You might have thought that Channel 4 would have been the station in a hurry to hire a new sports staffer since Steve Vesey is the only on-air sports anchor on the staff now that John Murphy has left.
But Channel 4 is notoriously slow to hire so it is Channel 2 – which has three on-air staffers remaining in Adam Benigni, Ed Kilgore and Stu Boyar — that has announced a new sports staffer to replace Ben Hayes, who recently left to pursue a job outside of broadcasting in North Carolina.
Jonah Javad, a graduate of the University of Missouri (Ed Kilgore’s alma mater), arrives as an anchor and multi-media journalist (that means he shoots his own video) from KOMU in Columbia, Missouri.
He starts Monday and will anchor weekends. General Manager Jim Toellner describes Javad as “a great storyteller.”
Channel 4 is expected to name a new sports hire shortly unless it wants to work Vesey to exhaustion.
Channel 2 is making some changes in its afternoon schedule in early September. The debate show “2 Sides” remains a half-hour at 11:30 a.m. “The Doctors,” which Channel 7 is replacing with Katie Couric’s syndicated show at 4 p.m., will air on Channel 2 at noon. “The Healthy Zone,” which has been on hiatus, moves to 2 p.m., followed by reruns of “The Office” at 2:30 p.m.
pergament@msn.com
I think 2 may have another really solid hire in Jonah Javad. I looked at some of his clips online and he appears to have really good potential to do well in this market.
Link of a story he covered: http://vimeo.com/24812800
I’m still waiting for WIVB to hire a replacement for Robin Adams!
I forgot how long that has been. 3 years, maybe?