In a “Saturday Night Live” skit this weekend about a local news team shooting a promo (video above), a traffic reporter played by Fred Armisen is named “Hope Hines” — which was quite the surprise to the real Hope Hines, a former WTVF sports anchor who retired in July and happened to be watching “SNL” with his wife.

“When they said my name, I looked at her and said, ‘what in the heck is going on here?’” Hines said in an interview with WTVF. “Wow. It just blew me away.”

Hines, who found the skit “really, really funny,” did a little digging and was able to uncover how “SNL” settled on his name. Read more

Throwing to meteorologist Dan Thomas during WSMV‘s 4 p.m. newscast on Tuesday, anchor Jennifer Johnson made an unlikely “Seinfeld” reference.

Johnson and her co-anchor Demetria Kalodimos had been bantering about the shrinking contestants on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” when it came time to transition to weather (video above).

Bill Hall, a longtime weathercaster for Nashville NBC-affiliate WSMV, has died. He was 65.

Hall joined WSMV in 1974 and was promoted to chief weathercaster in 1977. He left the station in 2005. WSMV announced his death during a newscast last week (watch above).

“Bill was an authentic and genuine human being who loved his work and especially treasured the people he met and served along the way,” WSMV anchor Demetria Kalodimos said in a statement.

The duPont jury has announced 14 winners of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, including four local news stations. WFAA-TV in Dallas/Ft. Worth will be honored for a series of investigative reports about corrupt practices at local trade school, WSB-TV in Atlanta has won a duPont for its investigative series about sovereign citizens and housing fraud, and WTVF-TV in Nashville is being honored for their investigation into Tennessee state agencies found to abuse the law for profit. Detroit Public TV is also being honored for a series about energy.

CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley and Michele Norris from NPR will host the duPont Awards ceremony Thursday, January 19, 2012, at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library.

This will be the 70th anniversary of the duPont awards, presented each year to honor excellence in broadcast and digital journalism. The awards were established in 1942 by Jessie Ball duPont in memory of her husband, Alfred I. duPont.

Earlier this week, WTVF aired a dramatic report on a man who crashed his truck through the window of a gas station convenience store in Nashville (video of the report is after the jump). The segment, complete with exclusive surveillance video of the crash, was reported on by WTVF’s Nick Beres, who talked to Poynter about the challenge of writing copy for dramatic video. Read more

After eight years at Nashville ABC-affiliate WKRN, sports anchor Joe Dubin is leaving the television business.

“Now with Twitter and Facebook nobody’s waiting around until 6:30 (p.m.) to watch sports,” Dubin told The Tennessean. “The landscape has changed. I get Titans information and any other information I want on my phone in five minutes. I don’t need to watch local sports.”

Dubin, who has been working for the past two years without a contract, has signed on to co-host a call-in sports show on a local radio station. His last day was Tuesday.

Nashville ABC-affiliate WKRN began broadcasting its newscasts in high definition this week, revealing a new, HD-optimized set and new graphics.

“We are now in HD,” anchor John Dwyer announced during WKRN’s 4 p.m. newscast earlier this week.  “We have a new set, new graphics–a whole new look.”

That new look includes a state-of-the-art weather center with multiple work stations in case of severe weather.  Video of the new set inside… Read more

WZTV debuted a new, HD-optimized set this week–the final step in the station’s high definition makeover, which included an updated logo and a new red, white, and blue color scheme.

“Our set is high-tech, hip and really lets our anchors work the room,” WZTV news director Roberta Petterson said.  “Viewers have seen instant benefit now that we have so many ways to showcase a story–all the monitors give us so many options to see clear, beautiful HD video and graphics.”

Additional photos inside… Read more

The Tennessee pastor who became a YouTube celebrity after thanking God for his “smokin’ hot wife” at a NASCAR race sat down with WTVF recently and said that he came up with his notorious prayer on the fly (video above).

“I didn’t know what I was going to say really until I got there,” Pastor Joe Nelms told WTVF reporter Adam Ghassemi.  “I had in my mind ‘okay, I want to thank God for some of the innovations in racing,’ but the smoking hot wife part and the boogity, boogity, boogity I didn’t know it was coming until it came out of my mouth.” Read more

Tracee Tolentino, a weekend anchor at KQDS, is headed to WKRN in Nashville as a fill-in anchor. Her last day at the Duluth station is Monday.

Tolentino, who joined the station just last year, is the third anchor this month to depart from the Duluth Fox affiliate, The Duluth News Tribune reports. Tolentino follows the early August departure of weeknight anchor Nick LaFave, who left for KTAL in Shreveport, and the mid-August departure of Makenzi Henderson, who has not disclosed future plans.

For her part, Tolentino said the move was purely an opportunity to broadcast in a larger market. She told The News Tribune that her ultimate goal was to report in her home state of California.

LaFave, who was one of the station’s original anchors, addressed the turnover when he announced his departure on Facebook in July. “The deeper truth is that, despite the turnover, FOX 21 has done nothing but increase in ratings and quality every single ratings period,” he wrote. “That’s because it’s a TEAM product, not dependent on any one person.”