Rehkopf to depart DC station; returns to KDKA afternoons
August 30, 2012DCRTV reported today that Bill Rehkopf is leaving CBS news station WNEW-FM (99.1) to head back to Pittsburgh to attend to family matters. The Pittsburgh native left his position as the morning news anchor at KDKA-AM (1020) in late 2011 to help launch the all-new news outlet designed to go up against established newser WTOP-FM. Speaking of WTOP, Rehkopf’s replacement on WNEW will be Nathan Hager who is a 12 year WTOP veteran.
Meanwhile, KDKA has announced that Rehkopf will return to the station beginning September 24 to the station’s afternoon news program as host with Rose Ryan-Douglas anchoring the news portion of the program. According to a press release, the program will be reformatted and it appears that it will add an additional hour. Rehkopf is looking forward to returning to Pittsburgh. “Working in the nation’s capital was extremely exciting and rewarding. However, my family and I have deep roots in Pittsburgh, and this is a terrific opportunity at KDKA,” he said.
According to program director Jim Graci, the mix of news, traffic, weather, business and lifestyle reports will be the cornerstone of the retooled program. “Listeners can expect Bill to tie it all together and present a great informative and entertaining product.”
delsignore didnt last now rehkopf looks like the wheels are coming off wnew? could 1020 be planning on weekend news?
Sounds like a return to 90 at 6? Perhaps the spirit of the late great Bill Steinbach is looming large there. Great to see a Pittsburgh native able to return home… sigh….
Glad to hear Bill is coming back to KDKA. They something to compete with WPGB and maybe he will be it. WNEW is just a massive train wreck. CBS needs to blow the station up and start with a different format. WTOP is the news king in DC and that won’t change any time soon. Competing against them is almost impossible. Hats off to Bill!
Maybe I’m missing something, but what does Mark mean about “Delsignore didn’t last?” He’s still at WNEW.
I live in DC and WNEW doesn’t have any listeners! There has been no increase in the ratings since they signed on 9 months ago. They’d do better to pull the plug and play oldies, since DC has no oldies station. Just a thought. We’ll see what time brings but with no gain in listenership I can’t see the all news format staying.
Matt DelSignore is still with WNEW and doing reports for NBC News Radio. I heard one of his reports from the Democratic Convention earlier today on WMNY-1360 here.