| Stories from
Spring 2004 |
First
on Fox | Riding
American Idol's coattails
 May 25 --
"Dreadful, just
dreadful." That could be
Simon Cowell critiquing an
American Idol singer, or it could
be his assessment of WOFL's news
audience. So, Simon, what do you
do? Simple. If you're WOFL, you
count on Simon, Paula and Randy
for a strong finish. The first
story teased Monday night on Fox
35's News at 10 was about
American Idol. The first story
teased on Sunday night's News at
10 was about American Idol. Just
about every night now the station
has been starting its news by
teasing an American Idol report.
The hope is that the big Idol
finale will provide the coattails
to carry the local Fox O&O
past pesky independent WRDQ at
10. It may work, but if it does,
it just masks the larger problems
WOFL is having as it attempts to
right itself. |
| People
You Can Count On | Counting
the on-air talent |
| May
25 --
WKMG runs a promo that
brags it has "180
people working for
you." That got me
thinking. How many people
do each of the area
stations have working in
news? I don't have those
figures (yet), but if you
go to each station's
website you can see how
many on-air people each
news department has
listed. Here's a brief
snapshot of the on-air
talent -- and what that
talent is being used to
produce: |
Area
Station |
On-Air
Talent |
Mon-Fri
Daily News |
| WESH-Ch.
2 |
29 |
5
hours |
| WKMG-Ch.
6 |
28 |
4-1/2
hours |
| WFTV-Ch.
9* |
29 |
5-1/2
hours |
| CFN
13 |
24 |
24
hours# |
| WOFL-Ch.
35 |
18 |
4
hours |
*
Includes 10 p.m. news on
WRDQ
# Includes repeated
segments |
|
|
Media
Mix | IWKMG
tries to solve problem at Cox
radio
 May 25 -- It's
always interesting when one big
media company wags a disapproving
finger at another. That was the
case Monday night on WKMG's 11
p.m. news when the Local 6
Problem Solvers reported about
alleged discrimination against
women at Cox Radio's Orlando
stations. According to the report
on the Post-Newsweek TV station,
female sales employees at Cox's
six area radio stations were
allegedly eased out of their jobs
after returning from maternity
leaves. One of the women in the
report formerly worked at Star
94.5 FM and had her sales goal
raised to more than $800,000 --
after the company took accounts
away from her. The WKMG report
was quick to point out that the
alleged discrimination occurs
only at Cox-owned radio stations
in Orlando -- not at Cox-owned TV
outlets WFTV-Channel 9 and
WRDQ-Channel 27. Hey, ratting out
problems at other media companies
has its limits. (Quick aside:
Best line of the whole piece was
a quote from an indignant state
lawmaker: We protect pregnant
pigs in Florida but not pregnant
women. Doesn't that really sum up
the Sunshine State?) |
News
Nuggets | Now
served in a to-go container
 May 25 -- Have an
order of news nuggets -- on the
house ... MSNBC has sworn off
Bud, at least for now. Former
Channels 6, 9 and 18 anchorman Bud
Hedinger won't be the
cable news network's new anchor
after all. He tells the Orlando
Sentinel's Scott
Maxwell that his weeklong
tryout was a thrill, but he's OK
with the decision to not sign
him. He'll still do his radio gig
at WFLF-540 AM. ... Speaking of
Maxwell, you can see a video
version of his excellent Sentinel
Taking Names
column each Thursday toward the
end of the 5:30 p.m. edition of
NewsChannel 2. (See, Scott, I
finally mentioned it!) ... Fox
will hold a conference call today
to announce a new
national cable network.
It's not Fox Business Channel or
Fox Headline News Channel or even
Fox ''When Anchors Go Crazy''
Channel, as some may have
speculated. Think sports. |
Primary
News | A look at
9 and its colorful graphics
 May 17 -- We
continue our look back at Orlando
TV news of yesteryear. Today
we're turning back the clock to
2000 and this clip from
Eyewitness News. This is from
what I like to call Channel 9's
very, very colorful
phase. Thank goodness these
graphics went away. But you do
get to see Bob and Marla together
again.
