After more than 11 months on the job, WTOL-TV, Channel 11, news director Mitch Jacob has made his first hire for an on-air position.
Shelley Brown accepted his offer to become weekend news anchor.
The Louisiana native will succeed Rachel Pfanner, who is leaving for a reporting job with a Philadelphia-based regional cable network. Her final day is Sunday.
Brown, who will start in early September, is going from one Liberty-owned station to another. For the past three years, she has been a morning anchor at KPLC-TV in Lake Charles, La.
Waiting 11 months to make an on-air hire is unusual for an incoming news director. All three of Jacob's peers in the Toledo market, for example, hired on-air personnel within three months of taking over.
Jacob said nearly 200 people applied for the position.
He said he put the resume tapes into two piles one for those deserving of a second look; the other for those who had no chance of getting the job.
"She came to the top of the pile very quickly," Jacob said. "She's incredibly smart and is a very, very hard worker."
Brown, 26, is glad that she will be able to work as a reporter three days a week.
"I love reporting," she said. "I don't think I'd ever want to take either one [anchoring or reporting] away. I think I'll get the best of both worlds."
She is a graduate of Louisiana State University. While attending LSU, she had two internships in New York City with Court TV and Fox affiliate WNYW-TV. Before joining KPLC, she worked in a behind-the-scenes role at WWL-TV in New Orleans and at a cable operation in Houma, La., where she "did everything."
She is making a big jump in market size, going from No. 177 to No. 70.
"She had offers and interest from stations throughout the country and in major markets," Jacob said. "To keep her within the company is a great thing."
Liberty owns 15 stations. Toledo is its second-biggest market, behind Louisville.
Some WTOL trivia: She will become the third person with the last name of Brown in the newsroom, joining meteorologist Scott and news reporter Angela.
TIME CHECK: Based on the number of listeners during a typical 15-minute interval, more people in the Toledo market listen to the radio from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. than any other weekday time slot. Stations combined for an average of 99,700 listeners during Arbitron's spring survey.
From 6 to 10 a.m., stations combined for 94,000 listeners during an average quarter-hour. They averaged 87,100 from 3 to 7 p.m., and 34,700 from 7 p.m. to midnight.
BIG JUMP: WJZE-FM (97.3), which never gained traction in 3 1/2 years as a "classic hits" station, got off to a strong start with an "urban contemporary" format.
During Arbitron's spring survey, the first with the new format, the number of listeners during a typical 15-minute interval more than doubled from the previous ratings period going from 500 to 1,200.
First Published August 1, 2005, 2:34 p.m.
