Sac station to do Chico news

Will Chico viewers watch a TV newscast originating in Sacramento? The folks at KCVU FOX20 believe they will and have begun simulcasting morning and evening news programs from KTXL FOX40, the FOX-affiliated station serving Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto.

“We’ve always covered significant news and weather in the Chico-Redding region,” Brandon Mercer, KTXL’s news director, said in a press release. “Now we have an opportunity to broadcast directly to those communities.” The shows are scheduled for 7-8 a.m. weekdays and 5:30 p.m. every day.

How this jibes with the reported but still unofficial sale of KCVU to the company that owns KRCR Channel 7 in Redding is unclear. Eight years ago KRCR and KCVU teamed up in a joint news production, but the experiment ended in June 2005, after 15 months.