WAVE Louisville

Is Louisville more or less safe than it used to be? If you watch local television news, you’re more likely to think that Louisville is less safe. This is partially because the local TV outlets— WAVE, WHAS, WLKY, and WDRB — spend an extraordinary amount of time covering crime stories despite the preponderance of other, more newsworthy topics.

In a sports-crazy town that can’t get enough of its annual horse race or the exploits of its local college teams, the Courier-Journal‘s recent paywall launch has the market’s TV stations looking for ways to steal its readers away, including WDRB’s hiring away two of the paper’s top sports columnists.

Having suffered through a November sweeps in which its noon newscast was attracting less audience than WLKY, WHAS, Family Feud and the Jerry Springer Show, WAVE GM Ken Selvaggi is making a big change next month. Starting Jan. 9, WAVE’s noon newscast will air at 11 a.m., followed by Extra at 11:30.

Ken Selvaggi, VP-GM of Raycom-owned NBC affiliate WSFA Montgomery-Selma, Ala., announced to staff Monday that he’ll be leaving to take over the reins at Raycom’s WAVE Louisville, Ky., on March 21.

On Friday, WAVE Louisville, Ky., GM Steve Langford dropped a bombshell on the Raycom-owned NBC afilliate’s newsroom — he’s retiring, effective in a couple of weeks. He’s been there a while (GM since 1998, originally joined the station in 1978). The surprise announcement comes as WAVE completes one of its worst ratings periods in station history.