KPRC‘s decision to go with local news instead of the Monaco Grand Prix Sunday morning angered viewers enough to prompt general manager Jerry Martin to post an apology on the Houston NBC affiliate’s website.

“I wanted to let you know that we heard from many Formula One fans this weekend regarding our decision to air our local news in lieu of the Monaco Grand Prix. We will reevaluate the decision for next year’s race,” said Martin. “Our rationale for not airing the race was based on KPRC being a “news comes first” local television station, which includes holiday weekends.”

Martin explained the station had data showing viewers in the Houston market aren’t known for watching motor sports. “I know this rationale does little to assuage your emotions regarding this matter since you are fans of F1, however, I do understand what it means to be a fan of racing,” added Martin before promising to reassess how the station handles the broadcast next year. This year’s race was the most watched Formula One race on US TV in six years. Read more

Deborah Collura has been promoted to vice president-managing director of news for Post Newsweek stations. Collura has been working as VP of news for the station group and now her duties have been expanded.

Collura, who previously served as news director for Detroit’s WDIV, has been working out of Post Newsweek’s Houston station KPRC and now she will manage the news department there.

“She is an experienced news leader that brings all the tangible and intangible elements to her role here at KPRC,” said Jerry Martin, KPRC’s vice president and general manager, in announcing the promotion.

WXIN general manager Jerry Martin is set to leave the Indianapolis Fox-affiliate to join Houston’s KPRC.

Martin informed WXIN staff today that he is leaving the station on February 25th to become the general manager of KPRC, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.

“I’ve worked at a top-10 market before, and it’s a good opportunity to get back into a top-10 market,” Martin said. “It’s a bittersweet move.”

Since joining WXIN in 2004, Martin has focussed on increasing the amount of local news programming that the station offers.  In January, WXIN expanded its weekday morning newscast to a 4:00 a.m. start and the station is preparing to debut additional weekday newscasts in the near future. As IBJ points out, WXIN was running 18 1/2 hours of local news per week when Martin joined the station and that number is now up to 50 hours. Read more

Seeing even more potential in the early risers, late shifters, and insomniacs of the Indianapolis area, WXIN will now begin its early morning newscast even earlier. Beginning in January, the Fox-affiliate will begin its day at 4:00 a.m.

WXIN has seen positive audience gains since it expanded its morning news to 4:30 a.m. earlier this year and now it hopes to make an even bigger imprint with a six-hour programming stretch on weekday mornings, from 4:00 a.m. to 10:00.

“We have seen viewers waking up earlier and watching earlier, ever since we moved up our start time to 4:30am,” said Jerry Martin, WXIN’s general manager. It appears that Martin’s objective is to provide enough early morning time to build viewers for the station’s big competition against NBC’s “Today” from 7:00-10:00 a.m.
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