 See WFTV Eyewitness
News at 11 from 2000 |
Code
It | WKMG
plays politics with ratings
 May 6 -- And
speaking of sweeps ... expecting
a huge wave of viewers to follow
the Friends' finale all the way
to WESH's 11 p.m. news, WKMG
ditched part of its late Thursday
newscast to air an "election
special" -- an interview
with presidential candidate John
Kerry conducted by Post-Newsweek
sister station WPLG in Miami.
Devoting an extended period of
time for a candidate to discuss
his (or her) views is admirable,
and some might even call it, dare
we say, a public service. But
WKMG deserves no applause for
this decision. Its motivation was
to be able to "code
out" part of its newscast
and stem its rating losses for
the night. And if WKMG was so
committed to helping inform
voters, why opt to run its highly
touted interview on a night when
it knows it has no audience? |
Law
and Order | Several
reporters cop new careers
 May 6 -- We
mentioned yesterday that Crystal
Candy had left her reporting job
at Channel 6 to become a public
information officer with the
Orange County Sheriff's Office.
Now that we think about it, she's
just continuing a trend among
Central Florida's broadcasters.
Former WFTV reporter Steve Olson
is the spokesman for the Seminole
County Sheriff's Office, and
former WFTV and WKMG reporter
Yvonne Martinez is the
spokeswoman for Brevard County's
Sheriff's Office. |
Distant
Replay | News from
Newscenter, too
 May 6 -- We
continue our O-Town news
flashbacks today with a visit to
Newscenter 6. Is there another
market where the
"Newscenter" brand was
used by two stations? WESH was
NewsCenter 2 in the 1970s up
until around 1991, when it
changed to "2 News."
WKMG revived the
"newscenter" moniker --
albeit briefly -- in 2000. Here's
David Wittman and Lisa Colagrossi
(now at WABC in New York) with
the Newscenter 6 Nightbeat.
 See WKMG Newscenter
6 from 2000 |
More
at 10 | A look
back at UPN 65's newscast
 May 5 -- Speaking
of the 10 p.m. news, in today's
flashback we check out the
"other" WFTV-produced
10 o'clock news -- the one that
used to run on WRBW-UPN 65.
Here's Bob Opsahl anchoring the
long-named "Channel 9
Eyewitness News at 10 on UPN
65" back in 1997. WFTV
stopped producing the news for
WRBW once it acquired
WRDQ-Channel 27 to give itself an
Orlando duopoly.That's how Action
News started. UPN 65 went on to
become part of Fox's O-Town duop
with WOFL-Fox 35.
See WRBW Eyewitness
News at 10 on UPN 65 |
Nuggets
of News | You want
fries with that?
 May 5 -- A couple
of news nuggets for you ...
Former WKMG reporter Crystal
Candy has been hired as
a public information officer with
the Orange County Sheriff's
Department. She starts in about a
week. ... Bud Hedinger isn't
the only former Central Florida
anchor getting noticed at MSNBC.
We're told former WOFL anchor Milissa
Rehberger, who had been
anchoring some overnight shifts
at the cable network, is now
being seen during daylight hours
on the channel ... Perhaps I
should change the name of this
section of the site from
"Central Florida
Television" to "Central
Florida Broadcasting." I
heard from someone at WDBO-580
AM who wanted me to
point out that the radio station
did well in the AP Broadcast
awards. Sure enough, WDBO picked
up five first-place awards,
including Best Overall,
Individual Achievement, Best
Newscast under 5 minutes, Best
Spot News and Best Sports
feature. Click here for the
full list of AP Broadcast winners. ...
Central
Florida News 13 health reporter Carolyn
Scofield won two
separate awards from the American
Heart Association for Excellence
in Cardiovascular Communications
for 2003. The first award was for
her story entitled "Cough
CPR Debunked" about coughing
during a heart attack to save
your life. The second award was
for Scofield's story
"Indialantic Jump Rope for
Heart with Survivors." ...
And finally, apologies to David
Wittman (that's
W-I-T-T-M-A-N), whose last name I
had misspelled in Monday's post.
Can you misspell my name all you
like -- but you won't be able to
find the website if you do. |
Nice
Recovery | Former
WFTVer back on air
 May 3 -- Former
WFTV-Channel 9 reporter Ryan
Serber was back on air at
WUPW-Fox 36 in Toledo on Monday,
more than year after he learned
he had a brain tumor. Serber, who
left WFTV in 2000 to be an anchor
at WUPW, was last on the air Feb.
