Station Break

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, KOCO Oklahoma City is taking its newscasts on the road this week. Co-anchors Carrie Zamora and Tyler Suiters, meteorologist Rick Mitchell, and sports anchor Mark Rodgers are broadcasting the 5 and 6 p.m. programs live from a different city each day. KOCO, an ABC affiliate, is owned by Hearst-Argyle.

Seattle—Viacom's KSTW, a UPN affiliate, adds a 10 p.m. newscast this week. The 30-minute program will be produced seven days a week by KIRO, the Cox-owned CBS affiliate. It becomes the market's third 10 p.m. news show. KCPQ's Q13 Fox News at 10 is the time period's news ratings leader. KING, an NBC affiliate owned by Belo, produces a program for co-owned independent KONG.

Albuquerque, N.M.—KRQE, the Emmis-owned CBS affiliate, has launched its own local version of the network's 48 Hours franchise. The hour-long 48 Hours New Mexico, to be produced occasionally, focuses on local issues that the station doesn't have time to cover in depth during regularly scheduled newscasts. The lineup of the inaugural program, July 7, included stories on high-society drug use in New Mexico and updates on several unsolved murder cases. KRQE had no problem scheduling around a couple of King of Queens and Still Standing reruns, but future broadcasts, given the strength of CBS prime time programming, may be a tougher fit.

Anchorage, Alaska—It has taken nearly 40 years, but Alaska is going to get Monday Night Football live. The state's only ABC affiliate, KIMO, will take the kickoffs at 5 p.m. local time, ending a decades-old practice of delaying the broadcasts by up to three hours. Tape delay of MNF telecasts was once commonplace among West Coast affiliates; many preferred to stick with local news broadcasts rather than cut to the network. Most have since opted to take the game live. Although KIMO will start out live, it won't stick to real-time telecasts. The station plans to add some local commercials and news breaks during halftime. That will likely delay the start of the second half of each game by up to 10 minutes.

Hartford, Conn.—The thought of losing the city's No. 1 station to a suburban locale sent shock waves through local politicians. Word leaked out that WFSB, Meredith's CBS affiliate, was looking to move from Constitution Plaza, its home for more than four decades, to new digs in suburban Rocky Hill. Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez assembled a group of developers and city officials to persuade the station to stay put. If pleading doesn't work, Hartford City Council Member John Bezzano says, he will "lie down in front of the [station's] moving vans."

Philadelphia—Police in Bethlehem, Pa., busted a 17-year-old high school student claiming to be a reporter for WTXF, the Fox O&O here. According to the police report, the teenager drove a van bearing a hand-painted, magnetic "Fox 29" sticker, pulled out a camera and started taking pictures of some children. When adults asked why, he told them to "watch the news tonight." The boy later admitted to police that he did not represent the station and was working on a class project. The police report noted that there was no tape in the camera. Cops charged the boy with harassment and released him into his mother's custody.