WALA Expands Late News To 90 Minutes

Beginning Aug. 24, Meredith-owned Fox affiliate WALA Mobile, Ala. (DMA 59), is enlarging its Monday through Friday late newscast to 90 minutes. Fox10 News at 9:00 p.m. will now air until 10:30.

“In this market, late news is very competitive and very important to each station’s success,” said Gary Yoder, WALA president-GM. “We are in a very unique programming situation that allows us to expand our late news efforts without infringing on other programming obligations. We can greatly increase our value to our viewers and our partners.”

“We are committed to being the place Gulf Coast residents turn to for local news, weather and information — all day, every day,” said Scott Flannigan, WALA news director. “This isn’t a condensed version of our 9 o’clock news. Expanding our 9 p.m. news presence gives us the chance to do more investigations, more weather coverage and be of more service to our viewers.”

Lenise Ligon and Bob Grip will anchor the full 90 minutes and Chief Meteorologist Jason Smith will offer expanded weather information.

This new newscast follows a recently announced a new WALA weekend morning newscast that airs Saturday and Sunday from 6 to 8 a.m.