21, 2003 -- three days before he
had a seizure which led to the
discovery of his tumor. After
spending most of 2003 undergoing
treatment, he returned to work in
January behind the scenes. Today,
he's healthy and back working as
a GA reporter. Details in
the Toledo Blade. |
Roll
Tape | A look
back at WCPX in '97
 May 3 -- I've
received some old O-Town TV tape
from the late '90s and will be
posting clips this week (kind of
my own lame sweep stunt). Today's
clip is from 1997, back when WKMG
was still WCPX. David Wittman and
Grace Rabold were holding down
the anchor desk. They're long
gone -- Wittman to WOIO in
Cleveland and Rabold singing with
a big-band orchestra in Texas --
but you'll see a current Central
Florida anchor in the Breaking
News that opens the show.
See WCPX Channel 6
News from 1997 |
Air
Bud | Hedinger
is back in television news
 May 2 -- The last
time Bud Hedinger anchored a TV
newscast, he was saying goodbye
to viewers of WB 18's Original
10:00 News. Starting Monday,
he'll be saying hello to MSNBC's
cable viewers. Scott
Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel reports
that Hedinger is getting a tryout
at MSNBC this week. He'll host
segments around noon each day for
the news channel. "If they
like what I do, they'll hire
me," Hedinger said. Since
leaving TV in 2002, Hedinger
switched mediums and began
hosting an afternoon talk show on
WFLF-540 AM (aka WFLA). Though
happy with his popular radio
show, he said the TV offer was
"a complete bolt out of the
blue" that he couldn't
resist. |
AP
Awards | Area
stations load up on trophies
 April 30 -- Central
Florida stations picked up 13
awards in The Associated Press'
Florida Broadcast Competition.
WKMG led the way among the locals
with six awards, including four
first places for Best In-depth
Hard News Feature (Mike Holfeld,
Joe W. Morrison Jr. Brent
Singleton, Tim Arnheim for
"Crime of the Century - New
Evidence) , Best Sports Feature
(Lee Goldberg, Tee Taylor for
"Gridiron Granny"),
Best Public Affairs (Tony
Pipitone, Darran Caudle, Arnheim,
Singleton for :Armed and
Dangerous) and Best Investigation
(Pipitone, Caudle, Arnheim,
Fuller for "Frequent
Faller"). WFTV won three
awards, including two first
places for Best Photo Essay
(Oscar Carrillo for
"Drive-in Church") and
Best Spot News (WFTV staff for
"Shuttle Columbia
Explosion:). WESH picked up one
first place award for Individual
Achievement (Marc Rice and
Stephen Stock) among its three
awards. And, a big high five to
Central Florida News 13, which
took first place in Best Long
Feature (Scott Fais and Neil
Petagno for 'Dancing on Water).
Among second places, WESH
finished No. 2 in the state for
Best Newscast and WKMG was second
in Best Overall.
>>>
Click here
for the full list of AP Broadcast
winners |
Radio
Waves | Selio's
show expanding to 3rd station
April 30 -- Who would
have guessed there are so many
Miami Hurricanes fans across the
state? Former UM player Dan
Selio's morning show on WQTM-740
The Team started simulcasting on
a Miami station earlier this
year. Now we hear a Clear Channel
station in Tampa is going to pick
up the show, too. Simulcasting in
Tampa seems to make more sense in
terms of the show's content than
airing it in South Florida. But
it's not about content, it's
about money. We're told it's a
lot less for the Tampa station to
pick up Selio's show than to do
it's own morning program. |
Spelling
Bee | Teacher
wants pop quiz for WFTVers
 April 29 -- An
elementary school teacher in
Seminole County did a double-take
on Wednesday evening when she was
watching WFTV's Eyewitness News.
During a report about a woman who
may have driven to Florida with
her mother's decaying body as her
passenger, the station put up a
graphic showing how the pair came
here from "Oaklahoma."
Needless the say, the teacher was
mortified and even TiVo'd the
report it before alerting us.
These sort of on-air mistakes
seem to be happening more often
-- not just at WFTV but at other
stations and even networks. On
Jan. 28, NBC's Today Show
reported the death of talk show
legend "Jack Parr" in a
graphic, for example.
