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WAFB-TV has a new general manager, and the only real question about the appointment of Sandy Breland to the top spot at the local CBS affiliate is whether the station will merely maintain its commanding lead over the other stations in the market or increase it.

Breland’s appointment was a brilliant move by Raycom Media, the Montgomery, Ala.-based company that owns WAFB, sister station WBXH-TV and 44 other stations in 18 states. She brings experience as a big-market general manager to the station, having spent the past two years running KTVK-TV in Phoenix, the 12th-largest television market in the country.

More relevant, though, is Breland’s 11 years’ experience as news director of WWL-TV in New Orleans, which was consistently the No. 1-rated CBS affiliate in the country under Breland’s watch. [In the interest of full disclosure, this writer worked at WWL as a reporter under Breland during those years.]

Like WWL, WAFB has dominated a quirky news market for decades by taking root in the local collective conscience. Both stations have stayed on top, in large measure, by resisting the urge to stock their anchor desks with plastic, pretty faces, and by airing fewer but longer, in-depth reports in their newscasts instead of many short, fast, voiced-over items. That no longer works in many markets around the country, but it still appeals to viewers in southeast Louisiana, and Breland—who grew up in Kenner—has an intrinsic understanding of the local culture.

That was one of the main reasons Raycom approached her about the job after Nick Simonette’s departure in April for WBTV-TV in Charlotte, N.C., the nation’s 25th-largest television market.

“WAFB and WWL are similar in many ways, and Sandy understands the Baton Rouge market and has worked with [news director] Vicki Zimmerman for years and they have always had a good relationship,” Raycom Executive Vice President Marty Edelman says. “She knows all the politicals in the market, and she knows the community.”

Breland got to know Baton Rouge particularly well following Katrina. She and her family lived here for nearly a year after the storm, while she and husband Dave McNamara, who was then a reporter at WWL, commuted to New Orleans every day to cover the aftermath of the hurricane.

“I’m really excited about returning to Louisiana and WAFB,” says Breland, who has a 13-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter. “There aren’t a lot of stations that have the kind of emotional connection with the viewers that WAFB has, and living here that year I had an opportunity to experience that.”

Breland comes to Baton Rouge at a time when the local TV market, like all markets around the country, is facing challenges on many fronts and exploring the various new platforms through which news is delivered. Though WAFB continues to trounce WBRZ-TV, WVLA-TV and WGMB-TV in the ratings game, its news viewership, like those everywhere, is aging and dwindling.

Breland’s biggest challenge will not so much be to steal what few viewers watch the other stations, but to reach the ones that are no longer watching TV news at all.

“WAFB has a strong connection with its viewers, and my goal is strengthen that connection across multiple platforms,” she says. “We want to be relevant at all levels.”

Mosgrove leaves WBRZ

Veteran WBRZ reporter Veronica Mosgrove has left the ABC affiliate—and the TV news business altogether—to take over as communications director for the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security.

Mosgrove’s departure from WBRZ after nearly 10 years as one of its strongest reporters and fill-in anchors is a blow to the station. But Mosgrove says it was time to try something new.

“I’ve always said if I left TV it would have to be for something else that’s relevant,” she says, “and when this position came up I figured it had my name all over it because I’ve been on the front line of disasters and I’ve worked closely with law enforcement.”

Mosgrove replaces Mark Smith and will be working directly under the director of the office, Mark Cooper. She will also be reporting to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s Communications Director, Melissa Sellers, who has frequently and publicly been criticized by reporters throughout the state for denying access to the governor and his administration.

Perhaps having a hard-core, experienced news veteran inside the administration’s communications team will soften its attitudes toward the working media and improve relations between the two. One can only hope.