Matt Horn begins today at Capitol News Service, where he will cover political news for ten local stations in Florida.

Horn comes from Wichita, where he was Salina bureau chief and general assignment reporter at KSNW. In his new role, he will be based in Tallahassee.

Capitol News Service provides political reporting to several national outlets, as well as WFLA in Tampa, WTVJ in Miami, WFTV in Orlando, WINK in Fort Myers, WPTV in West Palm Beach, WCJB in Gainesville, WCTV in Tallahassee, WJHG in Panama City, WEAR in Pensacola and WJXT in Jacksonville.

WTXL, the Tallahassee, FL, ABC affiliate, has unveiled the market’s first news chopper.

“That’s right.  We are on-air, online, and now in the air,” said weekend anchor Greg Angel in a report about the chopper.  “So keep your eye in the sky. You’ll be seeing the news chopper in the air helping us bring you the latest breaking news and coverage of stories that really matter to you.”

The station partnered with Tallahassee Helicopters to use a 2005 Robinson R44, Raven 2 Helicopter with “a glass cockpit and state-of-the-art equipment.” Read more

Gina Pitisci has been promoted to weekday evening anchor at WCTV and WTLH, the CBS and Fox affiliates for Tallahassee.

In her new role, she will anchor the 10 p.m. newscast on WTLH and the 11 p.m. newscast on WCTV. Pitisci joined the stations January 2012 as the weekday morning anchor of WCTV’s “Daybreak” and co-anchor of the “Good Morning Show.” She also co-anchored the WTLH 7 a.m. newscast.

Before joining WCTV, Pitisci was the weekday morning and noon anchor at WTVY in Dothan, Ala.

Stan Sanders is stepping into the news director role at Tallahassee CBS affiliate WCTV, Rick Gevers & Associates reports.

Sanders was most recently the news director at WDBD in Jackson, Miss., which eliminated its news department earlier this year after the station was sold to American Spirit Media. Prior to his two years in Jackson, he spent ten years as news director at WCMH in Columbus.

Sanders replaces Triston Sanders, who left WCTV last month to become assistant news director at WWL in New Orleans.

Eames Yates, a Valdosta, GA bureau reporter for Tallahasse CBS affiliate WCTV, spoke at his grandfather Mike Wallace‘s memorial service in New York today.

Yates was just 3 months old when his grandmother Mary married Mike Wallace. Yates talked about how he and his grandfather “bonded” over a shared trait: self-criticism. He also said he hoped to make his grandfather proud as he follows in his footsteps.

Yates conducted the final interview with Wallace, which aired on WCTV in the days after his death April 8.

• TVNewser has more on the memorial service, the remarks, and the many notables who attended including presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Donald Trump.

WCTV in Tallahassee aired a never before seen interview with CBS News legend Mike Wallace this week. The CBS-affiliate was able to land the exclusive video, which was shot six years ago, because the interview was conducted by Wallace’s grandson, Eames Yates, who now works as a reporter for the station.

Wallace is remarkably candid in the interview. At one point, he admits that he sacrificed his family for his career.

“I was more interested in my work than in my family,” Wallace tells his grandson. Video inside… Read more

Reporter Patricia Santos has joined KJRH, the NBC-affiliate in Tulsa, Florida News Center reports.

Santos joins the station after three years as a reporter for WTXL in Tallahassee. Her first day at KJRH was April 3.

Santos is a bilingual reporter who was also a photographer, producer and editor at WTXL. She has also worked at KQTV in St. Joseph, MO, and KGET-KKEY in Bakersfield, CA.

A Tallahassee children’s center is suing WCTV, the CBS-affiliate in Tallahassee, for defamation. The station is accused of spreading false information about a sexual assault that hurt business and eventually led to the center shutting down.

The center, called Ollie Wallie’s, was investigated by the Tallahassee Police after a parent claimed their child was sexually assaulted by a staff member. According to Florida News Center, Investigators eventually determined that no such assault had taken place, and no charges were ever filed.

After the initial news broke, WCTV provided detailed coverage of the alleged assault by reporters Jerry Askin and Candace Sweat, who are both named in the defamation suit. Read more

Due to technical difficulties, Tallahassee’s WCTV couldn’t air its 11 p.m. newscast on Wednesday so the CBS-affiliate to took the web, using its website as well as Facebook and Twitter, to give viewers their nightly news update.

As Lost Remote reports:

The newsroom kept the updates flowing on WCTV.tv, Facebook and Twitter, and it also posted a few videos of anchor Lee Gordon reading stories from the newscast.

WCTV alerted viewers on Facebook and Twitter that technical difficulties would cause the station to cancel its 11 p.m. newscast, and then posted three videos, that appeared to be shot by a phone, on its Facebook page with Gordon providing updates on local elections as well as the arrest of a man in connection with a recent shooting death.

“We hope that you’ll continue to make WCTV your choice for local news coverage,” WCTV wrote on its Facebook page, subtly emphasizing that the station’s news coverage extends beyond the TV screen.