News that KDKA-TV morning anchor Keith Jones will trade a job anchoring a low-rated morning newscast in Pittsburgh for a low-rated morning newscast at Tampa's WTSP left me scratching my head.

Why would Jones make such a move? KDKA management seemed to like him, using him as a primary evening fill-in anchor. Jones also seemed well-positioned to move into an evening newscast role once one of the current evening anchors leaves or retires.

Jones said the move is about seeking stability. His contract with KDKA expired last year. Negotiations began, then got pushed to a back burner during a ratings sweep.

"After that, I went to management and said, 'Let's continue,' and they never got back to me," Jones said this week. "I didn't have a contract for six or seven months. I was stressed out and got tired of looking over my shoulder."

Jones said he was concerned because of layoffs at CBS stations nationwide -- KDKA had its own round of cuts a year ago -- and he feared working without a contract would put him on the chopping block.

"Even though our station is doing well, comparatively, within the CBS family, we were told we were not immune to those types of things and we might have to pick up the slack for other stations," Jones said. "I didn't have any stability here. Being without a contract is a scary thing, especially when you have to house and feed a family. I had to take what was stable."

When Jones went to KDKA management with the WTSP offer, it made no counteroffer.

"He didn't go, 'Oh, let's make a deal.' He goes, 'OK,' which surprised me," Jones said. KDKA general manager Chris Pike would not comment on specifics regarding personnel decisions, but he did say he had not anticipated Jones' departure.

"Keith told me he was resigning to accept a job in another market," Pike said. "I told him I understood why he would be attractive to stations in other markets. I do wish him well. He did a good job for us."

Still, I have to wonder if the station's response would have been different in a more prosperous economic climate.

With Jones' position unfilled, KDKA can save money and perhaps prevent a layoff or two. But being down an anchor comes at a cost to the stress level of those left behind. KDKA has been running with fill-ins throughout March sweeps due to the absence of evening anchor Patrice King Brown, who's recovering from surgery on a torn Achilles tendon.

With Jones gone, anchors will be stretched further still -- weekend anchor Stephanie Watson is expected to fill in for Jones in the coming weeks -- and the station has lost a strong member of its bench.

Jones is the second prominent male anchor to leave local TV this year, following WTAE weekend anchor Jake Ploeger. Losing Ploeger didn't have quite the same impact on Channel 4, which has already picked Andrew Stockey and Wendy Bell as its next-generation anchor team, but it does point to the need for local stations to replenish their ranks if/when the local TV business pulls out of its revenue nosedive.

WPXI was seeking to plant the seeds for a new generation of anchors by replacing Newlin Archinal with Jennifer Abney last fall. At some point, KDKA will have to get back to planning for the future.

In the meantime, Channel 2 will have another chance to eventually plug in a new player in the mornings and attempt to bring ratings life to its only newscast that routinely lands in third place.

As for Jones, whose last newscast is this morning, he'll be heading to a Gannett-owned station that does what's been described to him as a "high-energy, fast-paced, radio-on-TV" morning news.

Of course, he left Pittsburgh before -- when he was a weekend anchor at WPXI -- and he came back. Might he return again?

"It's funny you say that," he said. "I was telling my wife that three people at the station said to me, 'You'll be back here at one of the stations.' It struck me as funny at first, but everybody knows I like it here so maybe they're feeding off that or maybe they figure I'll give Channel 4 a try next time."

Channel 11 investigative reporter Karen Welles has been absent from the newsroom in recent days and rumors are swirling that she's no longer with the station, although her bio was still posted at WPXI.com yesterday morning.

"Karen is out right now, and I don't talk about personnel matters," said WPXI news director Corrie Harding. "When she comes back, I'll let you know."

So does that mean she will be back? "I'd rather not talk about it," Harding said.

A message left on Welles' home voice mail was not returned. She began at Channel 11 in 1990 as a general assignment reporter and became part of the Target 11 investigative unit in 2002. She is married to WPXI sports anchor Alby Oxenreiter.

It's difficult to deconstruct the March sweeps ratings, released yesterday, because there's nothing to compare them to from a year ago. Sweeps moved to March from February this year because of the expected switch to digital TV last month.

Another factor that makes this sweeps unique: March Madness pre-empted news on KDKA many nights.

Regardless, the rank order of station newscasts was pretty much constant, with WTAE on top at 5 and 6 a.m. and KDKA No. 1 at noon, 4, 5, 6 and 11 p.m. WPGH was in first place among newscasts at 10 p.m.

One unusual thing I noticed: "The Oprah Winfrey Show" at 4 p.m. on WTAE landed in second place, pushing "Judge Judy" on WPXI to a rare third-place finish.

AMC's "Breaking Bad" has been renewed for a third season. ... NBC has canceled reality competition series "The Chopping Block" after just a few episodes. ... Seth Rogen hosts "Saturday Night Live" this weekend with musical guest Phoenix. ... PBS HD programs are now available on demand to Comcast digital cable customers. ... Wanda Sykes will get a late-night Saturday show on Fox in the fall. ... Actress Bitty Schram, once a series regular on "Monk," will return as a guest star in one episode of the show's eighth and final season, which begins airing this summer. ... TV Week reports CBS may replace canceled soap "Guiding Light" with a new version of the "$25,000 Pyramid."

This week's Tuned In Journal posts include information on "Pushing Daisies" on DVD, the Peabody Awards and the competitive Monday night lineup. Today's TV Q and A responds to questions about the TV Q&A, the departure of WTAE's Ashley DiParlo and the latest on when Verizon's FiOS TV may make it to the City of Pittsburgh. Read them at post-gazette.com/tv.

The Tuned In podcast includes conversation about "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," "The Osbournes Reloaded" and "Life on Mars."