Category Archives: WRDQ-27

WFTV-Channel 9 sweeps July sweeps

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There are a lot of re-runs in the summer … and also in the O-Town ratings competition. WFTV-Channel 9′s Eyewitness News was again the top choice for Central Floridians. WFTV was No. 1 from 5-7 a.m., from 5-6:30 p.m. and at 11 p.m., according to the Orlando Sentinel’s TV Guy.

In the 6 p.m. competition, WFTV had 141,000 homes to 61,00o for WKMG-Local 6 News and 57,000 for WESH 2 News.
At 11 p.m., Eyewitness News wast No. 1 with 98,000 homes followed by Local 6 at 76,000 and WESH at 64,000. The Sentinel’s TV Guy says in that late-night timeslot, WKMG was down 11,000 from a year ago, WESH was up by 28,000 and WFTV was up by 4,000.

 

WESH was up across the board, actually. In a press release, Channel 2 said it was the only local broadcast station to see growth in all weekday newscasts. “We saw significant growth in both households and adult viewers in May, and it’s gratifying to see it continuing in July. It’s clear we are building some solid momentum,” said station President and General Manager Bill Bauman. High points for WESH: up 96 percent at 4 p.m. from a year ago, up 27 percent at 5 p.m., up 16 percent at 5:30, up 10 percent at 6 p.m. and up 13 percent at 11 p.m.

 

WESH was also eager to point out that its morning news on sister station WKCF-CW 18 from 7 to 9 a.m. is drawing 13 percent more viewers than The Daily Buzz did in the timeslot a year ago. Of course, now the Buzz is over on WRDQ-Channel 27, but it appears before and after WFTV’s morning news its sister station.

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WFTV’s Egert heading to Seattle

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Anchor-reporter Chris Egert from WRDQ/WFTV is heading to the Pacific Northwest. NewsBlues.com reports that Egert is going to become the weekend news anchor at Cox sister station KIRO-CBS 7 in Seattle. It’s a jump up the market ladder for Egert, from O-Town’s No. 19 to Seattle’s No. 13. Egert, who arrived in Orlando in 2002, anchors the weekday Eyewitness News at 10 on WRDQ-Ch. 27 and is a fill-in anchor and reporter on WFTV-Channel 9.

But what kind of station will Egert be heading to? Talk on the TVSpy.com Watercooler is that KIRO’s affiliation with CBS is up, and that the Eye Net may want to move its programming over to the station it owns in the market, KSTW-CW 11. It happened before in the 1990s, when CBS took its affiliation from KIRO and moved it to KSTW, only to move it back again a few years later.

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The Daily Buzz is heading to WRDQ

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The Daily Buzz is moving to a new home — and a new station.

WRDQ announced Friday that the Buzz is moving to TV 27 from WKCF-CW 18 starting May 28. According to the press release, "TV27 is taking The Daily Buzz back to the roots of where the show previously aired, and enjoyed its largest audience, at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday leading into Eyewitness News This Morning. A second hour will be tape-delayed and presented at 10:30 a.m."

The Buzz has been sort of a red-headed stepchild at CW18 after the station was acquired by WESH parent Hearst-Argyle. WESH expanded its morning news to CW18, bumping the Buzz to 9 a.m.-noon and running the show on a three-hour delay.

"The Daily Buzz has created a distinct brand that fills a void in the morning. It’s the perfect lead in to Eyewitness News This Morning, which will continue to air from 7-8:30 a.m.," said Shawn Bartelt, General Manager for WFTV/ WRDQ. "We recognize that there has been a longing in the community for The Daily Buzz to return to its original time period, and we are excited to give the audience what they are looking for."

As we reported earlier, The Buzz is currently broadcasting from the Disney-MGM Studios until its new broadcast facility at Full Sail is completed.

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Morning news battle heats up today

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Good morning, Orlando. You may not realize it, but you’re waking up in what has become the most competitive market for morning news in the nation — with more local news, with more national news and with plenty of surprises.

Monday morning, WESH-Channel 2 and WFTV-Channel 9 will start their early newscasts at 5 a.m. and then keep on broadcasting once their respective network morning shows go on the air at 7 o’clock. Instead of watching NBC’s Today, you can view WESH 2 News on CW 18 from 7-9 a.m. by switching over to WKCF-Channel 18. Instead of watching Good Morning America, you can tune to Eyewitness News This Morning from 7-8:30 a.m. by going to WRDQ-Channel 27.

WESH’s and WFTV’s news expansion to their sister duopoly stations sets up a local 7-9 a.m. showdown for the first time. WOFL-Fox 35 has had the 7-9 a.m. local broadcast news franchise to itself for six years since it launched its morning news in 2000. (Oh, and we can’t overlook cable’s Central Florida News 13, whose all-local newscasts do well in the mornings, too.)

WFTV was the first to announce its plans to expand its Eyewitness News franchise in the morning to sister station WRDQ. The details were revealed in early December, but the station has been planning the new morning news since July.

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More Sweeps Analysis

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 Breaking down more sweeps numbers, from Friday’s Orlando Sentinel.
>> WOFL’s 10 p.m. newscast is up 17 percent from a year ago. From Monday-Sunday, Fox 35 News has 52,200 households and WRDQ’s Action News has 36,000.

>> Showing how much the network lead-in helps or hurts, WFTV (ABC) is up 28 percent at 11 p.m., and WESH (NBC) is down 15 percent. WKMG, home of top-rated CBS, was off a surprising 10 percent at 11 p.m.

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CW Signs Up 18 — Plus Other Stuff

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It’s been a newsy couple of days so far this week …

The new CW Network signed up its first round of affiliates on Wednesday, and among the group of five was Orlando’s WKCF-Channel 18. The future former home of the WB network will now be the place where the CW calls home in Central Florida. WKCF won out over independent WRDQ-Channel 27. I’m not sure how strong of a contender Channel 27 was for CW affiliation, but a couple of insiders said the station sure was interested. Emmis-owned WKCF is still up for sale, by the way, and CW affiliation should help those prospects. The other new netlet this fall, Fox-owned My Network TV, will end up on Fox-owned WRBW-Channel 65, currently home to UPN. Read the full story.

Marc Middleton ended a 20-something-year career at WESH on Tuesday, signing off after the noon news. Middleton came to WESH initially as its sports director back in the early 1980s. He later swapped places with then-morning anchor Bill Shaffer. As reported earlier, Middleton is teaming up with former Channel 2 anchor Andrea Coudriet in starting a media relations company.

Reynolds Wolf, former morning meteorologist at WKMG-Channel 6, is joining CNN as a new weathercaster. After leaving O-Town, Wolf was at KMOV in St. Louis. He starts Monday. Here’s more info.

Central Florida News 13 is getting a full-time Tallahassee bureau. Station owner Bright House Networks said the bureau, working out of FSU station WFSU-Channel 11 (PBS), will feed stories to CFN 13 as well as sister station Bay News 9 in Tampa. "What happens in Tallahassee on a daily basis affects all of us living in Florida," Elliott Wiser, vice president of news programming for Bright House Networks Florida Group, told the Orlando Sentinel.

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