What is the latest news about WGN and Allison Payne?
WGN-Ch. 9 said today it is shuffling anchors Allison Payne, Micah Materre and Lourdes Duarte, and expanding its midday and early-evening newscasts by a half-hour each, effective Oct. 5. Payne (pictured right), the station’s lead female newscaster for close to 20 years, moves to the what will be a two-hour 11 a.m. newscast, where she will be reunited with her long-time 9 p.m. co-anchor, Steve Sanders, who moved to middays last year after the station signed former WFLD-Ch. 32 anchor Mark Suppelsa. Duarte takes over Payne’s slot alongside Suppelsa on what will become an hour-long newscast at 5 p.m. Materre officially becomes Suppelsa’s co-anchor at 9 p.m. newscast. The 9 p.m. change at Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.’s WGN may be unnoticed by some viewers in that, unofficially, Materre has been Suppelsa’s primary co-anchor on the prime-time newscast for some time. Payne, who has held the 9 p.m. co-anchor title since 1990, has remained in the program’s opening credits but has been absen