UPDATE:
There's a great
website that keeps a record of
some of the biggest TV spelling
goofs, including examples from 60
Minutes and others. Here's the
link I promised. |
Happy
1st | Sports
radio show survives, even thrives
 April 29 -- I don't do
a lot with radio, but this story
hits close enough to home to that
I think it deserves a mention.
Keep'n Score with Sentinel Sports
on WQTM-740 The Team celebrated
its first anniversary on the air
Wednesday. (Yes, a full year --
surviving despite my four days as
guest host last summer.) I'm
biased of course, but I think
it's a pretty darn good sports
program and another example of
the changes in traditional media
-- a newspaper producing on a
radio show. Congrats to Lynn
"Hitman" Hoppes, Jerry
"Big-Boned" Greene and
Mike "Oh, shut up,
Jerry" Bianchi. |
Moving
Day | Buzz
relocates to WB18 on July 1
 April 29 -- There's
going to be a lot more Buzz
around Central Florida soon. WB
18 says The Daily Buzz morning
show will officially move its
headquarters to the station on
July 1. Before that, starting
June 1, WKCF will start airing
all three hours of the show, from
6-9 a.m. (Currently it only airs
the first two hours.) And when
the show finally gets here,
expect some changes. Troy
McGuire, formerly news director
at KPTV-Fox 12 in Portland, Ore.,
has been hired to run the show.
And here's an interesting twist.
McGuire was hired at KPTV to
replace John Sears, who left the
station to become VP for news at
WOFL-Fox 35. So, two guys from
Oregon TV are going to be sitting
in offices about 100 or so yards
apart in Lake Mary shaping
Central Florida TV. Go figure. |
First
Strike? | Was WKMG
report aimed at local station?
April 29 -- Let me
start off by saying I have no
idea if this is true. But ... the
buzz on the Orlando TV
Talk message board is that
WKMG's Monday night report about
TV stations luring pedophiles
into traps may have been a
none-too-subtle strike at one
area station. The buzz is that
one station in town, working with
Perverted-Justice.com, was
planning on doing a sweeps piece
on pedophiles. That website helps
TV stations pose as kids on the
web, then sets up meetings with
any perverts who contact the
"kids." Instead of
meeting children, the sexual
predators are met by TV crews.
Stations in Kansas City, Detroit
and Milwaukee have worked with
the website to air such stories
recently. WKMG interviewed local
law enforcement officials about
those TV busts, and they're
weren't in favor of them. Without
including the cops, the situation
could get out of hand, they said.
Plus, the fact that stations are
actually luring pedophiles into
neighborhoods with kids is
another dangerous situation. It
was an interesting report --
regardless of whether it was an
attempt to derail another
station's plans. |
Martin
Moved | Smith
forecasts morning, noon shows
 April 22 -- WFTV is
shuffling its weather lineup, and
it looks like Jamie Martin could
be the odd man out. Martin has
already been replaced on the
morning and noon editions of
Eyewitness News by Joe Smith, the
weekend meteorologist who joined
Channel 9 in May. Martin,
meanwhile, has been moved to
weekends while negotiations
continue on his future at the
station, insiders say. This is
the second bump for Martin in a
little more than a year. In
January 2003, WFTV promoted
morning weather guy Tom Terry to
chief meteorologist, replacing
Glenn Richards. Martin, who had
been doing tag-team weather with
Richards in the evenings, was
then bounced to Terry's old a.m.
shift. Martin, who has been at
WFTV since 2001, is a grad of
Lake Brantley High and UCF. He
previously worked at stations in
Wisconsin, Texas and North
Carolina before returning to
Central Florida. |
Bite-Size
News | Another
order of news nuggets
 April 21 -- When Shannon
Hori leaves WESH soon to
become the new morning anchor at
CBS O&O KTVT in Dallas,
she'll have some Sunshine State
company. FTV Live reports
that her co-anchor will be Doug
Dunbar, who now helms
the anchor desk at
Post-Newsweek's WPLG-ABC 10 in
Miami. ... Peter Kessler,
formerly of The Golf Channel,
will host a new weekly series,
"Florida Golf with Peter
Kessler," on Orlando-based
Sunshine Network. Every Tuesday
at 7 p.m. beginning May 18,
Kessler will offer golf fans
"an entertaining and dynamic
look at the game of golf and the
legends who've lived it and
played it over the decades."
