The hour-long RightThisMinute that combines on-air journalism with the interactivity of social media, using the Internet, mobile, social media and citizen journalists will debut on select stations this fall with plans for national distribution in 2012.

The agency has cleared Community Newspapers to sell four TV stations in the Southeast to Thomas Henson for $24 million and the assumption of debt. Raycom operates three of the stations in duopoly arrangements.

Gaston is currently GSM of the Raycom NBC affiliate in Montgomery, Ala. Earlier in his 17-broadcasting career, Gaston was a sales manager and account executive at stations in Jacksonville, Fla.

The COO of the nation’s 15th largest station group believes broadcasters need to wean themselves from their heavy dependence on Hollywood syndicators. With that in mind, he says, Raycom is developing its own shows and looking for broadcasters outside of Raycom markets to give them national reach. In this interview, Daugherty also talks about how business is pacing, mobile DTV, the FCC spectrum grab, virtual duopolies, the sharing of retrans revenue with the networks and more.

Scripps-owned WPTV West Palm Beach, Fla., which has been producing news for Raycom’s WFLX, will now also be responsible for technical, promotional and online operations at the Fox affil.

The syndicated weekend series from Raycom Media and ITV Studios America is expanding to a daily strip distributed by Debmar-Mercury.

Community Newspaper Holdings is selling WXTX Columbus, Ga. (Fox); WSFX Wilmington, N.C. (Fox); WUPV Richmond, Va. (CW) and WFXG Augusta-Aiken, S.C. (Fox), to Thomas Henson for $24 million and the assumption of $50 million in debt.

Insight Communications and Raycom Media reached a three-year retransmission agreement covering three of Raycom’s stations on the cable operator’s systems in Kentucky and Indiana.