ABC-affiliate WMAR became the first station in Baltimore to begin its morning newscast at 4:30 a.m. today. Following a national trend, WMAR debuted its expanded newscast this morning.

“People are waking up earlier to get to work and to get their families going,” news director Kelly Groft pointed out, “and we’ll be there first thing in the morning to help them start their day off right.”

The expanded newscast features WMAR’s established morning team of anchors Megan Pringle and Charley Crowson, and meteorologist Justin Berk (promo video above).

“WMAR was the first station on the air in Maryland,” boasted Bill Hooper, WMAR’s vice president and general manager, in announcing the new start-time. “Now it’s the very first station to serve our viewers in the morning with earlier news than any other local station in the market.”

Today’s 4:30 debut was greeted by a full moon and Berk, who had been informed of the earlier start just hours before the newscast, said, “When I first heard, literally this morning, I wanted to howl.”