WJCL Savannah Adds News At 5 And 5:30 P.M.

ABC affiliate WJCL Savannah, Ga. (DMA 92) is again expanding its local news, adding weekday broadcasts at 5 and 5:30 p.m.

The station is owned by LIN Media, which in March entered into a $1.6 billionmerger with Media General. Before that deal can close, the companies will have to sell or swap stations in five markets to comply with FCC ownership rules. Savannah is one of those markets, with Media General owningWSAV (NBC); and LIN owning WJCL and operating WTGS (Fox) through a marketing agreement.

The addition marks the fourth news expansion this year by WJCL. In January Good Morning Savannah expanded its start time a half hour earlier to 4:30 a.m. Next, it launched 6 p.m. newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays. Then, just two weeks ago, WJCL News expanded yet again on sister station WTGS (Fox) with Good Day Savannah, which airs weekday mornings from 7 to 8 a.m.

President-GM Les Vann said: “After relaunching and rebranding ourselves last fall, we thought that this spring was a critical moment to expand our commitment to this community and provide our viewers another option for local news.  We’ve been diligently working on fulfilling our advocacy brand and want to include more stories that affect our friends and neighbors in the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry.”

WJCL News at 5 and 5:30 will be co-anchored by Kevin Holmes and Jenifer Andrews.  The newscast will look to dig deeper into the stories that impact the lives of those in Savannah, Hilton Head, Beaufort and the surrounding areas, according to the station. Also contributing to the newscast are  Chief Stormtracker Meteorologist Jeff Kirk and  Frank “The Big Guy” Sulkowski with local sports coverage.