WFAA8's Carla Wade gets new weekend anchor assignment while Marcus Moore gets new exposure (updated)
06/08/14 02:30 PM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
WFAA8’s weekend anchor alignment double-shifted Saturday following the dismissal of Shon Gables.
Carla Wade, who had been anchoring the Dallas-based station’s weekend evening and late night newscasts, is Gables’ permanent replacement on weekend mornings. Moore, also clearly a rising star at WFAA8, anchored Saturday’s PM newscasts in place of Wade but was back anchoring WFAA8’s Midday newscast on Monday. Teresa Woodard filled in as anchor of Sunday’s PM newscasts while incumbent Jason Wheeler apparently was off.
Wade’s transition was announced on wfaa.com by news director Carolyn Mungo. Moore wasn’t mentioned in the announcement, but he tweeted his thanks Saturday night in response to congratulatory messages for his 10 p.m. debut.
Moore for now also continues to report for weekday editions of WFAA8’s early morning Daybreak. Or as co-anchor Ron Corning happily tweeted on Tuesday, “Despite one local media report @MarcusMoorewfaa is still our M-F Daybreak reporter! And of course anchoring Midday W-F. Woopwoop!”
(Note to readers: the “local media report” on Moore originated here. It proved to be erroneous regarding his weekend duties.)
Mungo did not return four email messages requesting information or confirmation on the dropping of Gables and the resultant weekend anchor shifts. She did, however, confirm Gables’ departure to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram hours after unclebarky.com had posted WFAA8’s decision to part with Gables. The newspaper and WFAA8 are new partners in a content-sharing arrangement.
Wade joined WFAA8 in February 2013 from Oklahoma City’s KOCO-TV. Moore has been at WFAA8 since January 2012. He previously worked at KMBC-TV in Kansas City.
WFAA8 also has officially named Alexa Conomos as the full-time co-anchor of the station’s weekday Daybreak program. Conomos, who had been Daybreak’s longtime traffic reporter, was the primary anchor partner for Ron Corning in the months since Cynthia Izaguirre became the 5 and 10 p.m. weekday co-anchor following Gloria Campos’ retirement after the February “sweeps” ratings period.
The station had posted the Daybreak co-anchor spot and welcomed outside candidates to apply. But Mungo, in a statement on wfaa.com, said the position now belongs to Conomos.
“Alexa is a parent and relates to so many of our viewers trying to get children up, and out the door every morning,” Mungo said. “Her concerns are their concerns, and she brings a special warmth to the broadcast.”
Conomos and her husband have three young children. Shane Allen, who replaced Conomos as Daybreak’s traffic reporter, apparently will stay in that position. He formerly worked at NBC5.
WFAA8 ran third in the early mornings during the recently ended May ratings “sweeps,” behind Fox4 and NBC5.
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