By focusing on constantly connecting with news viewers in Dallas-Fort Worth, WFAA executive news director Carolyn Mungo has rebuilt the station's early morning newscast, improved its ratings and sent its digital and social media visits soaring.
Mungo, who has been at WFAA since 2012, spent the past year and a half taking a hard look at the Tegna-owned ABC affiliate's 4:30 to 7 a.m. news block, Daybreak, and reinvigorating it.
Those changes began and ended with the talent, who Mungo felt needed to be able connect authentically to each other and the audience. Those skills aren't necessarily easy to identify in interviews alone, and Mungo and her team needed to look at many people before coming up with the current cast of anchors Ron Corning and Kara Sewell; traffic reporter Demetria Obilor, who came to the station in 2017 from Las Vegas; and meteorologist Greg Fields, who has been with WFAA for 20 years.
We knew what we had in Greg, but we kept on looking for people who were not afraid to get out of the box, to let the audience in and be expressive, Mungo said. But we also didn't want to wait to change and transform the show until we got the right people. Over time, we have acquired and recruited talent who would best fit in with the ensemble we were building.
Instead of going from segment to segment with the team staying behind their respective desks and talking only about their assigned topics, each team member has the freedom to chat with one another about the news of the day, giving their takes on different topics.
In my opinion, winning viewers' loyalty today means pulling back the curtain, Mungo said. Our journalists are also members of our community.
Morning Lift
Whatever that secret sauce may be, the changes have paid off. The station's early morning news block has improved by 200% among adults 18-49, Mungo said, good for second place in the Dallas-Fort Worth market the country's fifth-largest designated market area, according to Nielsen up from a years-long run in third.
That success also has taken root on the station's digital and social platforms. Visits are up every month in 2018 and the show averages more than 1 million social interactions per month. Video plays are up nearly 400% from January to September 2018, while YouTube video plays have increased more than 200% since the start of the year, surpassing 2.5 million as of September.
All good TV stations go far beyond their air to serve their communities, and in September 2017, WFAA lent its help to sister station KHOU Houston after it was thrown off the air by Hurricane Harvey when flood waters destroyed the station's building and equipment.
During the hurricane, WFAA took over coverage, posting stories to KHOU's Facebook page via Facebook Live with anchor David Schechter and Fields coming to the station on a Sunday to provide coverage.
When we saw what was happening in Houston that night, we immediately jumped into action, Mungo said. Many of us had lived there; that was our station too. I was really proud of our staff that night.
Just one year later, WFAA had the chance to unite Texas again. During this year's contentious and closely watched midterm elections, Texas was the home of one of the country's most-watched Senate races. Upstart Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke challenged incumbent Republican Ted Cruz, giving Cruz a run for his money in red Texas.
As soon as the primaries were concluded in March, Mungo and WFAA jumped into action, pitching both campaigns on a statewide debate.
Open to Debates
The day after the primaries were over, I presented formal proposals to both campaigns, Mungo said. One of the benefits of having the debate at a Tegna station in Texas is that's the only option the candidates had if they wanted to offer a live debate to viewers in every part of the state.
There are 10 Tegna-owned stations in Texas that cover 88% of the state. On Oct. 16, WFAA produced a statewide live debate between the two candidates from Tegna's KENS San Antonio before a live studio audience of about 120.
The debate was broadcast live in Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, College Station, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and several other markets, with C-SPAN picking it up for national broadcast. Afterwards, WFAA produced a 30-minute show on Facebook Live, and created a social media listening team that followed and reported on viewer reaction across social media.
WFAA also provided feeds to non-Tegna-owned stations across the state as well as live streams on digital and social media platforms. That experience changed the way WFAA's team covered the midterm elections. On Election Day, Nov. 6, the team went live with three hours of coverage and incorporated much more social media into the broadcast.
The news team worked to keep its coverage of the night much more fluid, frequently going live to reporters and experts on scene and staying in the field instead of focusing on the anchor desk, said Mungo.
I feel like we really informed our audience, she said. We're going to do more of that in 2019. Our viewers loved it.
In the end, having the right people in place is key, Mungo said.
I have spent more time on recruitment in the past five years than I ever have. Recruitment is so important, and to find great people who fit your brand you have to be recruiting all of the time.
By focusing on constantly connecting with news viewers in Dallas-Fort Worth, WFAA executive news director Carolyn Mungo has rebuilt the station's early morning newscast, improved its ratings and sent its digital and social media visits soaring.Subscribe for full article
Member Exclusive
Get Access to Our Exclusive Content
Learn MoreAlready subscribed? Log In
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
02/12/2025
Case Study: How Mid-Atlantic Sports Network Moved to All-IP Distribution in 60 D...
02/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Lee Corso, Coach, Commentator, FirebrandBy Ken Kerschbaumer
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | S...
02/12/2025
SVG All-Stars: Dan Nabors, Senior Director, Remote Engineering, TNT SportsThe veteran tech leader is helping guide Warner Bros. Discovery's at-home' re...
02/12/2025
National Lacrosse League Opens Season With New Cloud-Based Official Replay-Revie...
02/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: The Cinematic Look in Live Production - Bridging Aesthetic...
02/12/2025
SVG India Announces Advisory Board; JioStar's Prashant Khanna Named ChairmanBy Ken Kerschbaumer
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 11:15 am
Print This Story |...
02/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: New AI Production Tools Workshop' Features ESPN, F...
02/12/2025
Written and directed by Hailey Gates, Atropia won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival....
