WCIA Expands 6 P.M. Newscast To An Hour

Nexstar-owned CBS affiliate WCIA Champaign, Ill. (DMA 85), is expanding its 6 p.m. newscast to an hour beginning  April 6. WCIA 3 News at Six will air from 6 to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

“Nexstar and our Central Illinois station operations including IllinoisHomepage.net are committed to supporting the evolving needs and interests of our local viewing communities, hometown businesses, and public organizations,” said Coby Cooper, the station’s VP-GM. “Our viewers have requested more local news content from our team, particularly in the evening, and viewing trends confirm there’s a growing appetite for our brand of local news. WCIA 3 has a strong history of responding to the needs of our viewers, and the expansion of WCIA 3 News at Six is an extension of that legacy.”

This expansion has been in the works for several months, and marks the third significant expansion of WCIA’s local programming in the past five years.

In September 2011, the station launched CiLiving, a local lifestyle show blending local human-interest stories, coverage and promotion of local events, and live interviews covering a wide range of topics of concern to local non-profits, businesses and community initiatives.  Matt Metcalf, Heather Roberts and Joe Barlow host the show, which airs Monday through Friday from 4 to 5 p.m..

In September 2014, WCIA  launched Current, a local news magazine show geared toward women in central Illinois.  Current airs from 9 to 10 a.m. and is hosted by Cynthia Bruno and Erica Quednau.

The additional half hour of local news programming on WCIA brings the station’s total local programming commitment to nearly seven hours each weekday. Additionally, the station produces a two-hour morning newscast on WCIX from 7 to 9 a.m., and a half-hour evening newscast at 7 p.m. That brings its weekly local news total to 49 1/2 hours per week when factoring in weekend newscasts.