KFSM-TV Announces Talent Shakeup

The top-rated news station in the Northwest Arkansas market is getting a shakeup.

Local CBS affiliate KFSM-TV, Channel 5, announced recently that evening news anchor Ashley Ketz has accepted another job and is leaving the Fort Smith-based station.

Ketz, who joined the station in 2006, also anchored the 9 p.m. newscasts for KXNW-TV, the sister affiliate to KFSM.

Ketz is going to the Springfield, Mo., market where she will co-anchor the 5, 6, and 10 p.m. newscasts for CBS affiliate KOLR-TV.

KFSM president and general manager Van Comer said in a news release that longtime morning news host Ashley Beck would replace Ketz on the evening broadcast. Reporter Heather Lewis will replace Ketz on the morning show.

Comer also said Chris Breece has joined the station as sports director. Breece, a University of Michigan graduate, has covered local sports for six years in Oregon, Michigan and California.

The station has been without a sport director since John Engleman was let go in May after three years.

Breece spent the last two years as a sports reporter and anchor at KDRV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Medford, Ore. 

Ketz’s departure will also cause a small ripple for local NBC affiliate KNWA-TV. Her husband, Aaron Nolan, will join KOZL as well. Nolan is currently a general assignment reporter for KNWA.