In the May 18 premiere episode,
Gary Player joins Peter. ... At
the NAB convention in Las Vegas, Euphonix
announced it has sold
two Euphonix Max Air digital
audio consoles to WOFL-Fox
35. A 24 Fader Max Air
will be installed in the
station's new control room this
month and a 16 Fader will be
installed in WOFL's existing
control room in June. (I really
don't know what that means, but
it sure sounds important, huh?)
... And we're told the WOFL folks
are moving into their ritzy new
newsroom this week. ... WESH
morning and noon anchor Marc
Middleton has a passion
besides news: it's quilting. Yes,
you read that right. And he's the
keynote speaker at a big quilting
conference this week, reports Scott
Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel. ... The
wedding of Lauren Perkins
(now Lauren Rowe) was quite the
event last Friday, drawing
current and former co-workers to
the swinging reception at
Universal Orlando's Royal Pacific
Resort. Busy
Maxwell was one of the
guests and had all the details. |
At The
Movies | WKMG's
Wilson ready for close-up
 April 21 -- Secily
Wilson is more than just a
traffic reporter for WKMG ...
she's a movie star. Our friends
at Florida
News Center report
that Wilson is one of several
Tampa Bay area journalists who
are extras in the new movie, The
Punisher. It was filmed in
the Tampa area and used the
studios of Bay News 9 and WFLA
for some scenes. Before joining
WKMG not too long ago (she's
still not listed on the Local 6
website!), Wilson was the weekend
co-anchor at Tampa's WTVT-Fox 13. |
Breaking
News | WESH wins
another award
 April 21 -- WESH has picked up
yet another prestigious award:
the Society of Professional
Journalists' top TV award for
"breaking news." Veteran
space reporter Dan Billow and the
WESH news team won the Sigma
Delta Chi Award for the station's
coverage of the shuttle Columbia
accident. With this award, as
well as previous duPont and
Peabody awards, WESH must easily
be the most honored station it
the nation this year. (By the
way, WESH's newspaper partner,
the Orlando Sentinel, won the SPJ
print award for breaking news for
its coverage of Columbia.) |
All Local,
All the Time | 13 takes
Treanor full time
 April 12 -- It's great when you
get to report some good news.
Danny Treanor, the popular former
Channel 9 weatherman who had a
public battle with alcoholism and
was off the air for eight years,
now has a full-time TV gig again.
Later this week he becomes a
full-time member of the Central
Florida News 13 weather
department. Treanor started
working part time for CFN 13 back
in August -- his first TV work
since being let go by WFTV.
Despite having to learn a new
generation of computer and
graphics systems, he proved
himself during his six-month
tryout. We're told he'll work
primarily the weekend shift on
13. |
Here Comes
the Bride | Perkins
to become Rowe
 April 12 -- In case you missed Scott Maxwell's
excellent Taking Names column in the Orlando
Sentinel last week, WKMG-Local 6
anchor Lauren Perkins is getting
hitched on Friday. And she's not
going to be Lauren Perkins
anymore. She's taking the last
name of her future hubby,
aspiring golf pro Michael Rowe. "I
like the sound of it,"
Lauren said, explaining her
decision to take Rowe's name.
"Now, if it was something
like Pumpernickel, I might not
have." The wedding is in
downtown Orlando with a reception
to follow at one of the area
resort hotels. "We're in
Orlando," she said. "We
had to do a theme-park
hotel." |
SPJ Awards | 6 has
others green with envy
 April 12 -- The WKMG folks will
probably be celebrating more than
Lauren Perkins' wedding on
Friday. In the Society of
Professional Journalists' annual
Green Eyeshade Awards, the
station cleaned up with the best
of television award, two
first-place awards, two
second-place awards and a
third-place citation. "The
Problem Solvers continue to build
Local 6's reputation as one of
the premier investigative units
in the country," WKMG news
director Skip Valet said in
announcing the awards. The Best
of Television award went to Tony
Pipitone and Darran Caudle for
their "Armed and
Dangerous" report about
mentally ill people with
fire-arms licenses. The report
also won first place in
investigative reporting.