02/12/2025
The lightweight and highly portable CORVUS-RAVEN, recently demonstrated at the V...
02/12/2025
The lightweight, rugged Panther 2 tri-band VSAT delivers high-speed data communications for Internet, VPN connectivity and video transmission over commercial an...
02/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
02/12/2025
NGID volunteers in the United States
NGID volunteers in Mexico
NGID volunteers in India
NGID volunteers in Spain
NGID volunteers in Australia
NGID voluntee...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has issued a reminder that stations in DMAs 111 through 120 must implement its audio descrip...
02/12/2025
SAN DIEGO Sony Electronics today introduced the Alpha 7 V (ILCE-7M5), the fifth generation of its Alpha 7 full-frame mirrorless lineup, powered by the newly dev...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has opened a docket for comments on Nexstar Media Group's proposed $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna and se...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The National Association of Broadcasters has added a trio of media executives, Veronica Rodriguez, Matt Schnaars and Jeff Warshaw, to its board of di...
02/12/2025
MILAN, Italy Brightcove has released seven new features designed to expand global reach, improve audience engagement, enhance live-streaming quality and streaml...
02/12/2025
BCNEXXT, the developers of the advanced playout platform Vipe, today announced a new Service Provider Partner agreement with NPC Media, the Australian managed p...
02/12/2025
DPA Microphones today announces the immediate availability of its new N-Series Digital Wireless Microphone System for customers throughout the U.S. In addition ...
02/12/2025
Hiltron Communications reports a well attended and successful Space Tech Expo exhibition, held at the Messe Bremen from Tuesday November 18 through Thursday Nov...
02/12/2025
The beginning of September saw Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust, in association with Channel 9 and Triple M, kick off the 2025 Brisbane Festival in spec...
02/12/2025
SGM Lighting is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with ACT Entertainment, under which ACT will serve as the exclusive distributor for SGM's ne...
02/12/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that Telia, the second largest telecom operator in Norway, is modernizing its broadband network with the company's i...
02/12/2025
European cloud data protection specialist Keepit is expanding its sales network in the DACH region and has gained TIM AG, one of the leading value-added distrib...
02/12/2025
Featured products at ISE 2026
This year s ISE 2026 theme "Push Beyond" reflects Calrec s direction of travel. The company is dedicated to supporting the AV an...
02/12/2025
Czech Television, the national public broadcaster, has deployed one of the largest LiveU live production projects in the region for live sports and news coverag...
02/12/2025
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, has announced the release of v8.2 software for its ZEN and ZEN-W Series, bringing advanced cinematic camera se...
02/12/2025
Global provider of video streaming software and services, Accedo, and OTT platform provider, Magine Pro, have signed a binding agreement to carve out and merge ...
02/12/2025
With proven success in broadcast, OTT, and content supply chains, K.S Avinash set to scale Skandha's service-first approach across APAC
Skandha Media Servi...
02/12/2025
AJA Video Systems has joined the RAVENNA community, a network of partners devoted to advancing the RAVENNA standard for distributing real-time audio over intern...
02/12/2025
HUNT VALLEY, Md. Sinclair and its wholly-owned subsidiary One Media Technologies have released a new report focused on how ATSC 3.0, the IP-based NextGen TV sta...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has issued a reminder that stations in DMAs 111 through 120 must implement its audio descrip...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON Members of the Advanced Television Systems Committee have elected four industry veterans to three-year terms on the organization's board of direc...
02/12/2025
A new survey from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan highlights how important social media is for younger consumers, with Gen Z spending 5.1 hours a day on so...
02/12/2025
Faculty Notes: Fall/Winter 2025 Recent accomplishments, releases, and events by Berklee faculty.
December 1, 2025
By
Editorial Staff
The cast of Kind of M...
02/12/2025
Ring In The Holidays With Our Biggest Sale Ever On Ivory II Pianos!From now until December 31st, you can save 50% or more on every Ivory II piano and collection...
02/12/2025
Back to All News
Made in America: How Stranger Things' Electrified the US Economy
Entertainment
02 December 2025
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to cl...
02/12/2025
Back to All News
Culinary Class Wars' Season 2 Trailer Teases New Rules, R...
02/12/2025
--
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Telecommunication Unio...
02/12/2025
Harmonic's cOS Platform Will Redefine Subscribers' Quality of Experience, Lowering Churn SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 2, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today...
02/12/2025
At AWS re:Invent, NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services expanded their strategic collab...
02/12/2025
S an Nollaig
Hollywood blockbusters The Banshees of Inisherin, Barbie and Oppenheimer make their Irish TV debut
Tune into the classics such as Love Actual...
02/12/2025
Showcasing fresh Irish storytelling and emerging talent Storyland 2025 signals a fantastic time for Irish drama
RT and F s ireann/Screen Ireland are proud to...
01/12/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
01/12/2025
Artemis II is NASA's first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Vic...
01/12/2025
IRVINE, Calif. Wooden Camera has introduced its new Accessory Collection for the Canon EOS C50. The new lineup includes a low-profile, gimbal-ready cage, expand...
01/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 Open Commission Meeting that will include a vote on a report an...
01/12/2025
In most years, a graph of annual local TV ad spending is about as predictable as an electrocardiogram of a reasonably healthy patient in a doctor's office. ...
By focusing on constantly connecting with news viewers in Dallas-Fort Worth, WFAA executive news director Carolyn Mungo has rebuilt the station's early morning newscast, improved its ratings and sent its digital and social media visits soaring.
