Chicago CW affiliate WGN has announced changes to its on-air lineup and an expanded morning news.
Starting September 3, Dan Ponce will join Erin McElroy as co-anchor of the WGN Morning News at 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. Before coming to WGN in 2010, Ponce was a reporter at the Chicago ABC owned station WLS.
“News, music and humor – there’s only one newscast in the city where I can do all three,” said Ponce in a statement. “I’m thrilled to be joining Chicago’s most popular morning TV team. It’s going to be a big adjustment waking up that early, but anchoring with Erin McElroy every day will make it well worth it.”
WGN also announced starting September 3, the morning show will add an hour at 9:00 a.m. Larry Potash, Robin Baumgarten, weather anchor Paul Konrad and sports anchor Pat Tomasulo will anchor the expanded show. The station also promoted Terry Barthel to supervising news producer for the new morning news hour.
The other announced changes were the moving of feature reporter Marcus Leshock to the 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. morning news, the move from freelance fill-in to full-time feature reporter for the 5:00 p.m. newscast for Amy Rutledge and the move to afternoon reporter and back up anchor for Frank Holland.