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A Nashville-based broadcaster has launched a new television station in Peoria, Illinois, giving viewers of over-the-air TV access to five multicast networks in the region.

The station, Wsio-ld (Channel 51), signed on earlier this month, becoming the market’s affiliate of Heartland, a country music network. The station also carries Retro TV, Revn’, The Action Channel and The Family Channel on its digital sub-channels.

“Everyone at Get After It Media is thrilled to add this station in the Peoria-Bloomington market to our portfolio as we focus on growing our owned-and-operated footprint in 2025,” Joel Wertman, the President of Get After It Media, said in a statement. “Our collection of TV networks truly offers something for every viewer, and I know the Peoria audience will embrace our family friendly entertainment.”

Viewers in the Peoria and Bloomington areas will need to re-scan their digital TV tuners in order to pick up the new station.

Sonia Pizarro of Operation Repo fame has sadly passed away. The reality show, which ran for eleven seasons on Telemundo and TruTV, depicts stories of repossessions going awry in the style of a documentary series. It ran from 2006 to 2014 and was created by Luis Pizarro, who served as one of the stars of the show. Sonia, his sister, was brought in to serve as one of the main cast members and became the boss. She just might be the most memorable personality on the show and helped keep the show popular with viewers during an era that was completely dominated by reality television.

On Instagram, Pizarro's ex-husband, Froylan Tercaro, announced that she had died at the age of 60. The post included an image of Pizarro along with a statement expressing how sad he is to say goodbye. Tercaro says she will always have a "special place" in his heart despite their divorce.

Carlos Lopez Jr. has passed away at the age of 35.  The Los Angeles County Coroner confirms to E! News that the actor, best known for his work on truTV's Operation Repo, was discovered dead from an apparent suicide at his home in downtown Los Angeles. An autopsy for the actor is pending, though it's reported he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  According to TMZ, who first reported the news and cite law enforcement sources, Lopez's roommate discovered his body on Sunday evening. He was pronounced dead at the scene.  Lopez appeared on the last two seasons of Operation Repo from 2012-2014, which depicted reenactments of purported car repossessions in Los Angeles....

Carlos Lopez Jr, a star of truTV’s Operation Repo, was found dead of an apparent suicide Sunday at his Los Angeles apartment, L.A. police and coroner’s officials confirm. He was 35.

Officers and paramedics were called to Lopez’s South Hope Street apartment Sunday night on a report of a possible suicide. Officers found Lopez unresponsive and he was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 8 Pm Sunday of a gunshot wound, coroner’s spokesman Ed Winter told Deadline.

Lopez appeared on the last two seasons of Operation Repo, which originally aired as a Spanish-language version on Telemundo and later crossed over to English language and moved to truTV in 2008. The show consisted of scripted and dramatized re-enactments in which actors “recreated” what were purported to be actual stories of car repossessions in La’s San Fernando Valley.

Lopez’s other TV credits included guest roles on CSI: Cyber and iCarly.

Carlos Lopez Jr. -- one of the repo guys on "Operation Repo" -- is dead of an apparent suicide ... TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Carlos' roommate found him Sunday around 8 Pm on the balcony of their downtown L.A. apartment. The roommate called 911, police and paramedics responded, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. He had a gunshot wound to the head, which police believe was self-inflicted. Our sources say he left a suicide note.

ABC has ordered the TV show pilot for Hail Mary, a single camera comedy, based on the Australian TV series, Braunschlag. The pilot is from Brian Gallivan, creator of The McCarthys -- which was cancelled by CBS after one season -- with The Goldbergs' Seth Gordon and Operation Repo's Tariq Jalil.

While David Schalko's Aussie original series was an eight-episode one-hour program, Deadline says Hail Mary is a half-hour adaptation.

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[[tmz:video id="0_2kg9c3dh"]]  Sonia Lopez, the "Operation Repo" star caught on camera walking off with a man's wallet, won't do any hard time for the crime. Sonia pled no contest in court to stealing a wallet filled with $3k she pilfered from a store counter.  Sonia originally claimed she was just being a good samaritan ... grabbing the wallet so she could return it to its owner ... but the surveillance camera footage looks super sketchy. As part of her sentence,...

[[tmz:video id="0_iut31zyy"]] Repo is her game, but Sonia Lopez swears she never intended to steal a wallet filled with $3k -- even though she was clearly busted on camera lifting it. The "Operation Repo" star was out in Hollywood this weekend, and told us her side of what went down in that drone store. TMZ broke the story ... surveillance cams caught Sonia red-handed knocking over, and then picking up a wallet that had been left on a counter.

