Since April of this year, WKRG-TV has been without a news director since the departure of longtime newsroom leader Dan Cates, but that has ended with the recent hiring of Mike Rausch.

Rausch has been selected to lead news coverage at the CBS affiliate after a 28-year broadcasting career that saw him lead four other local stations. Most recently, Rausch headed Crimeline, a Web site that helped protect people from fraud and identity theft. Rausch was president of that company since 2006, according to the Crimeline Web site.

Rausch has been news director at WORK-TV in Rochester, N.Y., WHAS-TV Louisville, Ky, KGW-TV Portland, Ore., and WFTV-TV Orlando, Fla.

He also worked at Zatso Inc. in San Francisco, Cal. and as vice president of operations of Multivision Inc. in Walnut Creek, Cal. and KATU-TV in Portland, Ore.

Rausch has also spent time in front of the camera as a reporter at WANE-TV in Ft. Wayne, Ind. and at WTVF-TV in Nashville, Ten. He also was executive producer at WIVB-TV in Buffalo, N.Y. and at KARK-TV in Little Rock, Ark., according to his on-line biography.

Rausch takes over a veteran station that has endured a large number of personnel losses over the past few years. The station has cut numerous employees this year in an effort to staunch spending.

Cates was the station’s long-time news director, but left in April to take another position in Spartanburg, S.C. for WSPA-TV. Both WKRG and WSPA are owned by Media General.

Curran completes book

Former Press-Register reporter Eddie Curran has finished his book on Don Siegelman and hopes to have it in bookstores before Christmas. Curran said he thought the book would take him about three months, but three years was more like it. The book is called, “The Governor of Goat Hill: Don Siegelman, the Reporter who Exposed his Crimes, and the Hoax that Suckered some of the Top Names in Journalism,” and has a cover by the Press-Register’s cartoonist, J.D. Crowe.

Curran said the book is not a biography but a journalism story, in which he describes how he discovered many of the scandals that marred Siegelman’s term as governor and led to his prosecution. The book would have been completed long before if not for claims by Siegelman and others that Karl Rove ordered his prosecution.

The final part of the book is a highly critical examination of the coverage of the Siegelman case by the New York Times, Time magazine, “60 Minutes” and others.

“It’s written in the first person, and I hope readers will find it as entertaining as it is informative,” Curran said.

Curran started with the Press-Register in 1988, wrote sports until 1994, when he moved to news, specializing in investigative reporting. He left in 2007, to focus solely on the book.

We wish the book great luck. It should be an interesting read, as Curran has a great knack for digging up an interesting story.

“The paper kept my spot open, but recently I was told, for budgetary reasons, that I had to either return now or give up my spot,” said Curran. “I wasn’t finished with the book and need to focus on selling it and, regrettably, just wasn’t ready to return.”

“It was a great place to work. The best part was being able to write for my favorite readership anywhere – the people of south Alabama and my hometown, Mobile,” he said.

Chris Heacock up-date. Submitted by Gene Heacock.

Chris Heacock of Fairhope recently completed his first year with WZBA FM in Baltimore. While he continues with his Director of Promotions duties, he is now on the air Sundays. His evening program is broadcast from 5 until 8p.m.. WZBA, 100.7 The Bay, streams at www.thebayonline.com.