Category Archives: WOFL-35

WKMG: Urban Meyer told Gators he had heart attack

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"Ping"

WKMG-Local 6 sports anchor David “Ping” Pingalore said Monday evening he stands behind his Saturday report that Florida Gators Coach Urban Meyer had a heart attack during mid-season — one health reason that may have led to the coach’s decision to take an indefinite leave of absence from the team.

During WKMG’s “The 6 O’Clock News,” Pingalore reported live via phone from New Orleans, where the Gators are set to play Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl. He elaborated on his Saturday report, saying Meyer himself told the Gators players he had a heart attack.

“On Saturday night I did report from a source that head coach Urban Meyer did tell the team sometime on Saturday that in mid-season he suffered a heart attack, and that source continues to stand by that story. We stand by that story,” Pingalore said. “Coach Meyer on Sunday denied any kind of rumor or fact or whatever it is that he suffered a heart attack. He said he did not suffer a heart attack. But our source inside that team meeting did say that Coach Meyer did tell the team he did suffer a heart attack. And Meyer, he kind of walked around a lot of those questions that were asked of him about his health [during Sunday's news conference.]”

“Ping” has been right with other Gators scoops, so that’s why this claim is being taken seriously by many despite UF’s denials.

Also one other interesting note about the Urban Meyer saga: WOFL-Fox 35 — which got rid of its full-time sports anchors and segments awhile ago — is running promos touting that it was the only station in town to carry Meyer’s Sunday afternoon news conference.

Bob Frier returns to air December 14 on Fox 35

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bobfrier-woflSome quick updates …

Former WKMG-Local 6 anchor Bob Frier, who recently signed with WOFL-Fox 35, will make his debut on his new station Dec. 14, according to station promos. Still no word on how the anchor duties at Fox 35 are going to be shuffled with Frier’s arrival. But it’s great that he will be back on TV — and may make the difference in pushing Fox 35 permanently ahead of WKMG in the early evening time slots where they square off. …

Holiday cheer, courtesy of Central Florida’s News Leader: When the City of Orlando said it would not have a Christmas tree this year due to budget cuts, WFTV-Channel 9 repsonded. According to the Orlando Sentinel, “A 31-foot blue spruce was donated by Warren Brown and Co., a tree farm, and the $6,800 cost of transporting it from North Carolina and installing it is being paid by AirTran Airways and WFTV.” Channel 9 is also a sponsor of the holiday Light Up UCF event. …

What will WFTV do when Oprah Winfrey ends her talk show in 2011? It’s probably too early to tell, but according to Broadcasting & Cable, most ABC O&O’s which air Oprah already know what they’re doing – more news. “According to many sources, executives at the ABC stations that serve as Oprah’s key station group have long said they will fill the time slots by expanding their local news. The ABC stations remain strong–even in today’s tough environment–and are news leaders,” B&C reported So, don’t be surprised to see WFTV’s Eyewitness News starting at 4 p.m. come September 2011. That’s still a long way off, and lots of things could happen, but that’s my bet. …

They’re hearing wedding bells over at WKMG. Local 6 evening anchor Mike Garofalo got hitched, and morning anchor Laura Diaz got engaged. Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reports that Garofalo married Sasha Andrade, a reporter at Post-Newsweek sister station WPLG-Local 10 in Miami. Boedeker says Diaz got engaged a month ago “to a WKMG colleague she identifies only as Mike.” Diaz told Boedeker,  ”He’s in sales. He’s in the other world, what we call the dark side.”

Abatta, Kaufeldt swap anchor shifts at Fox 35

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ttt-fox35-2009New WOFL ND Jeff Zeller appears to be wasting no time making changes at Fox 35.

A pair of anchors — newcomer Sonni Abatta and veteran Amy Kaufeldt — will be swapping roles. Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reports Kaufeldt will become Cale Ramaker’s co-anchor on the Fox 35 10 p.m. news as well as continue as the 5 p.m. co-anchor. Abatta will move off the late anchor desk to join the 9 a.m. hour of “Good Day” while continuing to be the 6 p.m. anchor with Ramaker.

The changes are scheduled to begin on Monday.