Pipitone, Caudle, Tim Arnheim and
Brent Singleton won third place
in the investigative category for
"Fake Law Firm," about
a former federal prisoner who was
scamming people by claiming he
was an attorney. Mike Holfeld,
Joe Morrison, Arnheim, Chad
Breedlove, Paul Giorgio, Eileen
Gilmer and Singleton won first
place in business reporting for
"Wrecks in Disguise,"
which showed how insurance
companies pressure repair shops
to cut wrecked cars in half and
weld them to other car parts to
get them back on the road. Second
place in business reporting went
to Steven Cooper, Terri Spitz and
Scott Schroeder for one of the
first stories in the nation about
outsourcing U.S. jobs to foreign
nations. Holfeld, Morrison,
Singleton and Arnheim also won
second place in non-deadline
reporting for "Signature
Bonds," a story about how
Brevard County inmates were often
released on their own
recognizance. No other
Central Florida TV stations won
Green Eyeshade awards, which were
open to print and broadcast
journalists from 11 southeastern
states.
>>>
Click here
for the full list of Green
Eyeshade finalists |
First on Fox
| Stephens
may not get extension
 April 6 -- Fox 35 reportedly
does not plan to renew anchor
Brad Stephens' contact when it
expires this summer, according to
two WOFL insiders. One told us
that management apparently thinks
Stephens is the reason for the
rating problems that persist for
the station's 10 p.m. newscast --
and not the constant changes
and station's perpetually open
staff positions (10, at last
count.). Stephens joined
Fox 35 in 1998 as its first male
news anchor when the
then-Meredith-owned station
decided to expand its fledgling
10 p.m. newscast to an hour. He
first co-anchored with original
WOFL news reader Jo-Ann Bauer,
then with Milissa Rehberger,
whose contract was not renewed by
Fox ownership last fall. Only
Stephens and former chief
meteorologist Jim Van Fleet
(who's now on the morning show)
remain from the seven weekday
anchors the station had when Fox
assumed ownership in the summer of
2002. Ratings for the 10 p.m.
show have been dropping while those for Action
News at 10 on WRDQ-Channel 27 are
climbing. Meanwhile, we're
also told that work on the
station's tony new newsroom is
running behind schedule and
apparently won't be completed in
time for an expected visit this
month by News Corp. deputy COO
Lachlan Murdoch. (Yes, that's
Rupert's son.) |
Making Radio
Waves | Cohl's
sports show expands
 April 6 -- Showing there is
indeed life after television,
former WFTV sports anchor Gary
Cohl continues to build the
sports programming at his new
gig, WORL-660 AM. Cohl, 660 AM's
sports director, has expanded his
"Florida Sports
Reporters" show to Mondays
through Fridays, from 7-8 p.m. It
previously aired just on Mondays.
Regulars on the program are a
who's who of Central Florida
sports media: WFTV's Dan Hellie
and Zach Klein, WKMG's Lee
Goldberg, the Orlando Sentinel's
Brian Schmitz and Florida Today's
John Denton. Jeff Sharon, former
sports intern at Central Florida
News 13, co-hosts and produces
the show. Under Cohl's care, WORL
in January added Sporting News
Radio programming in the evenings
and on weekends. WORL still
broadcasts the Moneywatch Radio
Network during the daytime and
uses the slogan that it's the
station for "Stocks and
Jocks" to reflect its
business/sports shows. |
Building
Awards | WESH
picks up Peabody
 April 1 -- WESH was
among five local TV stations
across the nation cited Wednesday
when the 63rd annual Peabody
Awards were announced.
NewsChannel 2 won for
“Building Homes: Building
Problems,” which exposed
shoddy new-home construction that
prompted a flurry of legislative
actions. A year-long
investigation by the station, the
Orlando Sentinel and students
from UCF provided the first
statistically valid assessment of
shoddy new-home construction in
Florida. The series, which ran
during the November sweeps,
wasn't a hit with viewers, but it
was worthwhile and deserving of
the award. So far this year, WESH
has this Peabody and a national
duPont-Columbia University award
for it space shuttle coverage.
Very impressive, indeed.
>>>
Click here
for the full list of Peabody
winners |
Here's
Stormy | Ex-sportscaster
joins soccer team
 April 1 -- Former
O-Town sportscaster Mike Storms
has found a new job in Central
Florida. It's not in television,
but he's sure to get a kick out
of it. The Ajax Orlando Football
Club announced Wednesday that
Storms has been hired as its
director of business development.