[[tmz:video id="0_2kg9c3dh"]] "Operation Repo" star Sonia Lopez got busted twice taking possession of a guy's wallet and the $3k in it -- first by surveillance cameras, and then by cops. Sonia strolled into Drones Plus last month, an L.A. tech store, and you can see in the video ... she makes a beeline for a wallet left on the counter. Sonya made a slick move, knocking the wallet to the ground, then tossing it in her purse.

The star of "Operation Repo" was Johnny-on-the-spot ... ending a L.A. car chase by blocking the fleeing suspect until cops could arrive -- but no one recognized him due to his extreme weight loss. Lou Pizarro played the hero at the end of the chase -- which, of course was televised (this is L.A.) -- when the suspected car thief abandoned the vehicle ... and tried to run away on foot.Pizarro -- who's been...

Earlier this month, Digital Spy spoke to Storage Hunters star Jesse McClure about the show, its future and his co-stars.

During our chat, Jesse warned us to never mention the "B word", referring to his fellow hunters Brandon and Lori Bernier, making it known that their on-screen rivalry is very much real.

Since then, Team Brandori got in touch with Digital Spy to give their no-holds-barred side of the story, and spill the beans on life on the show and what they truly think of their rivals.

Storage Hunters: Brandori want UK version, tease film spinoff

Brandori on... joining the show

"Brandon and I were both discovered at a North Hollywood storage auction in April 2010, hosted by our friend Dan Dotson of Storage Wars. The production company liked our energy and asked us if we wanted to do a sizzle reel for a storage auction show following Sean Kelly.

Discovery Channel is doubling down on high-seas adventure, green-lighting two seafaring reality series this week.

The first is Shipwreck Men, which is a bit like a cross between Deadliest Catch and Operation Repo. The show details the cutthroat business of salvage operations off the coast of southern Florida. The show follows four rival companies that race to be the first on the scene to save sinking vessels and other maritime endeavors. Salvage companies scan the waters, day and night, looking for opportunities to make money when others on get in over their heads.

The series should fit right in at Discovery,...

Shaquille O’Neal is getting the Tosh.0 treatment. TruTV has greenlighted Upload with Shaquille O’Neal, a series centered on the former basketball star scouring the Internet in search of the funniest online videos to comment on as well as creating his own viral videos and parodies. He will be joined on-screen by host Gary Owen (Think Life a Man) and Godfrey (The Mr. Men Show). The project, which has been granted a 10-episode order at the Turner-owned cable networ best known for such series as Hardcore Pawn and Operation Repo, hails from tru and FishBowl Worldwide Media, founded

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Cable channel truTV has announced a slew of new non-scripted shows; Killer Karaoke, Guinness World Records Gone Wild, Container Wars, and Hardcore Pawn: Fort Bragg.

In addition, they've released the return dates for some of their existing shows; World's Dumbest... (season 14, June 7th), Operation Repo (season 10, June 6th), Lizard Lick Towing (season two, June 11th), and Storage Hunters (season two, June 12th). Hardcore Pawn (season six) and Vegas Strip (season three) will both return sometime in July.

Here's the press release with some additional details:

truTV Goes "Bigger, Bolder and Broader" with Original Programming Slate

Top 10 Network Attracting Advertisers with Young Adult Viewers and Growth in Key Demos

"Bigger, bolder, broader" is the watch cry as truTV adds several new original series to its production and development slate. The network is placing...

Last night saw the series finale of Excess Baggage, Nine’s celebrity fatcamp show that was ignominiously booted off Nine and onto Gem.

Obviously it’s not fair to compare the show’s performance on Gem to the main free to air channels. So let’s see how it did against the rest of the shows on digital last night. Here are the shows that beat it:

The Big Bang Theory The Big Bang Theory Two A Touch Of Frost Two The Royal Neighbours Spicks And Specks-Ev Doctor Who-ev The Simpsons Thurs The Simpsons The Big Bang Theory -Ev Timmy Time-am The Pajanimals-ev In The Night Garden-ev Bananas In Pyjamas-Pm Friends -Ev TX3 Driver Dan’S Story Train-ev Mike The Knight-am Roary The Racing Car-am Spicks And Specks: Comedy Special-ev Microscopic Milton-am Miffy And Friends-pm Fun With Claude-pm Play School-Am The Whole Nine Yards Play School...

Heroes star Jimmy Jean-Louis will lead a charity motorbike ride in La for charity on Saturday, February 27.

The actor will ride a motorbike for the very first time alongside Brian McKnight, James Kyson-Lee (“Heroes”), Gilles Marini (“Dancing with the Stars”), Lou Pizarro & Operation Repo Team, Olden Polynice (Former La Clipper), Jaime Gomez (“Nash Bridges, Training Day”), Omarosa (“The Apprentice”) and many others at the event to raise money for Haiti.

Members of the public can also join in, and a “Haiti-themed” Suzuki Gsxr 1000 valued at $40,000 will be auctioned.

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