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Local news notes: WFAA8's Flanagan leaving while TXA21's newscast gets left behind in favor of sports


TXA21's Gina Miller and WFAA8's Chris Flanagan

By ED BARK
Although he hasn't officially signed with his new station yet, WFAA8 management confirmed Monday that Chris Flanagan will be joining Cleveland's WEWS-TV as a featured nighttime news anchor.

Flanagan joined Dallas-based WFAA8 from a Des Moines, Iowa station in March of 2009 as the new co-anchor of the early morning Daybreak program. But after two years he was re-assigned to the 9 a.m. Good Morning Texas show, which he's been co-hosting with Amy Vanderoef.

Both WFAA8 and WEWS are ABC affiliate stations. Flanagan likely will remain with GMT through most of October, a WFAA8 spokesman said.

The subscription website newsblues.com first reported Flanagan's impending transition, saying he had to "wade through six months of focus groups to get the job."


***TXA21's "First in Prime" newscast, recently downsized to one hour of news and sports, soon will vanish entirely. The station instead will air a full hour of sports, The Fan with Gina Miller, from 7 to 8 p.m., CBS11/TXA21 director of communications Lori Conrad confirmed.

The start-up date for the new sports program will be on a still to be announced date in October, Conrad said. She also noted that anchors Keith Garvin and Tracy Kornet, along with weathercaster Jeff Jamison, will continue on CBS11's weekday 4 p.m. newscasts. All three had been featured on the nightly TXA21 news.