Brief: Channel 21 plans hourlong newscasts

KVWB Channel 21, which appears on Channel 2 on the Cox Communications cable system, has hired a news director who will start work in Las Vegas on Feb. 15.

Mark Higgins, general manager of KVWB, which is owned by the Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcasting Group, said Marc Weiner, an assistant news manager at KTVT in Dallas, will be the first news employee. Higgins said he and Weiner will consult to determine how large the news staff will be.

The starting date of the first newscast is dependent on the completion of KVWB's new 30,000-square-foot digital studio, which will be built near Charleston Boulevard and Town Center Road at Summerlin. Ground will be broken on the station in March, Higgins said.

In addition to the seven days of newscasts, KVWB will produce news briefs for KFBT Channel 33 (cable Channel 6), with which Channel 21 has a marketing agreement. The hour-long newscast will include expanded sports and weather.

Other local 10 p.m. newscasts are broadcast by KVVU Channel 5, a Fox network affiliate; and Las Vegas 1, a partnership of KLAS Channel 8, Cox Communications and the Las Vegas Sun. Las Vegas 1 has four half-hour newscasts beginning at 9 p.m., but starting Monday it will move to an hour-long newscast at 9 p.m. that will be rebroadcast at 10 p.m.

The ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates in Las Vegas all have 11 p.m. newscasts, along with dinner-time newscasts.

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