Last week we offered you, “Cockroach Crawls Up Reporter’s Arm During Live Shot”.  This week we give you the flying wasp from Oklahoma City CBS affiliate, KWTV.

10 p.m. anchor Kelly Ogle was almost finished with his “My 2 cents” commentary about the Obama/Romney debate when the anchor was momentarily distracted.  “Whoa!  A big wasp just flew by, folks,” said Ogle.  Who then continued with his segment.

If you watch carefully, you can see the large wasp travel from left to right in the middle portion of the screen at the :13 second mark in the video.  You can see the complete segment on the station website by clicking here.

Damon Lane has been promoted to chief meteorologist at KOCO, the ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City.

“Working as Chief Meteorologist in an area where accurate forecasts can save lives is more than a calling — it’s my life’s dream,” Lane said in a statement. “It takes passion, energy and a commitment to staying at the forefront of the latest lifesaving weather technology.”

Lane has worked at KOCO as the station’s morning meteorologist since 2009. Prior to that, he was the chief meteorologist at KTXS in Abilene, Tex.

Lane’s wife, Melissa Newton, recently left her job at KTVT in Dallas to move to Oklahoma City.

There’s little doubt Gary England can lay claim to being the most experienced meteorologist in Oklahoma City.  England celebrates 40 years with Oklahoma City’s KWTV this month.

England started with the CBS affiliate in October 1972 and is credited with being the first first person in history to use Doppler radar to issue weather warnings to the public.  He also made a cameo appearance in Steven Spielberg’s “Twister” and has a bust honoring him as one of Oklahoma’s “100 Heroes and Outlaws” celebrating the state’s first hundred years.

The station put up a web page inviting viewers to leave their comments for Gary.  You can click here to view Gary’s tribute page.  The page also hosts several videos of various local celebrities and co-workers offering their congratulations to England.  You can watch one starring evening anchor Kelly Ogle as well as a video the station made for England’s 35th anniversary after the jump: Read more

Katy Blakey has been promoted to weekend morning anchor at KOCO, the ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City.

Blakey has been a general assignment reporter for the station since June 2011. She will join co-anchor Dan Thomas and meteorologist Danielle Dozier on the newscast beginning Saturday.

“Katy has proven herself a terrific journalist and a great servant for our community. We expect great things from her in this new role with Eyewitness News 5,” KOCO news director Stephanie Croswait said in a statement. Read more

Jim Boyer, president and general manager of KFOR, the Oklahoma City NBC affiliate, will be retiring at the end of the year.   Station manager Wes Milbourn has been tapped to succeed Boyer as general manager

“My decision was sealed when one day I realized that, without noticing, I had crossed the mortality line from “He died too soon” to “He lived a full life,”  Boyer told TVSpy.  “Whatever fullness I have left, I’m not going to spend sitting behind a desk.”

Boyer added, “Over the next few weeks Wes will settle into his new job and office.  I’ll be available to help with the transition and take on some separate projects for the company. At the end of the year, I’ll be done.”

Read more

Alex Wehrley is leaving her post as the morning anchor at WREX in Rockford for a job at KSBI in Oklahoma City, according to the Rockford Register Star.

Wehrley begins October 8 as the host of “Oklahoma Live!,” an early afternoon interview show on the MyNetworkTV affiliate in Oklahoma City.

She will sign off from WREX on October 5. News director Mike Costello told the Register Star that the search for her replacement is underway and the station hopes to debut a new morning anchor in mid to late October.

Joe Gumm is joining WTSP, the CBS affiliate in Tampa, as the weekday morning anchor.

The news was announced to WTSP staffers Tuesday  in an internal memo from news director Peter Roghaar, who writes that Gumm will begin on October 15. Gumm revealed the news on Twitter Monday, saying he is “honored to start working with such a great team.”

Gumm was most recently the morning anchor at KOKH, the Fox affiliate in Oklahoma City. Earlier this summer, he issued an on-air apology to Howard Stern for an impromptu remark calling the radio host ugly on KOKH.

Tara Vreeland will sign off this weekend from KOTV after three years at the Oklahoma City CBS-affiliate.

“I expected to move here and learn. I expected to grow in the business,” she wrote on Facebook. “What I didn’t expect was to become part Okie and to become attached to the wonderful people. Thank you for being such loyal viewers and friends.”

Vreeland, the station’s weekend anchor, said she is moving to Colorado to be closer to her family. Her final broadcast will be Sunday night. [h/t NewsBlues]

Mike Brooks is returning to his home state to join KOKH, the Fox-affiliate in Oklahoma City, as evening anchor.

“This will be a great opportunity to return to my home state and my old friends,” Brooks told TVSpy via email. “They have a great group of journalists at KOKH, a terrific news director, and I look forward to joining the team.”

Brooks was most recently a freelance anchor at WFTX in Fort Myers. Prior to that, he was morning anchor at WGCL in Atlanta. Brooks, who signed off from WFTX on Friday, will be anchoring KOKH’s 9 and 10 p.m. newscasts alongside Jamie Cerreta.

This week, Oklahoma City NBC-affiliate KFOR posted a photo sent in by a viewer on its Facebook page that showed a collection of street lamps that had been melted by extreme heat.  The image quickly went viral and the consensus was that record high temperatures in the area had melted the lamps.

It turns out, though, that the melting was actually caused by a recent dumpster fire that occurred underneath the lamps. Read more