Katie Couric is less than a month away from the premiere of “Katie,” her daytime talk show set to debut this Fall. Couric has been visiting local stations across the country this Summer ahead of her first show, which airs September 10.

Yesterday, Couric was in Dallas, where she dropped in on the 5 p.m. newscast on ABC-affiliate WFAA (video above).

Reporter Craig Civale is leaving Dallas ABC-affiliate WFAA, media blogger Ed Bark reports. He will be leaving television to join Baylor Health Care System in Dallas.

“I will be working with the team over there on their marketing strategies and continuing to build the brand,” Civale told Bark. “It’s a hard decision. This is all I’ve ever done. But it was time to focus more on my family and this opportunity allows me to do just that.”

Civale joined WFAA in 2007 as a general assignment reporter. Prior to that, he worked at WVEC in Norfolk, VA and WRIC in Richmond.

The story of “America’s Got Talent” contestant Timothy Poe seemed too good to be true: a veteran of Iraq used song to help heal his combat wounds. And now it looks like it is.

Since impressing the “America’s Got Talent” judges with his country crooning, Poe has come under scrutiny as the military has no record that he was deployed to Iraq. Adding to the public pessimism, is the fact that, after being interviewed by Dallas CBS-affiliate WFAA for a story about veterans that aired during Memorial Day weekend, Poe tried to pass off a photo that he took from a Department of Defense website as himself. Read more

The WFAA morning team has been trying to get meteorologist Greg Fields to participate in their Dance Party Fridays, with no luck.  Until last Friday, when a camera caught Fields dancing by himself to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” while he thought no one was watching (video above).

WFAA evening anchor Gloria Campos has signed a new contract that will take her off the 6 p.m. newscast beginning this fall, Dallas media blogger Ed Bark reports.

Campos has worked at the Dallas ABC-affiliate since 1984. She currently anchors the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts with John McCaa. Under the terms of her new contract, which continues through February 14, she will anchor only the 10 p.m. newscast, along with “filling in where needed and doing special reports,” according to Bark.

WFAA has not announced yet announced Campos’ replacement anchor at 6 p.m. The changes will take place in September.

Longtime WFLA anchor Bill Ratliff passed away this afternoon. The Tampa NBC-affiliate reports that he died after complications with surgery.

Ratliff worked at WFLA for nearly three decades, from 1982 to 2009, during which time he anchored the station’s morning newscast and also served as the show’s managing editor.

Before joining WFLA, Ratliff worked at WFAA in Dallas, WDIV in Detroit, and WLWT in Cincinnati, among other places.

“Our NewsChannel 8 family is deeply saddened today by the loss of our dear friend Bill Ratliff,” veteran WFLA anchor Gayle Sierens wrote on her Facebook page.  “We will all miss him so.” Read more

Earlier this year, KTVI anchor-reporter Teresa Woodard landed a job at WFAA in Dallas. The move meant that she would be working in her hometown, but it also meant that she would be leaving her husband, KMOV reporter Mark Schnyder, behind in St. Louis.

Now the couple has found a way to once again work in the same market.

Schnyder, a Houston native, has lined up a job as a freelance reporter at Dallas NBC-affiliate KXAS.

“Rarely do two married reporters get jobs in the same market at the same time,” Schnyder told mikemcguff.com this week. “Somehow we have managed this challenge and there’s a very strong chance this will be our last move in TV. Dallas is home and it’s a big market…what more could we ask for?” Read more

A severe tornado threat in the Dallas-Fort Worth area sent the market’s local stations into continuing weather coverage this afternoon.

After offering short cut-in updates throughout their morning programming, KTVT, KDFW, KXAS and WFAA all began continuing coverage of the tornadoes shortly after 12:45 pmCT. Although each stations had multiple anchors and reporters contribute, the chief meteorologists led the coverage: Larry Mowry on KTVT, Dan Henry on KDFW, David Finfrock on KXAS and Pete Delkus on WFAA.

WFAA’s news chopper captured some dramatic video that was used heavily on the national cable networks in their tornado coverage. Watch inside… Read more

WFAA medical reporter Janet St. James was recently attacked by a dog and, in a story for the ABC-affiliate, she expressed her frustration that law enforcement officials haven’t done more to the animal, which she has emphasized is a pit bull.

“This is what makes me mad,” St. James said in an interview with WFAA’s Teresa Woodard, after the dog was detained at a local animal shelter.  “There should be no question what should happen to this dog, in my mind.” Read more

Did Dallas police officers stage an arrest for KDFW? That’s the question at the heart of an internal investigation now being conducted by the Dallas Police Department.

A Dallas firefighter was arrested at his home on Thursday, following an incident last week in which he fired a gun in a firehouse. Fox O&O KDFW was the only local station to get footage of the arrest and now the Dallas Police Department is investigating whether the arresting officers operated outside of protocol in serving up the handcuffed firefighter for the KDFW news crew. Read more