WSLS Roanoke

Graham Media Group’s WSLS Roanoke, Va., has been serving viewers in Southwest Virginia since 1952. Replacing its aging HDTV cameras following its move into a new facility two years earlier, […]

Graham Media Group’s WSLS Roanoke, Va., will move to a new broadcast facility in late 2018, vacating its building of more than 60 years. “WSLS has been in its current location since the 1950’s, and while the facility has served us well, television has changed a great deal and the time was right for a move,” said Jaimie León, the NBC affiliate’s GM.

Graham Media promotes her from business manager at its KSAT San Antonio to oversee its NBC affiliate in Roanoke, Va.

Graham Media’s NBC-Affiliate in Roanoke, Va., means all the major affiliates in Roanoke use comScore’s local television ratings.

The divestitures are designed to comply with FCC ownership caps as Nexstar’s acquisition of Media General awaits commission approval. The stations are WCWJ Jacksonville, Fla.; WSLS Roanoke, Va.; KADN and KLAF-LD Lafayette, La.; and KREG Denver.

For the first time in more than four years, WSLS Roanoke, Va., will air news at noon.The Media General NBC affiliate’s noon newscast returns Monday, with Patrick McKee as anchor and Kristina Montuori doing weather. The broadcast will be WSLS’s first weekday noon newscast since March 2010, when the station scrapped the news and debuted Our Blue Ridge, a program that focused primarily on lifestyles, entertainment and community events.

WSLS VP-GM Leesa Wilcher will be leaving the station later this spring. Wilcher has been the general manager at the NBC affiliate since 2011, when she came to the station from a fellow Media General-owned WJHL Johnson City, Tenn.

In A Day’s Drive, a microsite from Media General’s WSLS Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va., which caters to users looking for nearby tourist destinations, has helped the NBC affiliate pull in advertisers from around the state. To date, the site has earned more than $120,000 for WSLS since its 2012 launch.

The group’s NBC affiliates WCMH Columbus, Ohio, and WSLS Roanoke, Va., have joined Digital First Media’s AdTaxi Alliance Network.

In DMA 56, Little Rock, Ark., spending on election campaigns is sparse. The presidential candidates are ignoring the state because Mitt Romney has a lock on its six electoral votes, and there are no major state offices up for grabs. But it’s a much different story in DMA 69 — Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va. — where stations are having trouble coping with the enormous demand for time.

Media General’s WSLS Roanoke, Va., will remain on Cox Communications cable after Cox reached an agreement late yesterday with the station’s corporate owner just hours before a retransmission contract was set to expire.

Media General says that it will pull its Roanoke, Va., NBC affiliate WSLS from Cox Communications subscribers unless the MSO agrees to increased fees for retransmission consent. Cox’s contract with the station expires on May 31.

Nearly a third of Roanoke, Va., residents aren’t online, but it isn’t for a lack of first-rate digital offerings, including some of the slickest multimedia production to be found on any newspaper website, plus apps, blogs mobile sites and more. WSET-TV, The Roanoke Times and other local players are gearing up for a predicted 89% boost in digital revenue in this sleepy southern town.

KOMU Columbia, Mo., in DMA138, has taken the plunge into social media news, last week launching a 4 p.m. newscast that makes viewers an integral part of the show. And there’s a social media desk that includes two reporters tracking bloggers, Tweets and online conversations about topics making the news. Industry watchers applaud KOMU for pushing the envelope in its use of social media at a time when many stations are still trying to figure them out. But some question their heavy use in what has always been a sit-back, passive medium.

Roanoke’s two television stations confirmed key management changes. Schurz’s CBS affiliate WDBJ’s News Director Amy Morris will be leaving, and Media General NBC affil WSLS will be getting a new GM as Leesa Wilcher succeeds Warren Filhr.