The club is the American
affiliate of the European soccer
club AFC Ajax from Amsterdam.
Storms, a veteran to Central
Florida sports, anchored for WFTV
and later WCPX. Most recently he
was the fundraising and marketing
state director for Market
America, Inc. “I’m glad
to be back in Central
Florida," Storms said.
"This community is filled
with enthusiastic sports fans and
businesses prepared to support a
world class soccer
organization.” Storms moved
from Orlando to Los Angeles in
1997 when he acted as financial
manager and adviser to his
daughter Kirsten Storms, better
known as Belle on NBC's
“Days of Our Lives” and
Zenon in “Zenon, Girl of the
21st Century” on the Disney
Channel. |
Living in
Her Own Private Idaho | 6 hires
reporter
 March 30 -- Talk about
climbing the ladder! WKMG has
hired Jessica Sanchez, a weekend
anchor and reporter at KPVI-NBC 6
in Pocatello, Idaho, as its
replacement for reporter Crystal
Candy, NewsBlues reports.
Sanchez, a grad of the University
of Utah, worked at the Salt Lake
City Fox O&O as a video
editor and associate producer for
nearly two years before heading
to the Gem State to start at KPVI
in July 2002. And to think in
high school I passed on an
internship at KBCI, Boise's CBS
station, thinking it was too
small. Boise is market No. 123 --
Pocatello is 164. D'oh! |
The New Look
on 9 | Graphics,
music changes great
March 30 -- The new
graphics and music package that
WFTV introduced on Monday get a
big thumbs up here. The new, blue
graphics are simple but stylish.
For music, Eyewitness News now
uses the jazzy "News
Matrix" by Stephen
Arnold, dropping the familiar "In-Sink" from 615
music. I especially like the cuts
used on Daybreak. A news
executive once told me that
viewers don't tune in to see nice
sets or flashy graphics -- but
you can chase them away with bad
sets and poor graphics. WFTV has
nothing to worry about with its
new look. (By the way: there's
still some tweaking being done
with some of the opens, so stay
tuned.) |
Going 2
Dallas? | Yep, Hori
is heading to KTVT
 UPDATE March
30 -- As we
speculated, WESH 5:30 p.m. anchor
Shannon Hori is heading to
Dallas-Fort Worth. She'll be the
new weekday morning anchor at CBS
O&O KTVT-Channel 11. The
talented Hori, an Indiana
University grad, has been with
WESH since January 1998. While
making the jump in market size
from No. 20 to No. 7, she'll find
some familiar O-Town faces at
KTVT. Former WESH investigative
reporter Jack Fink joined KTVT
earlier this year, and former
Channel 6 meteorologist and
morning anchor Mike Burger works
at CBS 11, too. |
Oh,
baby | WESH
weather department growing by 2
 March 28 -- The stork
is planning on paying a visit to
WESH -- twice. An O-Town TV
insider tells us that NewsChannel
2 weekend meteorologist Leslie
Hudson and morning meteorologist
Amy Sweezy are both expecting.
Not only that, they apparently
are due on either the same day or
within a day of each other,
sometime in late September.
Pretty cool. Congrats to both of
them! |
Tough
call | Stations
decide to identify mother
March 28 -- Orlando's
media outlets faced a tough
decision last week when a Pierson
woman was accused of forcing her
two teenage daughters into
prostitution. WFTV, WKMG and WESH
all identified the mother,
thereby possibly revealing the
identifies of the two girls.
