Al Jazeera America eyes Nashville as a bureau site.

The team at WZTV Fox 17 will on March 4 be joined by industry veteran Bryan McGruder, who will fill the spot of news director. McGruder, who replaces Roberta Petterson, comes to Nashville from the Fox affiliate in Kansas City. Before going to Missouri, McGruder spent two decades at stations in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Memphis.

Media industry veteran Steve Sabato has left his executive vice president post at Cell Journalist to be director of news and digital content at WWSB, the ABC affiliate in Sarasota, Fla. Sabato had joined Cell Journalist, which has developed a social media platform, in 2007 after being shuffled out of the news director slot at WKRN News 2.

"Steve is a highly regarded news executive with an impressive track record in broadcast news and digital media," said Benninghoff. "Steve has a history of building strong news brands and is an authority and innovator on multi-platform content strategy. I am very pleased that he will now put his impressive skills to work for our great station."

Television station operator Young Broadcasting, which owns WKRN News2 and is run by that station's former GM Deb McDermott, has promoted Bob Peterson to vice president of station operations and relocated him to Nashville. Peterson had been Young's VP of business development and GM of its station in Richmond, Va.

Time Warner Cable and Meredith Corp., the parent of WSMV Channel 4, appear to be closing in on a retransmission agreement that will keep Meredith stations on Time Warner's service in three markets. The two sides had been far apart earlier in the week.

Time Warner Cable customers will not be able to watch Channel 4 starting at midnight tonight unless the telecommunications company and WSMV parent Meredith Corp. strike a deal on retransmission rights. The parties still sound like they are far apart, with Time Warner saying Meredith is asking for a 200 percent rate hike.