WGRZ-TV (Channel 2) co-anchor Scott Levin may have been a little optimistic in thinking he possibly would be back on the air a few weeks after undergoing emergency back surgery in late June.

He has just started physical therapy, with evidence of that posted on social media.

Now he tells me that it looks like he might not return on-air until Aug. 9, a week after he plans to take his daughter to college for her freshman year at the University of Alabama.

Channel 2 has hired a new producer-reporter. Robert Hackford, a Western New York native who recently was the weekend morning anchor and a multiskilled journalist at a Syracuse station, announced on Twitter that he is joining the NBC affiliate Aug. 3.

Channel 2 News Director Athan Kompos told his staff in an email that Hackford will produce the station’s weekend evening newscasts and work as a multiskilled journalist three nights a week. One of those skills is reporting.

Hackford is an Orchard Park native and former Channel 2 intern who Kompos wrote “has showcased an ability to successfully handle multiple roles in a newsroom.”

His mother and father and two younger brothers all live in Western New York.