You’ve likely heard about the shakeup within the sports department of KFSM-TV, Channel 5, in Fayetteville and Fort Smith.
The CBS affiliate announced in May that sports broadcaster Mike Irwin, who had reported on Razorback athletics for KFSM since 1975, and Sports Director John Engleman were let go.
The station’s general manager, Van Comer, said KFSM would continue covering sports and would hire more staffers for its sports department.
News Director Rick Bagley elaborated.
“We’ve taken an opportunity to sort of reorganize our sports department to really do a better job of storytelling, not only on the Razorbacks, but on all local athletes and all local sports,” Bagley said. “What viewers are going to see when we get this all implemented is really more sports coverage of high school sports, male and female high school sports, community-type sports, sports that don’t get a lot of coverage.”
He listed volleyball and wrestling among athletics he’d like to see covered more.
Since Arkansas’ muggy months aren’t as busy for local sports, Bagley said, KFSM was taking the summer to reorganize. By fall, the department should have a staff of about five, including reporters, photographers and a new sports director, he said. Bagley said he could not talk more specifically about personnel changes.
“We would like to get away from just sort of the scores-and-highlights model of the sportscast. There’s much more to sports than scores, highlights and press conferences,” Bagley said. “And that’s what spurred the change.”
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