday will be Richett’s last day reporting for the WXMI morning newscast. She said has “an exciting new adventure” that she will share soon. [h/t MLive.com]

WOOD, the NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids Michigan, unveiled a sleek new set this week.

Designed by FX Design Group, the set was a year in planning and features the use of bold color graphics and a massive wall of monitors featuring 16 55″ flat screens.  The monitors can be fed as a whole or by single feeds.

Newscast Studio has a brief explanation and pictures of the design on their site.  Click here to view.  WOOD’s website also features both a retrospective of the station’s sets over fifty years and a gallery of their new set.  Click here to see the 50 year retrospective.  Click here to view the new set gallery.  You can also watch a video walk through with WOOD anchors and a shot of the monitor wall after the jump.

Read more

Casey Jones has joined WOOD, the NBC-affiliate in Grand Rapids, as the weekend sports anchor.

Jones, a Grand Rapids native, joins WOOD after a year as a multimedia journalist at WSJV, the Fox-affiliate in South Bend. Prior to that, he was a part-time member of the WOOD sports department.

“When you grow up watching a station and get into the business because of the people who represent that station, it’s really surreal to think that you’re now a part of that pedigree,” Jones said. “I’ve always imagined myself at WOOD TV and it’s a dream come true to be back home.”

WXMI has fired reporter and weekend anchor Jason Volentine after he failed to disclose his connection to an atheist group that he was covering.

In July, Volentine did a story for WXMI about the Freedom From Religion Foundation‘s campaign to have the image of a church removed from the city logo of Wyoming, MI.  MLive reports that the Grand Rapids Fox-affiliate dismissed Volentine when it learned that he had ties to the FFRF, a Wisconsin-based organization that fights for the separation of church and state. Read more