Paige Hansen has been promoted to weekend evening co-anchor at KOLD-KMSB, the CBS and Fox affiliates in Tuscon.

“I’m looking forward to taking on a greater leadership role at the station, and getting to know our Southern Arizona viewers a bit better in this new role,” she told TVSpy via email.

Hansen joined the stations in October 2011 as a multimedia journalist. Her first night at the anchor desk alongside Chris Holmstrom was October 27.

Concetta Callahan is joining the morning newscast at Tucson’s KMSB-KOLD, Inside Tucson Business reports.

Callahan comes from WHBF in the Quad Cities region of Iowa and Illinois, where she was the weekend evening anchor. In Tucson, she will co-anchor from 7 to 9 a.m. on Fox affiliate KMSB and report from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on CBS affiliate KOLD.

She replaces Gina Trunzo, who left the station earlier this year for medical reasons. She will co-anchor alongside Mark Stine.

Steve Nunez, morning anchor for KGUN in Tucson AZ, has left the station.

Forrest Carr, news director for the ABC affiliate, told TVSpy, “We wish him the very best of luck.”

Last year Nunez was promoted to morning anchor.  He started at the station in 1993 as an intern.

TVSpy has reached out to Nunez for comment but has not heard back.  We will update when we do.

KUDF, the Azteca America affiliate in Tucson, is preparing to launch the market’s only locally-produced Spanish language newscast. Inside Tucson Business has details on the newscast, which comes on the heels of an ownership change at the station:

Viewers should expect to see frequent “Mexico regional programming, mostly from the north” with both hard news and useful information for travelers, said Roberto Lemen Meyer, 44, a Hermosillo businessman and principal of the new ownership group, LM Media Group.

The 30-minute local newscast is planned to air at 5:30 p.m. following Azteca America’s half-hour network newscast. As a precursor to the launch, KUDF is currently running five-minute, locally-produced “news capsules” at the end of the network newscast.

KUVE, the Univision affiliate in Tucson, broadcasts newscasts from the network’s Phoenix station, KTVW. Newscasts on KHRR, the Telemundo station, originate from Dallas.

KOLD chief meteorologist Chuck George had his weather forecast interrupted by an uninvited guest during last night’s 10 p.m. newscast (video after the jump).

The Tucson CBS affiliate’s website said George was unsure of what to do with the large arachnid but gave the the director enough time to take a close up without weather graphics.

He didn’t know if he should call attention to it, afraid the audience wouldn’t be able to see it, but what appeared to be a wolf spider was too large to go unnoticed!

After pointing out the spider, George and the rest of the news team continued with the show. Watch inside… Read more

NBC made it official today: Savannah Guthrie has been named co-host of the “Today” show, one day after Ann Curry ended her year-long tenure as Matt Lauer‘s sidekick.

Guthrie, a native of Tucson, spent the early part of her career moving up the local market ladder.  She worked as a reporter at KMIZ in Columbia, MO and later at KVOA in Tucson, before attending law school.

“As soon as Savannah joined NBC News she was a standout,” “Today” executive producer Jim Bell said.  “She has a one-of-a-kind combination of sharp wit and approachability, and our viewers value her journalistic skills and legal background just as much as her humor and charm.”  Read more at TVNewser

Sean Mooney has been hired as the weekend co-anchor at KVOA, the NBC-affiliate in Tucson, according to Inside Tucson Business.

Mooney runs his own production company, Moonrise Productions, in Tucson. He was most recently a reporter at Fox Sports Arizona, and has previously worked at WWOR in New Jersey and WBZ in Boston.

He will replace Brandon Gunnoe, who is leaving Tucscon for a job at WHDH, the NBC-affiliate in Boston. Mooney will co-anchor with Rebecca Taylor.

Longtime KVOA anchor Martha Vazquez, who resigned from the Tucson NBC-affiliate in February after getting busted for stealing clothes and jewelry at a local mall, has entered into a plea deal in her shoplifting case.

On Monday, Vazquez entered into a “diversion plea,” which will allow her to have the shoplifting charge dropped if she pays a $180 fee and attends 7.5 hours of counseling, reports the Arizona Daily Star.

“It’s the standard plea for someone in her situation,” Tucson City Prosecutor Baird Greene told the Daily Star. Read more

Tucson NBC-affiliate KVOA is making talent changes to the station’s morning newscast.

Starting Monday, Samantha Ptashkin (pictured) will cover breaking news for the newscast, according to TVNewsCheck. Ptashkin joined the station last month as a general assignment reporter.

The current field reporter, Nichole Szemerei, will become the newscast’s traffic anchor. She will replace Larissa Wohl, who will leave the morning newscast and become a general assignment reporter for the station.

KVOA plans to name a new field reporter for the morning show at a later date.

Tuscon NBC-affiliate KVOA has hired a pair of new anchors: Allison Alexander (pictured) and Rebecca Taylor.

Alexander replaces Martha Vazquez, who resigned last month following a shoplifting incident, as the station’s noon and 4 p.m. anchor. The move is a return to Tuscon for Alexander, who worked at ABC-affiliate KGUN from 2002-04. More recently, she has been a reporter and fill-in anchor at KTVK in Phoenix. Her first day at KVOA will be March 19.

Taylor will be the weekend anchor at KVOA beginning on March 21. She returns to the station after leaving in 2010 to move to Nashville. Taylor replaces Emily Guggenmos, who joined Buffalo’s WIVB last month.