WFAE to replace 'Talk of the Nation'

NPR is ending on July 1 its weekday call-in show 'Talk of the Nation' with Neal Conan, the network announced Friday, and Charlotte's affiliate, WFAE-FM (90.7), will likely replace it with a second hour of the news magazine 'Here and Now' at 2 p.m.

Dale Spear, WFAE's program director, said Friday he hasn't been happy with 'Talk of the Nation's' ratings performance for some time.  

WFAE expects to continue carrying 'Science Friday' with Ira Flatow at 1 p.m. Saturdays, where the station has rebranded it as 'Sci-Fri Matinee.' 

News 14 changing its name

News 14 Carolina, the 24-hour local cable news channel, will be changing its name by year’s end to Time Warner Cable News.

Alan Mason, the Raleigh-based vice president of News 14, said Friday that the rebranding will include all 13 of the TWC local channels across the country, including the flagship NY1 channel in New York City.

Currently there are three different branding protocols for stations serving TWC cable systems in the Carolinas, New York and Texas.

By settling on one name, it makes it easier to share content between the stations without changing microphone flags three times for stories developed by the Washington or NYSE bureaus for regional distribution.

It will also end some confusion among viewers who don’t understand that the channel is an exclusive service available only on Time Warner Cable, said Melissa Buscher, director of media relations for the Carolinas.
News 14 debuted in North Carolina a decade ago.

Newscasts will get updated graphics for the change, expected in the fourth quarter, said Mason.

Fox names manager for its new Charlotte stations

Fox Television Stations has named a veteran North Carolina broadcaster to lead the two stations it is acquiring in Charlotte.

Karen Adams, now general manager of the Fox affiliate in Greensboro-High Point, will take over when the Fox network group takes control of WJZY (Channel 46) and WMYT (Channel 55) in June. Fox is buying the two stations from Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting in an $18 million transaction announced in January.

Karen Adams

Fox's programming lineup will move from longtime affiliate WCCB (Channel 18) to one of the former Capitol stations in June.

Adams was an executive at the Greensboro station, WGHP (Channel 8), when it was  owned by Fox from 1996 to 2008. It was sold as part of transaction when parent company News Corp. was raising money to purchase The Wall Street Journal.

"I couldn’t be happier to welcome her back," Jack Abernethy, chief executive officer of Fox Television Stations, said in a statement Thursday.

Adams, 58, started at WGHP in 1976 on the production floor as a camera operator and worked up into other positions including program director, anchor and producer on the station's morning show and vice president of creative services before becoming general manager, a post she has held for 16 years.

"North Carolina is my home and I look forward to rejoining my Fox Television Station colleagues," Adams said in a statement.

Adams has a BA in theater arts from High Point University, where she serves on the advisory board of the communications department. She is also on the advisory board of the Salvation Army of High Point and  Brenner Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem.