Category Archives: Uncategorized

Why meteorologists shouldn’t have telestrators

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This picture (pointed out by former O-Town anchor Scott Walker on his Twitter feed) is from Nashville’s WTVF-CBS 5. It was snapped by a viewer during the station’s coverage of severe weather on Saturday and posted on the Facebook group, “I survived the Great Nashville Monsoon of May 1st.” I think this graphically  illustrates why you don’t want your weather guys drawing on the screen during severe weather. And speaking of weather, the RogerSimmons.com weather station is now working again, but we’re still awaiting some key replacement parts to arrive this week. Then, everything will be, uh, back up and functioning fine again.

WESH’s Claire Metz recovering after crash

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Veteran WESH 2 News reporter Claire Metz gives Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker an update on her condition. She and her videographer were injured last week when a car slammed into the side of a WESH live truck in Daytona Beach.

“I have four broken ribs and a broken, displaced clavicle,” Metz told Boedeker. “They debated whether to operate, but they decided it was so close to blood vessels. I’m in a strap that holds your shoulders back in the hope the two bones will meet and heal. I have a lot of bumps and bruises. My left arm is swollen. It’s not a pretty picture. I’ll never be a hand model.”

Another casualty of the the crash — a favorite suit. “I had this great red suit on,” Metz said. “The paramedics said, ‘We have to cut it off.’ I said, ‘I’ve dreamed of people cutting off my clothes.’ ”

OK, that got a little weird. Still, best wishes to Metz and Hutch Breneman for speedy recoveries.

Read the full interview here.

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.”

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:

Judge: Doctor not at fault for McEwen’s stroke

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Mark McEwen

Mark McEwen

A Maryland doctor will not be held liable for failing to diagnose the pre-stroke symptoms of former CBS and WKMG  anchor Mark McEwen.

The Associated Press reports that Monday’s ruling in U.S. District Court in Baltimore is a setback for McEwen, who was diagnosed by the doctor with stomach flu two days before he suffered a massive stroke while flying home to Orlando in November 2005. McEwen and his attorneys claimed the stroke could have been prevented if McEwen had been given drugs including aspirin and anti-coagulates when he was examined by Dr. Michael Bond at Baltimore Washington Medical Center.

“I was very disappointed,” McEwen told The AP. “When you’re up against something that’s kind of murky, it tends to throw a person who’s used to knowing the difference between right and wrong.”

McEwen’s stroke and his recovery have been documented by WKMG  as well as the networks. Despite an amazing recovery, McEwen was never able to return to the anchor chair.

Read the full AP story here.

Whoa! Something’s changed about RogerSimmons.com

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Please Stand By

Please Stand By

If you’re a regular visitor to RogerSimmons.com, you may notice things are a little different. In a good news-bad news situation, traffic to RogerSimmons.com has been great — so great that the site was putting too much of a load on my Web host. I was told I needed to sign up for a somewhat expensive dedicated server for the site or make some changes. So … welcome to the changes.

For the Geeks out there who are interested, I’ve switched from Joomla to WordPress for the site’s content management system. WordPress is great, but I’m still figuring out how to get things to display the way I want. So, I ask for your patience as I get everything back up — please pardon missing images or any broken links you may come across.

We’ll be back to normal soon.