New Guy at WESH, change in weather at WKMG

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ttt-notes2Back from a Fall break from blogging. Here’s what been going on …

New WESH 2 Sunrise anchor Jason Guy doesn’t officially start his new gig until Monday, but he’s been trying out the Channel 2 anchor desk. He co-anchored the Friday noon news with his Sunrise co-anchor Syan Rhodes, and he was spotted on the Saturday 11 p.m. news with Aixa Diaz. Guy, whose broadcasting career includes a stint as a contestant on CBS’ Big Brother, answered questions from Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker. On how the Big Brother experienced shaped him, Guy said, “I had a rare experience in reality. I was genuinely who I am. And I went in there and I said, ‘Even if I don’t win, I want to keep my integrity.’ It helped me figure out where I was heading in life. I started working in reality-television production after the show. I got hired by an executive producer of Big Brother. I did well with that one and kept getting hired.” Read the Sentinel Q&A with Guy here. …

For anyone watching WKMG over the past couple of months, this probably comes as no surprise. The station has installed meteorologist Troy Bridges as the 11 p.m. weather guy, with chief meteorologist Tom Sorrells staying on the 6-7 p.m. news. For several months, Bridges and Sorrells have been sharing weather duties in the evenings — which at least to me has seemed awkward. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not alone in thinking that Local 6 seems to be easing out Sorrells in favor of Bridges. It may be part of a cost-cutting move. As you recall WKMG laid off 20 people in May  and canceled its 4, 5 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts. …

One of those laid off in the Local 6 May purge was reporter Kimberly Houk. She’s back working again — now on weekend assignments for WESH 2. …

Gavin Maliska’s stint as news director at WOFL-Fox 35 didn’t even last a year. He was shown the door last month. and now GM Stan Knott has elevated Jeff Zeller to ND from assistant news director. For those keeping score, Zeller replaces Maliska, who replaced Bob Clinkingbeard, who replaced John Sears, who replaced Lena Sadiwskyj. In all, Zeller is Fox 35′s fifth news director in six years. Broadcasting and Cable says that before he joined WOFL 3-1/2 years ago, Zeller spent six years at WPXI in Pittsburgh – first as an executive producer and then as a managing editor/senior executive producer — and two years at WHIO in Dayton, Ohio.

O-Town Tweeters make news, plus other notes

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twitter2Some quick notes for midweek:

TVNewsCheck.com is noting how Twitter has become popular in TV newsrooms, and it called upon two of O-Town’s top TV Tweeters to explain the craze. ”I thought the social networking sites were strictly a phenomenon of teenagers and young kids. I thought it was meaningless chatter, but it’s not,” WFTV News Director Bob Jordan told the site.  “It’s now the primary way a lot of people communicate, share and obtain information. Not to be in that space would be just the dumbest thing anyone could do, if you’re in the communications business.” WESH ND Bob Longo – another Twitter fan and occasional target of Jordan’s Tweets — told TVNewsCheck,  “I like it for a few reasons: It’s a little bit town crier, a little bit police scanner and another news monitor on the assignment desk wall.” You can read the full story here. …

Former WKMG anchor Bob Frier is back on the air. You can catch him in the mornings this week filling in for vacationing Erica Lee on Mix 105.1 FM’s Scott and Erica Show. As you are probably aware, Frier and DJ Scott McKenzie are part of the band Simulcast. It’s good to hear Bob again. Maybe radio is in his future? That’s what happened to former Channel 6 anchor Leslye Gayle when the station dropped her — she popped up on Magic 107.7 and has been doing mornings there since. …

Fox 35 is gearing up for next week’s launch of its expanded morning news. The 8:30 to 10 a.m. segment is being branded as “Good Day.” Amy Kaufeldt, Heidi Hatch, Jacquie Sosa and Christine van Blokland will helm the show. Promos have started airing. You can check one out below:

Information sharing creates new problems for TV

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tvnotesYou may have heard about the latest blowup between O-Town stations. This one involved WFTV’s video inteview with religious runaway Fathima Rafqa Bary.

Channel 9′s exclusive video was posted on YouTube.com — then WESH and WOFL broadcast portions of the clip obtained from the video-sharing Web site. Neither station credited WFTV with the interview.

“You can’t steal someone else’s work and pass it off as your own,” WFTV News Director Bob Jordan told Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker. “They will make a fair-use claim under the copyright law. But this is pretty transparent theft. They knew it was our work. They could have acknowledged that it was WFTV’s work.”

It reminded me of the recent Walt Disney World monorail accident. WKMG obtained exclusive video shot minutes after the accident by a tourist, but the video was quickly posted on YouTube. After other TV stations and Web sites aired the video from YouTube, Local 6 ND Steve Hyvonen sent emails to all O-Town media outlets, warning them to respect the station’s exclusive or face legal action.

On the Web, aggregation is an accepted form of sharing information. Web sites — like this one — typically summarize information, pull out a couple of paragraphs or quotes for context, then link directly to the source of the material so readers can see the full report on the originating site

This works well on the Web — sending traffic from aggreator sites to the originator sites. But this doesn’t work on television — where no station wants to credit its competitors on air.

As Jordan told Boedeker, “There are some things we as journalists should be talking about. The new rules of engagement are being driven by new technology. But fundamental is ownership of original work product.”