After 18 years as a sportscaster for WCPO, Dennis Janson is taking on a new role at the Cincinnati ABC affiliate. Starting this summer, Janson will be a columnist on the air and on the station’s website.

“A chance to be part of the cutting edge efforts being exerted on our digital platforms is particularly intriguing,” Janson said in a statement. “And there will be a role for me on-air with an edge of its own.”

“Dennis has tremendous knowledge of the area, is well connected and can get people thinking,” WCPO VP-GM Jeff Brogan said. “The days of local media having columnists are nearly extinct and we feel Dennis is positioned to fill that void by bringing insight and context to our users and viewers.”

News of a new role for Janson was first reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer‘s John Kiesewetter.

Sportscaster Drew Shirley is moving behind the camera. Houston media blogger Mike McGuff reports Shirley will join CBS affiliate KHOU as a sports producer.

Shirley, a Houston native, has been commuting to Lake Charles, La. since he was hired as sports director for KPLC last year.

“I’ll be on air occasionally, but mainly working behind the scenes with Bob Allen to put together the daily sportscasts,” Shirley told McGuff. “I love being the sports guy here at KPLC, but after 11 months of commuting to Lake Charles, I am ecstatic about this new gig.”

“Hawaii News Now” has announced sports director Chris Tanaka will be switching from sports to news.

Tanaka will take over for current 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. anchor Shawn Ching. The station said Ching is leaving “Hawaii News Now” next Friday to concentrate full-time on his law career. “Hawaii News Now” is the branding for Honolulu’s CBS affiliate KGMB and NBC affiliate KHNL.

“Though Shawn Ching is difficult to replace, we are confident that Chris can fill his shoes on our top-rated broadcasts,” said KGMB-KHNL news director Mark Platte. “In the two years he has been with us, Chris has proven to be a gifted and intelligent anchor who can think on his feet.”

[Honolulu Star Advertiser]

A federal judge has refused to block New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL from airing surveillance camera footage of a supermarket altercation between store employees and an alleged shoplifter who died a month after the struggle.

WWL obtained the video from the St. Bernard Parish Sherriff’s Office for a report on the death of the alleged shoplifter, Norbert Gallego. The video shows Gallego, who was mentally disabled, “being tackled, then held down by two store employees for several minutes,” according to WWL. He was hospitalized for his injuries and remained in a coma for a month before he died.

The supermarket chain, Breaux Mart, asked for an injunction to stop the station from airing the footage Tuesday, according to the Associated Press:

Breaux Mart lawyers said one of the chain’s owners saw a promotion for WWL’s news report and recognized the surveillance footage. “The advertisement ended with a statement to the effect of ‘Why weren’t these men charged?’ leaving the viewer to infer that the Breaux Mart employees had committed a crime,” they wrote.

WWL reported that nobody was charged in Gallego’s death after the parish coroner, Bryan Bertucci, concluded he died of natural causes. Bertucci told WWL that it “wasn’t an easy case.”

Watch WWL’s report, which aired last night with the surveillance camera footage, after the jump. Read more

Former NBC and CBS correspondent Ed Gordon is the subject of Mediabistro’s latest “So What Do You Do?” interview. Gordon, who hosts an interview series that airs debuted on the 10 NBC-owned stations last month, talked about how the partnership with the station group came about:

I wish I could tell you that I had a lot to do with that, but we have a great team that works with us, and the gentleman who was in charge of going out there and selling the show in syndication reached out to the folks that make those decisions, and we were very pleased that all 10 NBC O&Os took the show. Over the years, I’ve been very proud of the [interview subjects] I’ve been able to get, and the caliber of them and, most importantly, what they’ve talked to me about. I’ve had the opportunity to talk to people who open up to me in ways that they don’t open up to most interviewers, and I hope that the people that made the decision that they were going to take the show saw some of that.

Gordon also offers advice for securing “exclusive” interviews, which he says is harder than it used to be: Read more

KRCR, Bonten Media’s ABC affiliate in Redding-Chico, Calif., has expanded its morning newscast.

“Over the past several years it has become clear, as more viewers wake up to KRCR Daybreak than ever before, that there is a great demand for more local news from our outstanding team,” news director Jennifer Scarborough said in a statement.

The newscast, anchored by Kelli Saam and meteorologist Rob Elvington, airs from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. weekdays. The first day of the expanded newscast was Monday.

A legal battle between KOMO and the Seattle Police Department over access to police dashcam videos has reached the Washington State Supreme Court. The Seattle ABC affiliate reported on the case Tuesday:

The arguments before the Supreme Court are the last step in a years-long effort by KOMO to use police videos as a means of checking officer behavior. KOMO first requested a database and copies of Seattle police dashcam videos in 2010 during a Problem Solvers investigation about excessive force and biased policing.

In spite of numerous requests, the department told KOMO that the video records — the way the station asked for them — didn’t exist. After more than a year, the city did provide KOMO with a database, but then refused to supply the dashcam videos, saying there was a three-year exemption under the law.

“This is about every single citizen in the state of Washington and their right to have access to the videos that the police have, and their right to hold police accountable,” [KOMO news director Holly] Gauntt said.

KOMO reports the Supreme Court bypassed the appeals court and took the case directly, which can be done when the court believes there is “substantial public importance.” A decision is expected in three to six months.

Watch KOMO’s report after the jump. Read more

Gray Television has announced it will add the Syncbak internet TV platform to all of its 41 TV stations.

“Gray Television was one of the very first broadcasters to launch mobile DTV service,” said Bob Prather, Gray’s president and COO.  “Over the past few months, Syncbak has proven that they can provide another critical route to reach our local viewers.  We are therefore excited to be able to improve our local products by adding all of our stations to the Syncbak platform.”

The Syncbak platform allows stations to stream their signals over the internet to mobile and connected devices. Syncbak uses a “location-based authentication technology” to keep station signals within its market reach.

Syncbak is being tested by all the major networks in over 150 TV stations in 98 markets. Gray Television has stations in 30 markets including Wichita, KS, Winchester, VA, Rockford, IL, and Knoxville, KY. 21 of Gray’s stations are CBS affiliates, 11 are affiliated with NBC, eight are with ABC and five are FOX affiliates.

[TVNewsCheck]

Both CBS and NBC are set to premiere comedies about local news personalities this fall.

CBS has picked up “The Millers,” starring Will Arnett as Nathan Miller, “a recently divorced local roving news reporter looking forward to living the singles’ life until his parents’ marital problems unexpectedly derail his plans.” The show also stars Margo Martindale and Beau Bridges as Nathan’s parents.

CBS will air “The Millers” Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. beginning this fall. NBC’s new comedy about a local news anchor, “The Michael J. Fox Show,” will air Thursdays at 9:30 p.m.

Watch a preview after the jump. Read more

KMOV anchor Larry Conners, who claimed he was targeted by the IRS after he pressed President Obama on government spending during a 2012 interview, walked back his allegation on the St. Louis CBS affiliate’s 5 p.m. newscast Tuesday.

“First, I need to state those were my personal views, not those of KMOV-TV,” Conners said (video above). “Second, to be fair, I should disclose that my issues with the IRS preceded that interview by several years. As a journalist I understand the importance of keeping personal matters separate from my professional work — sometimes you have to do that retain your independence as a newsman. Those lines might have been unintentionally crossed yesterday by my [Facebook] post.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Conners and his wife owe more than $85,000 in back taxes.