WMAQ Chicago Sets New Mornings, Weekend Anchor Lineup

NBC-owned WMAQ Chicago (DMA 3) today announced a series of changes behind the anchor desk

Michelle Relerford will join Zoraida Sambolin as anchor weekdays on NBC 5 News Today. She is a Chicago native who has anchored the WMAQ weekend news for the past three years. A graduate of Chicago’s Whitney Young High School and the University of Connecticut, she returned to Chicago in 2011 after working at television stations in Boston, Cleveland and South Bend, Ind.

Relerford will anchor NBC 5 Today from 4 to 5 a.m. Zoraida Sambolin will anchor from 5 to 7 a.m., with Relerford reporting from the News Update Desk. Led by Sambolin, the newscast will include all the overnight breaking news plus in-depth analysis and perspective on the top stories of the morning. Meteorologists Andy Avalos and Alicia Roman, along with traffic reporter Kye Martin, will continue to round out the morning team.

Alex Maragos, another Chicago native, will move to anchor the WMAQ weekend news at 5 and 10 p.m. A graduate of Loyola Academy in Wilmette and Washington and Lee University, he joined WMAQ in 2015 and has been anchoring the weekday morning newscasts since 2016. He will report for the 10 p.m. news during the week.

Kate Chappell will be the new anchor for the WMAQ weekend morning newscasts. She joined NBC 5 in 2018 as a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor. She is a native of Lake Geneva, Wis., and was anchor of the nightly newscast at WDJT Milwaukee prior to coming to Chicago.

Additionally, WMAQ lead sports anchor Siafa Lewis will join Kate Chappell on Sundays for the WMAQ weekend morning newscasts. He joined the team in 2014. Lewis will continue anchoring sports weekdays.

The new anchor line up takes effect Aug. 16.