WHBF, the CBS affiliate serving the Quad Cities market of Illinois and Iowa, will debut new morning and evening newscasts in September, expanding their news programming by two hours daily.
Beginning next Monday, the station will debut a 90-minute morning newscast, anchored by Meredith Dennis, who most recently worked at rival station KWQC under her maiden name, Meredith Haley. She will be joined by meteorologist Travis Michels, who was hired from WMDT in Salisbury, MD. Dennis and Michels are two of five staffers added for the expansion.
WHBF currently has two daily newscasts — 30 minutes each at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., according to The Quad-City Times. “Our company has made significant investments both technically and operationally,” general manager Marshall Porter said in a statement. “That, combined with the continued growth of our existing newscasts, has put us in an ideal position to make the move now.”
On September 26, the station will debut a 6 p.m. newscast anchored by Chloe Morroni, the current 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. anchor. The station said in a statement they are considering hiring a co-anchor for Morroni.