WMAQ Chicago Beefing Up Investigative Unit

NBC-owned WMAQ Chicago (DMA 3) today announced major plans to expand its current investigative team by adding five new members — both on air and off air. Currently the NBC 5 Investigates team includes veteran, award-winning journalists Carol Marin, Rob Stafford, Lisa Parker, Phil Rogers, Marion Brooks and Dick Johnson along with several producers and photographers.

As part of this expansion, veteran journalist Phil Rogers will become a full-time investigative reporter. Rogers has been a general assignment reporter at WMAQ since 1993 and has won numerous awards for his breaking news and investigative reporting. This change will allow him to devote all of his attention to investigative stories, the station said.

In addition, producer Courtney Copenhagen will move from producing the noon weekday newscast to become a dedicated investigative producer. Also, Chris Coffey will join the WMAQ investigative team in August. Coffey comes to Chicago from WVIT, the NBC O&O in Hartford, Conn., where he was part of the Troubleshooter investigative team since it launched in January 2012. Other members of the team will be announced soon, the station said.

“We are committed to investigative journalism and want to complement our already strong investigative team with a major infusion of resources,” said David Doebler, WMAQ president-GM. “With this additional dedicated staff, we will be able to provide our viewers with even more stories and in-depth investigations on a daily basis.”

The expansion of the investigative unit is part of NBCUniversal’s investment in its 10 owned stations, which includes hiring more than 130 new people, adding more local news, establishing new consumer and investigative units and purchasing new equipment, in an effort to boost the news gathering capabilities at the stations.