Nexstar Media said it will build a centralized local news operation in Washington, D.C. and that its stations in the region will be expanding the hours of news they broadcast.

WDVM-TV in Hagerstown, Maryland, and WDCW-TV in Washington, D.C, will brand themselves as DC News Now. Both stations will operate from a new newsroom and studio facility on Wisconsin Avenue and new bureaus are being opened in Hagerstown and Frederick, Maryland, and Chantilly, Virginia.

The combined operation will be staffing up as WDVM, an independent station, launches a new nightly newscast at 9 p.m., expands its morning news by an hour and adds a 30-minute nightly sports highlight show at 11 p.m., and CW affiliate WDCW launches a new nightly newscast at 10 p.m. ET.

Together, the stations will be airing more than 67 hours of local news weekly. 

Ben Dobson has been named news director for the two stations. He ha been VP and news director of New England Cable News, NBC10 and Telemundo Boston since 2018.

“Bringing these two television stations together, adding more news hours, and creating three locally based satellite news bureaus to serve Washington, D.C., and parts of Maryland and Virginia, is a tremendous opportunity,” Dobson said. “We are building something from the ground up at a time  when more and more viewers are turning to local news organizations as their primary source of information they can trust.” 

Nexstar said the move demonstrates it commitment to local news.

“The demand for local  news, weather, and information in Maryland and Northern Virginia, and in the immediate Washington, D.C., area has never been greater. We will be hiring more journalists and critical support personnel, significantly expanding our digital news capabilities, and building upon our strong legacy of providing high quality local news to the communities we serve,” said Andrew Alford, president of broadcasting for Nexstar.

“We are extremely excited about this expansion, particularly because it enables us to launch new newscasts while also establishing three new satellite news bureaus from which we can deliver live news directly from within local communities in Maryland and Northern Virginia,” added David Bangura, VP and general manager of the stations. “These bureaus will give WDVM-TV and  WDCW-TV a way of connecting to the community as never before.”  ■

WTTG-TV, the Fox station in Washington, D.C., promoted Angie Goff to anchor of its evening newscasts.

Starting Nov. 30, Goff will anchor Fox 5 News at 10 p.m. on weekdays with Jim Lokay and the Fox 5 at 6 p.m. newscast alongside Blake McCoy.

She is replacing Shawn Yancy, who left the station after 19 years last month.

Goff will continue to co-anchor the 5 at 4 p.m. show with McCoy and will remain one of the rotating panelists on the station’s Like It Or Not program, which airs weeknights at 7 p.m.

"Angie is tireless and her energy is infectious. She has proven herself in every newscast, and we’re confident her new permanent home at 10 p.m. will be the best fit yet," said Paul McGonagle, VP and news director at WTTG.

Goff joined WTTG in July 2019 as co-anchor of 5 at 4 p.m., as a daily panelist on Like It Or Not, and a reporter for the Fox 5 News at 10 p.m.

In March she became a fill-in on the station's morning show, Good Day D.C., while also anchoring the 4 p.m. newscast.

Before WTTG, Goff was with WRC-TV, the NBC station in Washington. She also contributed to NBC’s Today and filled in as a host for Early Today and MSNBC. Previously she worked as a reporter for WIS-TV, Columbia, S.C., and WMEG-TV, Sioux City. 

She also has a podcast, The Oh My Goff Show.

“Now that I’ve had the pleasure of waking up with our viewers and giving them a chance to get to know me better, I look forward to transitioning the focus of my energy on continuing our momentum in the evenings,” Goff said.

While the prospect of Tara Reid’s buzz-saw enabled appendage wreaking havoc on Congress  as sharks rain down around her creates mental images too amazing to fathom, reports that the third installment of the Sharknado franchise will take place in our nation’s capital are slightly premature.

Several movie and science-fiction oriented websites were abuzz in the past several days after Showbiz 411, citing unnamed sources,  reported that the next installment will likely take place in Washington, D.C. That sent the Internet into overdrive, with commenters speculating on possible cameos – global warming denier Ted Cruz, for one  – and potential titles for the TV Movie – Sharknado 3: Fin-dependence Day.

Syfy officials weren’t letting on about their intentions.

"We've reached no official decision on Sharknado 3 locations," a Syfy spokesman said Friday.

Sources also said that screenwriter Thunder Levin, who penned the first two installments of the franchise – is in negotiations to write the third. However, no deal has been reached yet.

The Sharknado franchise, with Reid and former Beverly Hills 90210 star Ian Ziering, has been a big hit for Syfy, with the first installment – set in Los Angeles – setting social media site Twitter aflame with more than 300,000 tweets. That mark was smashed in the second installment – aptly named Sharknado2: The Second One and set in New York City – which generated an estimated 1 billion Twitter impressions and attracted 3.9 million viewers to its July 30 premiere.

Syfy has masterfully exploited the Internet and social media to drum up interest in the Sharknado franchise – it held a Twitter naming contest for the second movie and consistently bombarded the web with promos for books, video games and other merchandise associated with the picture.

Back in August, a petition surfaced on Change.org to persuade Syfy to set Sharknado 3 in Washington, making its case with tongue firmly planted in cheek:  “DC is a city filled with history, majesty, and democracy. Most importantly, DC is a city that deserves to be pounded relentlessly by an inexplicable tornado filled with sharks,” the petition said.

While DC makes perfect sense as the setting for Sharknado 3 – the Potomac River is an outlet to Chesapeake Bay and the ocean, for instance – we are talking about a tornado full of sharks, so other more land-locked locations like Chicago and Las Vegas have also been mentioned as possible sites. And there are a host of other possibilities on both coasts. We humbly submit, for Syfy’s consideration:  Sharknado 3: Sleeveless in Seattle; Sharknado 3: Mayhem in Miami; and Sharknado 3: I Left My Heart [And Lungs] in San Francisco.

Wherever it is set, Sharknado 3 is expected to air on Syfy in the summer of 2015.