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WXIA Changes

J

Junk Junk

A poster on the TVSpy Watercooler is reporting that on January 7th, Karyn Greer will move to AM/Noon newscast with Jill Becker, Clarence Reynolds will move to weekend evenings with Valerie Hoff, and Keith Whitney will become the weekend morning anchor.

Can anyone verify this and what do you think? I never understood why Clarence Reynolds was given the plum weekday spot. He and Becker are a very stale pairing.
 
It has been 20 years since Jill left her weekend gig at channel 2 and joined channel 11 for the morning job. I guess the morning news on channel 11 started with "Today with Hal (Suit) and Guy (Sharpe)" with just 30 minutes at 6:30am. If I remember correctly Carmen Burns joined Hal Suit before expanding to an hour and stayed with them until Jill was hired in 88 to be joined with former channel 5 and channel 11 6/11pm anchor Chuck Moore for the AM job. Jill also worked on the old Noonday program that went through multiple hosts and time slots. If I remember correctly Patricia Hunte did the noon and 5 or 5:30pm newscasts so Jill could focus on Noonday. Chuck stuck with the job for a few years before going the mountains to do the evening newscasts (1999) on the CBS affiliate based out of Toccoa. Ken watts left his long time weekend job at channel 5 for the weekday opportunity at channel 11 which lasted until the hiring of Clarence Reynolds.
Karyn got her start in Atlanta on 46 in 89 as the fri/sat co-anchor with John McKnight (was weekend co-anchor at channel 2 in mid 80s with Jill Becker). Karyn and John ended up on the main news at 10 shows on 46 until being let go in one of many anchor shake ups. Karyn lucked up with a move to channel 11 but john ended up at WGST for a bit but I dont know where he is now.
If this move at 11 in the mornings happens then Jill and Karyn with have the fact they worked with John McKnight as co-anchors in common.
 
RickRose said:
It has been 20 years since Jill left her weekend gig at channel 2 and joined channel 11 for the morning job. I guess the morning news on channel 11 started with "Today with Hal (Suit) and Guy (Sharpe)" with just 30 minutes at 6:30am. If I remember correctly Carmen Burns joined Hal Suit before expanding to an hour and stayed with them until Jill was hired in 88 to be joined with former channel 5 and channel 11 6/11pm anchor Chuck Moore for the AM job. Jill also worked on the old Noonday program that went through multiple hosts and time slots. If I remember correctly Patricia Hunte did the noon and 5 or 5:30pm newscasts so Jill could focus on Noonday. Chuck stuck with the job for a few years before going the mountains to do the evening newscasts (1999) on the CBS affiliate based out of Toccoa. Ken watts left his long time weekend job at channel 5 for the weekday opportunity at channel 11 which lasted until the hiring of Clarence Reynolds.
Karyn got her start in Atlanta on 46 in 89 as the fri/sat co-anchor with John McKnight (was weekend co-anchor at channel 2 in mid 80s with Jill Becker). Karyn and John ended up on the main news at 10 shows on 46 until being let go in one of many anchor shake ups. Karyn lucked up with a move to channel 11 but john ended up at WGST for a bit but I dont know where he is now.
If this move at 11 in the mornings happens then Jill and Karyn with have the fact they worked with John McKnight as co-anchors in common.
Click to expand...

Karyn Greer joined then WGNX in 1989 when their news operation started. She was the lead (and solo) anchor at the time. I believe John McKnight came along later. Karyn and John were let go when Meredith bought the station in 1999.

"Noonday" was cancelled in the 1993-94 WXIA bloodbath led by Greg Dubrow (now Gannett's CEO).

I would suspect WXIA is going to add more entertainment and lifestyle features to "11 Alive News Today", possibly reformatting the morning newscast in the process to provide for a format that emulates the "Today" show. Despite the fact that Clarence hosted "Antiques Roadshow FYI" on PBS, it seems to me that they are trying to find a pairing that works, and with two other men (Randy with sports and Flip with weather), they needed another female to balance it out.

Although the morning team does a lot more bantering, they have basically done all hard news because that is what 800-pound gorilla WSB does. And with all-entertainment and lifestyle "Better Mornings" on WGCL, it seems like a logical step for WXIA to take.
 
I hope this is true. I love Jill Becker and Karyn Grear! Karyn is too talented to be doing weekends! Their morning ratings lag way behind Channel 2 and Fox 5. Hopefully this will shake things up a bit!
 
Clarence Reynolds just spent his last day as morning/noon anchor. He said that it was his choice and he is very happy about the move to weekends. Karyn Grear joins Jill Becker Monday morning.
 
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