A WXMI photographer suffered fractured leg after he was involved in a crash while driving the station’s live truck Friday morning.

The photographer was traveling on U.S. 131 Friday morning when he “hit an arrow board traffic sign where a work crew was making an emergency repair to a pothole,” according to WXMI. The live truck spun out and crashed, and he was pinned inside the vehicle. He was alert and talking as he was extricated from the truck and taken to a Grand Rapids hospital for treatment.

The crash resulted in lane closures on U.S. 131 as emergency crews removed the photographer from the live truck and cleared the accident scene.

Ten days before he was charged with murder, a Michigan landlord granted Grand Rapids Fox affiliate WXMI extensive access to the murder scene (video after the jump).

WXMI reporter Mitch Fick interviewed Marion Conley, who was charged this week with the murder of one of his tenants, on March 10. In the interview, Conley showed Fick where the body was found and laughed about how police searched his house for the murder weapon.

“You can take a picture if you want to,” Conley told Fick. “There’s two puddles over there.”

“When I sat down with Mr. Conley there at the house where Jodi Snyder was found dead, he was open, cordial, downright hospitable,” Fick said on WXMI Thursday. “He showed me all around the home, talked to me about where the body was found … and answered all my questions very honestly. He made no impression whatsoever that he could have been committing any sort of crime.” Read more

Grand Rapids Fox affiliate WXMI has launched weekend morning newscasts.

The newscasts, which debuted Saturday and will run both mornings from 5 to 9 a.m., will be anchored by Tim Doty and Leigh Ann Towne.

The station has also hired meteorologist Kelly Smith for the newscast. Smith joins WXMI from KDLT, the NBC affiliate in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Today is National Weatherperson’s Day, and stations all over the country are showing their meteorologists and weathercasters some love (pictured: WWAY anchor Ashley Jacobs and meteorologist Tim Buckley).

According to the NWS, February 5 commemorates the birth of John Jeffries, one of America’s first weather observers, in 1744. Jeffries began observing the weather in 1774 and took the first balloon observation in 1784.

“It’s easy to forget that around the clock, dedicated meteorologists and weathercasters are vigilantly creating forecasts to help you plan your day, and issuing warnings to help keep you safe in the event of severe weather,” the NWS says of National Weatherperson’s Day.

After the jump, a sampling of some National Weatherperson’s Day celebrations. Read more

WXMI reporter Courtney Perna punctuated her 6 p.m. live shot about snowy road conditions in the area by encouraging viewers of the Grand Rapids FOX affiliate to enjoy the powdery goodness that had fallen on the area. You can watch the video after the jump.

In the true spirit of “show don’t tell,” Perna performed a perfectly executed backwards “trust fall” into the eighteen inches of snow behind her and began creating a snow angel. Though we at TVSpy can’t pretend we haven’t seen this move before, we were impressed that she was wearing a skirt when she did it. See the video inside. Read more

Emily Richett is leaving WXMI after almost seven years as a feature and entertainment reporter for the Grand Rapids Fox affiliate.

“Being a FOX 17 News Reporter and sharing stories about the people, places and good news in our community has been a dream job,” she wrote on Facebook Monday. “But after 6.5 years, I’ve decided it was time for the next story in my career.”

Friday will be Richett’s last day reporting for the WXMI morning newscast. She said has “an exciting new adventure” that she will share soon. [h/t MLive.com]

WXMI has fired reporter and weekend anchor Jason Volentine after he failed to disclose his connection to an atheist group that he was covering.

In July, Volentine did a story for WXMI about the Freedom From Religion Foundation‘s campaign to have the image of a church removed from the city logo of Wyoming, MI.  MLive reports that the Grand Rapids Fox-affiliate dismissed Volentine when it learned that he had ties to the FFRF, a Wisconsin-based organization that fights for the separation of church and state. Read more

A random cat crashed WXMI reporter Nicole DiDonato‘s live shot Thursday morning, jumping onto her shoulder and sinking its claws in.

DiDonato was shooting a live tease outside of a local microbrewery during the Fox-affiliate’s morning newscast when the stray cat decided to make a cameo (video above).

“Learned my lesson: Never making eye contact with a cat before a live tease ever again,” DiDonato tweeted following the incident. [WXMI]

Jennifer Dowling has jumped from WWMT in Grand Rapids to rival WXMI, MLive.com reports.

Dowling was a crime and courts reporter and fill-in anchor at CBS-affiliate WWMT. She joined the station in 2010 from WILX, the NBC-affiliate in Lansing, MI. She has also worked at KEVN in Rapid City, SD, KTIV in Sioux City, IA and WHO in Des Moines.

The Michigan native began at Fox-affiliate WXMI last week.

Rick Mecklenburg has joined WXMI, the Fox-affiliate in Grand Rapids, as chief meteorologist.

Mecklenburg officially joined the station on May 1. He made his on-air debut last week.

Mecklenberg is a former chief meteorologist at WSBT, the CBS-affiliate in South Bend. He filled in on WXMI after the departure of chief meteorologist Peter Chan last year. [via NewsBlues]