Channel 2 has since changed it
policy on the story and decided
against identifying the mother in
future stories. The whole issue
of identifying is the topic of
the Sunday
column by Orlando Sentinel
public editor Manning Pynn. The Sentinel,
as Pynn points out, declined to
ID the mother in its stories. |
Taser
teaser
| Pipitone
gets tagged with RTNDA award
 March 25 -- The
Radio-Television News Directors
Association announced its
regional Edward R. Murrow awards
earlier this week, and WKMG was
one of the winners. Competing in
the region that includes Florida,
Georgia, Puerto Rico and the
Virgin Islands, WKMG won for its
Fake Law Firm series, a Problems
Solvers investigation that ran
during the November sweeps. In a
much, much, much hyped incident,
one of the subjects of the story
threatened reporter Tony Pipitone
with a stun gun. Also, WMFE-FM
won an award in the large market
radio news documentary category
for "Columbia
Remembered...Atlantis, Go for
Launch." |
Headed
Home
| Michaels
packs bags for Orlando
 March 25 --
We told you earlier
about former Channel 6
meteorologist Pat Michaels' plans
to leave the Michigan deep freeze
and return to sunny Florida. The Lansing
Journal News gives Michaels a
nice send off. The story
details how since 2000, Michaels
has been splitting time between
Lansing and Orlando, where his
family remained. His last day at
WLNS will be Friday. "We
want to make that kind of a
celebration. Everyone likes
Pat," said WLNS spokesman
Robert Kolt. |
Just
4 the Heck of It | A new look
for our 4th birthday
 March 22 -- Happy
birthday to us. It's hard to
believe that RogerSimmons.com
turned 4 years old Tuesday. What
started off as a couple of pages
of links to other websites has
really taken off the past two
years. Thanks to all of you --
including the more than 13,000
last month -- who visit,
participate on the message board
and send email. Since it's our
birthday and we're growing up, we
decided to get a new look. Hope
you enjoy it. |
Se
Habla News? | Telemundo
40 eyes newscast
 March 22 -- Orlando,
get ready for a seventh TV news
operation. NewsBlues.com reports
that Robert Vizcon, former news
director at Telemundo O&O
WSCV-51 in Miami, is coming to
O-Town as general manager of
WTMO-Telemundo 40. As GM, he
plans to oversee the start of
news operations at WTMO, planned
for late August. With Central
Florida's growing Hispanic
population, it's surprising it's
taken Telemundo so long to join
the news race. Univision's
WVEN-26 has been airing local
news on weekdays for the past
couple of years. Now it gets a
true competitor. |
Channel
Changes
| Is O-Town
station shuffle coming?
 March 22 -- The big
rumor over the weekend had Fox
making a pitch to gain all or
part of Post-Newsweek's six
stations, which include Orlando's
WKMG-Channel 6. There would be
lots of hurdles to clear, but I
wouldn't write off this rumor
just yet. A Fox acquisition of
Post-Newsweek's stations would
give it O&O's in Miami,
Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and
Ocala. How's that for Sunshine
State dominance? To keep its
Orlando duopoly, Fox would have
to sell or trade WOFL. It could
keep UPN 65 since it's not in the
top four in Orlando ratings (WKMG
and WOFL are). Taking the rumor a
step further, the new owners of
Channel 35 would be the likely
ones to gain CBS affiliation over
Cox's WRDQ-27 or Emmis' WB18
because of Fox 35's existing news
operation. Of course, it could
all be bull. |
Not
Playing Ball | Fox 35 still
without a full roster
 March 22 -- Fans at the
Atlanta Braves-New York Mets
spring game on Friday at Disney
were treated to Fox 35 morning
anchor Amy Kaufeldt calling a
half inning from the announcer's
booth as well as leading the
seventh-inning stretch sing
along. I had to wonder if WOFL
had sent her out there to learn
more about sports since the
station doesn't seem in much of a
hurry to fill its sports director
job. It's been vacant since
December when Penn Holderness
left. On the nights weekend
anchor Eric Clinkscales is off,
the news anchors take turns doing
brief sports reports, often 30
seconds or less. But the sports
post -- which isn't even listed
on station's
website -- is just one of 10
jobs that are still open at Fox
35 and its Orlando duopoly
sister, UPN 65. Makes you wonder. |
Old
School O-Town | Some 'new'
old video clips
 March 22 -- It's been
awhile since I've posted some
video clips of old-time Orlando
TV, but I've come across some new
ones. There are a couple of WCPX
news breaks, including ones
anchored by Michelle Muro and
Mary Hamill, a WESH 2 News tease
with Steve Rondinaro and Robin
Chapman, and a weekend Eyewitness
News Brief with Todd Ulrich and
Alice Tall. There's also one of
the most bizarre promos I can
remember seeing, one that urges
viewers to watch "6 News to
Understand." Anyone who was
around at the time of this promo
understands how bad WCPX was
then.
WCPX 6 News
Break (circa 1994)
WCPX 6 News
promo (circa 1994)
WCPX 6 News
Break (circa 1992)
WESH 2 News
tease (circa 1993)
WFTV
Eyewitness News Brief (circa
1991) |
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