Channel 41 gets a new anchorman

KSHB, Channel 41, has picked up a news anchorman as part of the restructuring at the NBC affiliate under recently hired news director Debbie Bush. Mark Clegg, an anchorman at the top-rated station in Indianapolis, will join Channel 41 in October or November. Clegg and Elizabeth Alex will be on newscasts at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. Current afternoon anchorwoman Sally Moore will move to mornings. Clegg's current employer, WTHR-TV, is "a very good station with a winning tradition," said Bush. "They used to be the worst station (in the market), and then they did everything right and became No. 1." That's the kind of turnaround Bush is trying to bring about at KSHB. Under news director Laura Clark, who resigned July 9, the station saw some improvements in its ratings, especially at 10 p.m. Still, Channel 41's newscasts remain a distant fourth in most time periods, and Clark's departure prompted speculation that Kansas City's four TV newsrooms would soon be contracted to three. The hiring of Clegg should scuttle that talk. "We're going to take a run at this," Bush said Friday. "We're going to show people some things." Bush had an ideal vantage point from which to observe Clegg: She was news director of the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis before coming to Kansas City. Clegg began his career at KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth in 1987, then worked at crosstown WFAA-TV as well as at stations in Wichita Falls and Beaumont, Texas. - You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com