Monday, July 06, 2009

WCIU gets into A.M. news business - sort of

Weigel's WCIU-DT and its sister station ME-TV (WCIU-DT, 26.2) are getting into the morning news business - sort of.

Scheduled to kick off in August, titled "U and Me In the Morning", the news segments run for as little as 30 seconds and as long as 10 minutes. Former WGCI-FM personality and WMAQ-TV reporter Jeanne Sparrow will be live-in-the studio to host the segments beginning in the fall. The segments will be local in nature, and focus on lifestyle stories rather than hard news.

The move is being made to attract more news-oriented advertising to the station and differniate itself from its image of carrying first-run syndicated and off-network programming and Svengoolie.

While the segments will air during both station's morning block, it is not known what programs will air there in the fall. Current shows airing between 6 and 9 a.m. on WCIU include off-network sitcoms One On One and Half & Half; and the previous day's Insider.

Any paid sponsor placements will be idenified on-air, according to WCIU GM Neal Sabin.

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