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Friday, December 17, 2010

FOX59 Morning News to Start at 4 AM

Fox59 in Indianapolis is expanding its morning news by another half hour, becoming the first station in Indianapolis to offer local news at 4am. The earlier start will begin Monday, January 10th.

“We have seen viewers waking up earlier and watching earlier, ever since we moved up our start time to 4:30am,” said General Manager Jerry Martin.  “We are again showing our commitment to be there for viewers, being on even earlier.”

In the last year, Fox59 Morning News expanded to five and a half hours, running from 430-10am.  Since expanding, all of the station’s morning newscasts have experienced large ratings gains, and the station’s 7-10am hours are closing in on surpassing NBC’s Today Show.  Fox59 also has the fastest growing audience in earlier time periods, with its 6am hour growing faster than any other morning hour of any competitor.
“Coming on even earlier, starting at 4am, is part of our overall mission to meet the needs of our viewers and be the number one choice for them, whether they are up in the early hours or later in the morning,” said News Director Lee Rosenthal.

The current 430-6am team of Jenny Anchondo and Scott Jones will anchor the additional 30 minutes starting at 4am.  Weather updates will be handled by current morning Meteorologist Jim O’Brien and Weekend Morning Meteorologist Ron Smiley.

The additional 30 minutes continues the station’s rapid growth.  In the last year, Fox59 News has also added two hours each weekday from 4-6pm and three hours each weekend morning from 6-9am.  The station’s weekend morning news is also growing in January, expanding with an additional hour until 10am.  The additional time periods will have Fox59 producing 55 hours of local news each week – more than any other station in Indianapolis.

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