Milwaukee native Jessica Tighe is settling in to her new role as morning co-anchor on WDJT, the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee.

“One of the best things about the morning show is that people are just waking up and haven’t been connected, and you can let them know what happened overnight,” Tighe told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel‘s Duane Dudek, noting she likes the informal nature of shows that allow for “chitchat” and “a little fun.”

Tighe joins WDJT from KWQC in Davenport, Iowa, where she was the morning anchor.

Morning anchor Jennifer Tomazic signed off Friday from WDJT, the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee (video above).

“Thank you so much everyone for watching us,” Tomazic said. “This is a great team. Don’t change the channel, because coming up on Monday you have a wonderful woman named Jessica and she’s going to pick up right where I left off.”

On Monday, Jessica Tighe will take over as morning and noon co-anchor. Tighe joins the station from KWQC, the NBC affiliate in Davenport, Iowa. Read more

Jen Lada is returning to her hometown as she joins Comcast SportsNet Chicago as a freelancer, Time Out Chicago’s Robert Feder reports.

Beginning Wednesday, Lada will join the network’s anchor-reporter team and will contribute to Comcast SportsNet Chicago’s online and on-air coverage. She replaces Nicole Darin, who joined Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic.

Lada has been a sports reporter and anchor at WITI, the Fox affiliate in Milwaukee, since 2006.

ABC made a primetime programming switch this week, swapping “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Nightline.” Beginning Tuesday, Kimmel’s program began airing at 11:35pmET/10:35pmCT and Nightline will air at 12:35amET/11:35pmCT.

Some ABC affiliates, including WISN in Milwaukee and KSTP in Minneapolis, are opting to air Kimmel later than its scheduled broadcast time in favor of local newscasts. WISN general manager Jan Wade told the Milwaukee Business Journal that the success of the station’s hour-long 10 p.m. newscast is the reason for delaying Kimmel’s program.

“We don’t want to abandon something that’s a strength for us,” Wade said.

• Related, TVNewser: One Night In, Kimmel Tops Letterman In Ratings, But Falls Short of ‘Nightline’

KSTP will expand its 10 p.m. newscast to an hour in the absence of “Nightline.” Kimmel will air at 11:00pmCT.

Know of any other markets where ABC affiliates are pushing Kimmel’s program back? Let us know: tvspy@mediabistro.com.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for graphics operators at Milwaukee stations.  This week, Milwaukee Fox Affiliate WITI had a problem with time and place.

During this morning’s toss from the studio to the weather deck where meteorologist Rob Haswell was waiting to deliver his December forecast, the on-screen graphic read,”Thanksgiving Forecast.”   Adding to the confusion, the locators wrongly identified where the anchors were at the time.  Nicole Koglin and Kim Murphy, who were in the studio, were tagged as being on the “Weather Deck” while Haswell was tagged as being in the “Fox 6 Studio.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was clued in to the mistake by a viewer who, according to the Journal Sentinel, blames cutbacks in station personnel while revealing their human side as well,

…one reader believes that cutbacks in newsrooms in all departments are responsible for such “misteaks,” as he called them.

Last week a graphic on Milwaukee’s NBC affiliate WTMJ asked viewers if they needed more “fun” control instead of gun control.

During its noon news, Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ aired an unfortunate misspelling while promoting its 3 p.m. “Sound Off!” segment.

The focus of Monday’s segment was NBC broadcaster Bob Costas‘ editorial turn during halftime of the previous night’s airing of “Sunday Night Football.”  WTMJ wanted to hear from viewers whether they thought the nation needed more “gun” control.  Instead, the graphic asked if we needed more “fun” control.

[Jim Romenesko]

Milwaukee Fox affiliate WITI and Chicago NBC O&O WMAQ were the big winners at the 54th annual Chicago Midwest Emmy Awards Sunday night.

WITI won 12 awards, including for outstanding achievement in for news gathering in the hard news single feature and hard news series categories. The station was also honored for outstanding achievement for a news specialty report in the human interest category.

WMAQ won the night’s top honor, the Emmy for outstanding news gathering in the spot news category, for its coverage of the NATO conference in Chicago last year. The station also won an Emmy for outstanding achievement for news gathering in the soft news category. WMAQ led the Chicago stations with nine Emmys; Tribune-owned CW affiliate WGN won eight.

A full list of winners is after the jump. Read more

Milwaukee CBS affiliate WDJT has invited a group of undecided voters to watch the final Presidential debate Monday night and participate in the post-debate newscast.

The station assigned an outside research company to recruit the voters, looking for an equal representation of parties and demographics. The group will be on WDJT’s evening newscast after the debate concludes. WDJT will also air viewer comments about the debate from Facebook and Twitter during the evening newscast.

Michele McCormack will host a half-hour webcast with the undecided voters that will be streamed on the station’s website after the newscast concludes. The webcast will be broadcast on “Eye to Eye,” WDJT’s political affairs program, on Sunday. [h/t TVNewsCheck]

In the aftermath of the spa shooting in Wisconsin on Sunday, WTMJ anchor Susan Kim reported on her personal connection to one of the victims: Kim was a client of Zina Haughton, a stylist at the spa who was the estranged wife of the alleged shooter. Seven people were shot before the gunman killed himself.

Kim first revealed the news from the scene around 2:30 p.m., saying, “My stylist may be related to … the alleged gunman. She’s a really wonderful person.” Haughton was one of the three fatalities in the shooting.

Kim remained on the scene throughout WTMJ’s continuing coverage, offering detailed accounts of the spa and Haughton:

I did know the gunman’s wife. She was my stylist. She was just a dear, darling woman. She’s in her early 40s, and she talked about her two girls. She was a very proud mother, very happy, an excellent stylist, really took her job seriously. You could tell that she was very well-liked within the spa.

Kim went on to say that she had talked to the woman’s other clients, who reported that she was “frustrated and tired about her marriage and that she was finally going to do it, to file for divorce.”

In a blog post on the WTMJ website, anchor Shelly Wolcott wrote about Kim’s personal connection to the story: Read more

The latest presidential debate proved more popular with viewers in Milwaukee than the first as 43,000 more households tuned in to watch Barack Obama and Mitt Romney square off a second time, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

NBC affiliate WTMJ averaged an 11.3 during the debate, ABC affiliate WISN pulled in a 10.3, FOX affiliate WITI saw a 6.9 and CBS affiliate WDJT drew a 3.7.  A rating point in Milwaukee is equal to 9,100 households.

• Related, TVNewser: Debate Ratings: Most Channels Up From Round One, Fox News Poised to Tie Record Palin-Biden ’08 Debate

While the numbers may sound high, The Journal Sentinel offered a sobering comparison, while 293,000 Milwaukee households tuned in to Tuesday night’s debate, 473,000 watched the Green Bay Packers beat the Houston Texans on Sunday night.