Young Broadcasting's WATE Knoxville will produce a 10 p.m. newscast for WBXX starting next month, reports Scripps' Knoxville.com. WATE, an ABC affiliate, used to produce 10 p.m. news for Raycom's Fox affiliate WTNZ, while WBXX had a nightly 12-minute newscast produced by WBIR.
WBIR now produces the 10 p.m. news for WTNZ.
WBXX is a CW affiliate in DMA No. 59. Earlier this year, Acme Communications agreed to sell it to Lockwood Broadcast Group for $5.6 million. Dan Phillippi was general manager at WBXX before taking over the GM spot at WATE in October.
"We are privileged to be broadcasting news on the leading CW station in the nation," said Phillippi.
The new newscast will run for 35 minutes and will air seven days a week.
"We're glad to be back in the 10 p.m. time slot," said WATE News Director Jamie Foster in a statement. "A lot of viewers have asked if we're going to do a 10 p.m. news again. We know they'll be as excited as we are."
WATE and WBXX will be switching to high definition broadcasts in the fall.
