KGUN chief meteorologist Erin Christiansen is back on the air after an extended bout of Valley Fever forced her to take a leave of absence from the station.

Christiansen was welcomed back on Monday evening’s newscasts by co-anchors Jennifer Waddell and Guy Atchley, who introduced Christiansen as someone who has “had a rough time of her own” lately.

“Rough is kind of an understatement!” Christiansen laughed. “I tell you what, it feels so good to be back.”

Christiansen will work on a partial schedule for now, but is expected to make a full recovery, according to KGUN.

There are two new hires at Buffalo CBS-affiliate WIVB: Lou Raguse and Emily Guggenmos (pictured).

Raguse joins the station from KMSB in Tuscon, where news operations were shut down earlier this month. Guggenmos also joins WIVB from Tucson, where she was the weekend co-anchor at KVOA.

The pair met while working in Sioux Falls — Guggenmos at KDLT and Raguse at KELO. They were married in 2010.

“Emily and Lou are both strong journalists who will fit in perfectly with our winning team here,” news director Joseph Schlaerth tells TVSpy via email.

New details have emerged in the alleged shoplifting incident that led to KVOA anchor Martha Vazquez‘s resignation this week after 26 years with the station.

According to a police report, posted by Tucson Weekly, Vazquez was cited for stealing a hoodie and a pair of earrings from a Dillard’s department store.

A Dillard’s security officer observed the longtime Tucson anchor try on a $338 Eileen Fisher hoodie near a clothing rack and then conceal it inside of a sweater she had been wearing. She then purchased shoes and a few other items and attempted to leave the store without paying for the hoodie, at which point she was detained by security. Read more

KVOA anchor Martha Vazquez, who has been a fixture on Tucson TV for three decades, abruptly resigned on Monday, following an alleged shoplifting incident that occurred over the weekend.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that a woman with the same name and birth date as Vazquez was cited Saturday on suspicion of shoplifting from the Tucson Mall.

After alerting staff of Vazquez’s resignation on Monday afternoon, KVOA news director Cathie Batbie-Loucks told the Daily Star that the veteran anchor’s departure was “due to personal reasons.”

A native Tucsonan, Vazquez began her broadcasting career with CBS-affiliate KOLD in the 70s, before moving on to KVOA in 1984. Most recently, she anchored the station’s 4 p.m. weekday newscast. Read more

Last week it was announced that Bob Simone was leaving his general manager post at Tucson’s KMSB amid the aftermath of the station’s shared services agreement with KOLD.  Today it was announced that Simone has been named vice president and general manager of WLNS, Young Broadcasting’s CBS-affiliate in Lansing, MI.

“Bob brings a lengthy track record of effectively managing stations while strategically building their revenue streams,” Deborah McDermott, President of Young Broadcasting, said.  “We look forward to having him aboard and leading WLNS‐TV to new levels of success in the greater Lansing marketplace.”

Simone brings 15 years of GM experience with him to Lansing.  Before joining KMSB in 2009, Simone was GM of three different Fox stations: KDVR in Denver, KPTV in Portland, and WTFX in Philadelphia.

General manager Bob Simone and news manager Bob Richardson have both left Tucson Fox-affiliate KMSB in the aftermath of the station entering into a shared-services agreement with CBS-affiliate KOLD.

KMSB parent company Belo announced in November that news operations at the station would be shut down and taken over by Raycom Media’s KOLD. Belo cited a lack of advertising revenue as the reason for the transition.

Simone, who was named president and general manager of KMSB in 2009, told staffers he had not been retained, according to a station source. Both Richardson and Simone worked their last day at KMSB this week.

Richardson had been news manager at KMSB since 2003. He announced today that he is launching a media consulting company in Arizona called RAR Productions. The company  will help businesses and organizations “with the news media, crisis management, event production or political messaging,” Richardson said in a statement. Read more

As the result of a recently struck shared services agreement in Tucson, CBS-affiliate KOLD will take over production of newscasts on Fox-affiliate KMSB beginning tomorrow, February 1st.

KOLD has already rebranded its website “Tucson News Now” to reflect the joint news operation and, starting tomorrow, the station will produce a one-hour 9 p.m. newscast on KMSB, as well as a new, two-hour weekday morning show that will run from 7 to 9 a.m.

The 9 p.m. newscast will be anchored by Scott Kilbury during the week and Chris Holmstrom on the weekends.  Kilbury currently anchors KOLD’s 4 p.m. newscast, alongside Heather Rowe, and Holmstrom has been a reporter with the station since August. Read more

KGUN chief meteorologist Erin Christiansen has been off the air this week due to an illness that doctors have now diagnosed as Valley Fever.

Christiansen originally thought she had a case of bronchitis but she’s actually suffering from something more serious, KGUN reports.  Valley Fever, or Coccidioidomycosis, is a fungal infection of the lungs that is endemic in arid parts of the country, especially Arizona.

KGUN expects Christiansen, who has been with the Tucson ABC-affiliate since 2006, to miss work for at least another week as she undergoes treatment.  She currently appears on the station’s 5, 6, and 10 p.m. weekday newscasts.

Sports director Dave Silver is leaving KGUN after 28 years with the station.  His last day on-air will be December 23rd.

Silver, who currently appears on KGUN’s 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, is set to join the University of Arizona Foundation, when he signs off from KGUN.

“Congrats to colleague Dave Silver on his 28-year run at KGUN,” KVOA sports director Ryan Recker tweeted on Tuesday.  “Best of luck as he moves on to the UA Foundation. He’s one of the good guys.”

Before coming to Tucson in 1983, Silver worked at KSBY in San Luis Obispo and KMIR in Palm Springs.

When Belo announced last month that it had struck a shared services agreement with Raycom Media in which the company’s Tucson Fox-affiliate KMSB would hand over its news operations to Raycom’s KOLD, a large-scale round of layoffs were expected.  Now it appears that at least a handful of KMSB staffers will be able to land jobs with their onetime rival.

According to Inside Tucson Business, KOLD has posted 15 full-time and three part-time job openings specific to the agreement, and additionally there are three positions at the station that were vacant before the agreement.  And KOLD may soon post three or four additional openings.

By Inside Tucson Business’s calculations, that means there will be roughly 20 available positions at KOLD for the 30 or so people who will soon be out of a job at KMSB.