The longest-tenured employee of WIBW has died. Elmer Gunderson, a broadcast engineer at the Topeka CBS affiliate for almost 58 years, lost his battle with cancer Sunday. He was 81.

Gunderson joined the station in 1955, just two years after the station went on the air. He was just out of the Navy and looking for a radio engineering job to pay for his education. WIBW radio had no openings, but the television station did.

“He asked if I had any experience in television,” Gunderson said in a 2005 interview. “I said no. He said do you want to learn? And I said that would be all right.”

Gunderson continued to work at WIBW until his health declined in April.

Ray Anthony Miles was convicted Thursday on charges of breaking into the WIBW newsroom and assaulting four station employees, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Miles was found guilty on three counts of aggravated battery and one count of making a criminal threat, all felonies. He was also found guilty of misdemeanor counts of battery and criminal damage to the property at WIBW, Topeka’s CBS affiliate.

During court proceedings Thursday, Miles attempted to exit the courtroom. The Capital-Journal has more details:

As the verdicts were read, Miles sat on the bar in front of the gallery while four officers were within 10 feet of him. He didn’t show any reaction to the verdicts.

In an incident Thursday before closing statements, Miles tried to exit the court after he became disgruntled with the proceedings. Corrections officers immediately cuffed his hands behind his back, then led Miles to the judge’s conference room so jurors waiting in the hallway wouldn’t see him led away in handcuffs. Read more

The trial of Ray Anthony Miles, a man accused of breaking into WIBW and attacking newsroom employees, began this week in Topeka. News director Jon Janes and general sales manager Roger Brokke both testified Tuesday, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal:

Brokke and several other employees were taking a cardiopulmonary resuscitation class inside WIBW-TV at 631 S.W. Commerce on May 23 when they heard someone had broken through a locked door and was rushing into the station.

News director Jon Janes testified Miles had come to the station to ask him to do a story about a problem he said he was having with the Department of Veterans Affairs. “I told him I didn’t think we could help him,” Janes said of Miles, who was impatient, fidgeting, very angry and agitated. Read more

Suzie Gilbert, reporter and anchor for WIBW, the Topeka, KS, CBS affiliate will leave the bright lights for the big city job.

At the end of October, Gilbert will transition into the communications director position serving as the primary media contact for the city of Topeka.

According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, city manager Jim Colson said, “She will be primarily responsible for directing and enhancing the city’s communication program, including internal and external communications, media relations and public information, social media, Web presence and City4 operations.”

Gilbert started at WIBW in 2010.  She previously worked in radio at KXCV/KRNW, the NPR affiliate in northwest Missouri.

Ray Miles, the man accused of breaking into WIBW and stabbing two employees, will stand trial on seven charges this fall, the Topeka CBS-affiliate says.

Miles, who was charged with two counts of battery, criminal threat, criminal damage and aggrevated burglary in the May 23 break-in, participated in a preliminary hearing yesterday. WIBW chief engineer Cary Lahnum, general sales manager Roger Brokke and advertising representative Greg Palmer, who all sustained injuries during the incident, testified.

Miles was reportedly disgruntled that news director Jon Janes had declined to do a story about his issues with the VA. Miles was eventually subdued by station employees, who held him until the police arrived and arrested him. His trial is scheduled to start on September 12.

For a moment over the weekend, it appeared as though the Facebook page of WIBW in Topeka, KS had been hacked.  Out of nowhere, a series of messages were posted on the CBS-affiliate’s page that criticized Topeka and praised the city’s interstate rival, Manhattan.

“We’re pretty sure our Facebook pages have been hacked,” WIBW reporter Suzie Gilbert announced in a post on Saturday.  “We’re working on it!”

And then the station quickly discovered the person behind the “hack”: general manager Jim Ogle. Read more

Two WIBW staffers were stabbed this morning when a disgruntled man wielding a knife broke into the station’s Topeka headquarters.

The man, who police have identified as Ray Miles, arrived in the station’s front lobby at 9:20 a.m. Wednesday and asked for access to the station. According to WIBW’s account of the incident, he was upset by the way the department of Veterans Affairs was handling his case.

The receptionist, Lynda Janes, put Miles on the phone with news director Jon Janes, who told him by phone that the issue needed to be discussed with the VA and that WIBW could not do anything to help him. Janes later recalled a previous conversation with Miles, on March 22, when he visited the station about the same issue.

Miles left the building, only to return 10 minutes later in an “agitated” state.  Read more

After more than four years at WIBW in Topeka, Stephanie Ramos says leaving the station is “bittersweet.”

Ramos will join KMBC from WIBW on April 23.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the #1 station in Kansas City,” Ramos told Media Moves. “The team exudes professionalism, competitiveness and strong journalism ethics. Leaving WIBW is certainly bittersweet. I’m looking forward to beginning this new chapter in KC with my family and newfound TV family after nearly 5 years of hard work in every role at WIBW-TV.”

A fire in Topeka that destroyed the former WIBW building was intentionally set, according to the station’s website.

Fire broke out at vacant property around 5 p.m. yesterday evening. WIBW, the CBS-affiliate in Topeka, aired its first broadcast from the building in 1953 and shared the facility with a local radio station until 2001.

“There’s an awful lot of memories and history there,” former WIBW anchor Bill Kurtis told the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Watch a report on the fire from yesterday’s WIBW evening news after the jump. Read more

Three stations in Topeka — ABC affiliate KTKA, NBC affiliate KSNT and Fox affiliate KTMJ — have combined resources to form a virtual triopoly in the market, called Kansas First News. The switch became official with the first broadcast Saturday evening.

KSNT and KTMJ are owned by New Vision Television; KTKA was recently purchased, over strong protests by local cable operators, by PBC Broadcasting. New Vision and PBC entered into a shared services agreement to combine operational power of the three stations, similar to arrangements the two companies have in Savannah, GA and Youngstown, OH.

Staffers for KTKA, KSNT and KTMJ will share one newsroom and plan to expand news coverage to additional broadcasts that will debut this fall. “By combining resources, we will have more photographers and reporters in the field, along with three live mobile newsrooms, to provide the most comprehensive news, weather, and sports information in the market,” news director Nate Hill said in a statement.

Local cable operators were vocal in their opposition to the KTKA sale, saying a shared services agreement between PBC Broadcasting and New Vision Television will lead to higher retransmission fees in Topeka.