Indy Station to Add News when it Loses CBS

Back in August, FTVLive told you that WISH in Indy is losing their affiliation with CBS.

On Aug 11th, FTVLive wrote, "If WISH is going to stay a player in the market, the only way they will be able to do that is by beefing up the news department. It's just a question of if they will do that or not."

Well, it appears that WISH is taking FTVLive's advice and doing just that. The station sent out a release saying WISH-TV will be expanding local news starting on Jan. 1, 2015.

Four hours of news programming will be added each weekday at the start of the new year. The expansion is part of an investment into WISH-TV’s local news programming.

“The investments we are making further enhance WISH-TV’s 60-year commitment to localism and local news,” said WISH-TV General Manager Les Vann. “The additional 20 hours of news per week will allow us to deliver more breaking news, investigative journalism, sports and weather coverage, across all screens, and in new time periods for our viewers.”

24-Hour News 8’s Daybreak will expand by two hours, airing from 4:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. 24-Hour News 8 at Noon will expand by 30 minutes to 1 p.m. 24-Hour News 8’s early newscast will expand by 30 minutes to 7 p.m. and WISH-TV’s late newscast will expand one additional hour, from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

As WISH beefs up news, they have holes to fill in the sales department. Sources tell FTVLive that the station lost another key sales manager Paul Simonetti has bailed to WRTV as director of local sales.