With the arrival of anchor Mileka Lincoln, Austin’s KEYE is shaking up the morning newscast.

Lincoln was hired from KABB in San Antonio to be the morning anchor. She is paired with Hunter Ellis, who was promoted to the anchor desk from his previous job as a reporter for the KEYE 4 p.m. newscast.

Popular Austin anchor Fred Cantu, who has been filling in as the morning anchor since last year, will become a feature reporter for KEYE, according to the Austin American-Statesman. He will revive his weekly “Gadget Guy” reports that focus on technology trends. Read more

Mileka Lincoln is joining KEYE as morning anchor. She starts at the Austin CBS-affiliate next Monday.

“It’s my dream job — so I can’t wait!” Lincoln told TVSpy via email. “KEYE’s re-launching a new morning show (set to hopefully debut at the beginning of April) so this is a very exciting transition.”

Lincoln is currently a weekend anchor and reporter at KABB, the Fox-affiliate in San Antonio. Her last day at the station is Friday.

KEYE’s morning newscast has been anchored by Fred Cantu since October. The San Antonio Express-News reports Lincoln will “c0-anchor” the morning newscast, although it is not immediately clear who her co-anchor will be. KEYE did not return TVSpy’s request for comment.

Fred Cantu, who many viewers in Austin know simply as “Uncle Fred,” has left his job in the hardware department of a local Home Depot to join KEYE full-time.

Cantu, who has been working as a fill-in anchor for KEYE over the past few months after departing his regular position there in 2010, is now anchoring the CBS-affiliate’s morning newscast.

Cantu told the Austin American-Statesman recently that he now has a contract with KEYE for “a couple of years at least.”

After leaving KEYE in 2010, Cantu had trouble finding another TV job so he started working at Home Depot to make ends meet and support his wife Laura, who requires a wheelchair to get around. Read more

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced today that it has finalized the acquisition of Four Points Media’s stations for $200 million.

Sinclair announced the deal, which includes KUTV in Salt Lake City and KEYE in Austin, back in September and has been operating Four Points Media’s stations since October 1st.

The Baltimore-based company now officially owns KUTV (CBS) and KMYU (MNT) in Salt Lake City; KEYE (CBS) in Austin; WTVX (CW), WTCN-CA (MNT), and WWHB-CA (Azteca) in West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce; and WLWC (CW) in Providence.

Longtime KEYE anchor Fred Cantu, who many in the Austin area know simply as “Uncle Fred,” is now working in the hardware department of a local Home Depot following his exit from the CBS-Telemundo station last December.

“People think about this as a step down, but I don’t think of it that way,” Cantu said in a recent interview with the Austin American-Statesman. “I think of it as part of the ride. Some people end at the top. It’s just that some people think the roller coaster always goes up. And who knows, the roller coaster may go up again. And as long as I’m still on the ride, I’m happy.” Read more

A familiar face has returned to Austin CBS-affiliate KEYE: Fred Cantu, who left the station in December, is filling in as morning anchor on an interim basis, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Cantu was with KEYE for eight years before he left. During his time at the station, he served a variety of different roles, including morning and evening anchor. He was also the anchor for the station’s Telemundo newscasts, which air on a digital subchannel of KEYE.

Prior to joining KEYE, Cantu was an anchor for KTBC and KVUE, both in Austin. The veteran anchor replaces Erika Gonzalez, who shared the news of her departure on Twitter last week.

Veteran investigative reporter Nanci Wilson is leaving KXAN.

Wilson, who has has won a pair of local Emmys during her 22 years as a reporter, was wooed to KXAN in 2009 following seven years with crosstown rival KEYE.  And now she’s leaving.

“I’ll miss my friends at KXAN, and I wish them well,” Wilson told the Austin American-Statesman via email. “I’m proud to have had the opportunity to work on stories that revealed issues and led to positive changes.”

KXAN is currently searching for her replacement. Read more

Sinclair Broadcast Group, which currently owns, operates, or services 58 stations in 35 markets, has inked an agreement to purchase the assets of Four Points Media.

The $200 million deal includes seven stations in four markets.

“We are very excited about the acquisition of the Four Points television stations and welcome their employees into Sinclair,” said David Smith, president and CEO of Sinclair.  “The stations, which are in prime middle-markets, are a perfect complement to our portfolio of assets and TV footprint.”

Full list of stations inside… Read more

To many local news viewers, nothing is more important than the weather — and in Texas, where a statewide drought has been plaguing the residents, viewers are watching closely for any sign of relief.

The Austin American-Statesmen profiles four meteorologists in the Austin market  — Scott Fisher (pictured) of KTBC, Mark Murray of KVUE, Troy Kimmel of KEYE and Jim Spencer of KXAN. The four of them agree: there’s no end in sight, and that fact alone makes forecasting close to impossible.

“I agonize over two or three degrees, because I want to be right 100 percent of the time,” Fisher said. All the meteorologists say they begin to prepare their forecasts hours before they go on the air — looking at maps, analyzing data and thinking of new ways to tell viewers that the weather will likely be hot and dry, again. (“Someone brought in a thesaurus the other day, and I said, ‘Hey, can I borrow that?’” Murray recalled.) Read more

KEYE is set to debut a new morning show on Friday that the CBS-affiliate promises will be “different than anything else in the mornings on TV in Austin.”

“We Are Austin Mornings,” airing from 5-7 a.m., will be hosted by Erika Gonzalez, a multilingual reporter who has anchored newscasts for KEYE’s Telemundo subchannel, with meteorologist Kelly Slifka giving regular weather updates (promo video with Gonzalez and Slifka above).

“We’ve got all the need-to-know information, but we’re also fun and spunky, with a whole lot of viewer interaction,” Gonzalez told the American-Statesman recently. “This show is its own animal.”

For KEYE, the new show is a return to form. In 2009, the station scrapped its morning newscast and began airing a simulcast of a local radio show instead.