KXAN has hired a new news director.

Chad Cross, who has been the news director at KWCH in Wichita since 2008, is joining the Austin NBC-affiliate.  He replaces Michael Fabac, who departed KXAN in May after five years leading the station’s newsroom.

A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Cross joined KWCH in 2002.  Cross worked as a reporter, anchor, producer, and assignment editor there before being named news director.

As Austin media blogger Jim McNabb points out, Cross is much younger than many of the people he will manage at KXAN.

Felicia Rolfe is leaving the anchor desk at KWCH, the CBS-affiliate in Wichita.

Rolfe’s husband, John, is moving to Houston to become the chief operating officer of the Greater Houston Convention and Vistors Bureau. Rolfe will continue at KWCH through May before joining him in Texas.

“Felicia has been a key part of the KWCH newsroom for many years,” news director Chad Cross said in a statement. “We’re going to miss her enthusiasm and friendly personality at the station.”

Rolfe joined KWCH in 1993 and has anchored the morning show since 2006.

Longtime KWCH anchor Kim Setty died last night after a long battle with breast cancer, the station announced today. She was 47.

Setty joined the Wichita CBS-affiliate in 1988 as the producer and anchor of the noon newscast. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, which caused her to lose her blonde hair.

After her recovery, she returned to work as a redhead. In 2010, Setty announced she was battling cancer once again. She worked, still anchoring and producing the noon newscast, until her doctors insisted she stop, in the summer of 2011.

In a statement on the KWCH website, news director Chad Cross remembers Setty for her “diligence on the job, determination and dignity through cancer, and her down-to-earth and lighthearted character.” Read more