Norwood native Katie Donovan, who worked at WXIX-TV while attending Mount St. Joseph University, returns home as WLWT-TV's fifth meteorologist in August.
She'll take over weekend forecasts from Allison Rogers, who moves to Channel 5's new 4 p.m. weekday newscast premiering Monday, Aug. 9, after the Summer Olympics. It's the second part of WLWT-TV's news expansion which starts Monday, July 27,with the launch of News 5 at 7 p.m.
"I am more than excited to be returning to Cincinnati," Donovan says. "I was born and raised in Norwood and have family all over the city, so the area is truly home for me."
Since graduating from college in 2014, she has worked for TV stations in Zanesville, Ohio; Davenport, Iowa; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Spectrum cable's Ohio news channel based in Columbus; and done forecasts for Columbus Crew home soccer games.
Donovan earned a certificate in broadcast meteorology in 2017 from Mississippi State University, while she was weekend evening and noon meteorologist at KWQC-TV in Davenport. Then she worked as weekday morning and noon meteorologist for KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs, and also did a summer hiking/travel adventure series of "Tails from the Trails" video features and podcasts for the station with her fiancé Andrew Wright and her dog.
They moved to Columbus last year when Wright took a TV producing job at a Columbus station. They married last month.
If you ever see Donovan in a local grocery store, she'll probably have some goetta in her cart.
"The food I missed the most while working in Colorado and Iowa was goetta. I've never been able to find it outside of Cincinnati. I love that I can walk into a grocery and pick it up whenever I like now. It sounds cliche, but I really missed the chili too. No one else makes it like the Queen City," she says.
She's looking forward to getting reacquainted with local parks.
"The Tri-State has some incredible parks. I am a big outdoors person, so those are places that I can't wait to frequent again. I love Alms and Ault Park. Eden Park. Smale Riverfront Park and Devou Park. I could go on and on," she says.
Donovan joins the WLWT-TV weather team consisting of chief meteorologist Kevin Robinson, Randi Rico, Cameron Hardin and Rogers. It has been named the "most accurate forecast in Cincinnati" for 10 years by WeatheRate, an independent research company.
"We're excited to bring Katie back to her hometown, joining our most accurate team of WLWT News 5 meteorologists," says news director Jeff Benscoter. "Since she was born and raised here, Katie already knows the neighborhoods and people she'll be forecasting for each day. She also realizes the incredible impact severe weather and snowstorms can have on the entire city of Cincinnati."
Steven Albritton and Ashley Kirklen will anchor the 7 p.m. news Monday with Kevin Robinson and sports anchor George Vogel. It follows the NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. At 7 p.m., Channel 5 will be competing for local news viewers with WCPO-TV while WKRC-TV airs Inside Edition and WXIX-TV carries Wheel Of Fortune.
Starting Aug. 9, long-time main co-anchor Sheree Paolello, Kirklen and Rogers will do WLWT News 5 at 4 p.m., which will compete with local newscasts on Channels 9, 12 and 19. Ellen DeGeneres' syndicated talk show will move to 3 p.m. for her 19th and final season.
