News Director to Become Features Reporter

WDBJ (roanoke) News Director Dan Dennison is being replaced, but he's not leaving the station.

Dan Dennison is leaving the ND gig to become a roving features reporter for the station,

Kelly Zuber has been named news director replacing Dennison. 

Zuber is a 31-year veteran at WDBJ, where she has worked as a reporter, producer, assignment editor and most recently as the director of digital media.

"Kelly has strong journalism credentials," WDBJ president and general manager Jeff
Marks said. "She steered the [station's] growth into mobile platforms and apps and made us the market leader across all platforms" in the Roanoke-Lynchburg television market.

"Working with the region's most experienced and largest electronic news team is a great opportunity," Zuber is quoted as saying in a news release. "There's a reason Your Hometown News Leader has been number one decades."

She replaces Dennison, who came to Roanoke in 2011 and has worked in television for nearly 40 years.

Dennison became news director after having been out of the TV business for three years. During his time at WDBJ, Dennison, a hiker and outdoors enthusiast, has produced a series of features for the station called "Trail Stories," which highlight regional hiking and biking opportunities.

Marks said that Dennison will cover a 26-county region, while equipped with all the tools of mobile reporting, from portable cameras to cellphones. Marks called Dennison the "reporter of the future."

"He will have all the tools in the front seat of his car and be able to feed stories from anywhere across all platforms," Marks said. "He is prolific. We will get good stuff out of him."

H/T Roanoke Times