Baltimore NBC-affiliate WBAL is adding a new 10 p.m. weekday newscast on its digital subchannel, WBAL Plus.

Anchored by Kate Amara, the newscast will debut on March 5th.

“We want to provide an opportunity for news viewers to get our Live, Local, Latebreaking news, an hour earlier,” WBAL president and general manager Dan Joerres said, in announcing the new newscast. “It is our responsibility to offer viewers local news convenient to their schedules and this newscast does exactly that.”

Amara has been with Hearst-owned WBAL since 2005.  She currently reports from the station’s Washington bureau and serves as a D.C. correspondent for Hearst TV. Read more

Starting next month, WBAL anchor Donna Hamilton will join Rod Daniels to anchor the 11 p.m. newscast, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Hamilton, who has been at the Baltimore NBC-affiliate since 1995, will continue to anchor the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts. Her first day anchoring all three programs will be February 5, which is the night of the Super Bowl.

WBAL general manager Dan Joerres told the Sun that the decision was made to “give Donna some extra exposure” with the strong lead-in programming from NBC.

Daniels has been anchoring the 11 p.m. newscast solo since the station cut longtime anchor Marianne Banister in July.

WBAL, the NBC affiliate in Baltimore, is expanding their morning newscast to the 7 a.m. hour beginning October 3.

The local newscast will air on WBAL’s subchannel — 11.2 in the Baltimore market — while NBC’s “Today” show will continue to air on the main channel at 7 a.m.

“By continuing our morning news on WBAL Plus, we are able to offer the best of both worlds in local and national news, with viewers having access to both the ‘Today’ Show and the market’s number one morning news team,” WBAL general manager Dan Joerres said in a statement.

Anchors for the broadcast have not yet been named.

Hearst has chosen Dan Joerres, the general sales manager for the company’s NBC-affiliate in Winston-Salem/Greensboro, to succeed Jordan Wertlieb as president and general manager of Baltimore’s WBAL.

The company announced yesterday that Wertlieb, who had been WBAL’s president-GM since 2005, had been promoted to executive vice president.

“Dan is a talented television executive, well prepared to step into this important role at WBAL-TV,” David J. Barrett, president and CEO of Hearst Television Inc., said in making the announcement.  “I’m confident that Dan will provide outstanding leadership at WBAL, and work very effectively with the station’s highly talented, successful team to help make Baltimore’s best TV station even better in the years ahead.”

Joerres joined Winston-Salem’s WXII in 2008.  Before WXII, he spent ten years at Hearst’s ABC-affiliate WISN in Milwaukee.  A Milwaukee native, Joeress started with WISN as an account executive before working his way up to become a sales manager.