The latest Orlando TV news ...

Who has the most accurate weather forecast in Orlando? WESH says it does and that it has the certification to prove it. Top-rated WFTV says that's baloney.

WESH recently dropped its WeatherPlus branding for its newscasts and started using WeatheRate's seal for Orlando's most accurate weather forecast. But what, you may ask, is WeatheRate? According to a news release on its Web site, "Using a business model similar to J.D. Power and Associates, WeatheRate conducts independent research at their own expense. At the end of each WeatheRating period, the company offers its seal of approval only to the most accurate station in each television market."

It does this for a fee, of course. In a March 2005 posting on NewsBlues.com, Cincinnatti's WCPO-ABC 9 was reportedly paying $1,000 a month to carry WeatheRate's seal on its forecasts.

WeatheRate says its accuracy rating is based on verifying "high and low temperatures, sky cover, precipitation, snow accumulation, wind and fog. Accuracy in forecasting severe weather and timing of precipitation also comes into play."

A check of WeatheRate's not-often-updated Web site showed 13 TV stations listed as clients. WESH was not yet listed, but the only other Florida station noted was WBBH-NBC 2 in Fort Myers.

WFTV News Director Bob Jordan dissed WESH's promotion. He told Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker, "The vendor who sells that pitched me on it, and I said no thanks. The guy called and said, 'I've monitored the market and do you want to buy it?' Who pays the fee becomes the most accurate." 

WESH GM Jim Carter told Boedeker WeatheRate is credible. "Anyone in the marketplace can subscribe to the service," he said. "This is pretty cut and dried. They have specific data."

The big question: Does having a seal as the most accurate in Orlando really matter? I took the following information from each station's Web site on Saturday night -- based on their 7-day forecasts. You'll see there's never more than a 1 or 2 degree difference in the temperature forecast, and no more than a 10% difference in rain chance predictions. When you look at it this way, I think it makes this weather feud seem pretty silly.

So, face it. Those of us in the media sometimes are accused of being "homers" -- cheering for the home team rather than being objective. And, granted, sometimes we are homers.

But I can't recall anyone EVER in Orlando TV news going as far as the anchor team at Cleveland's top-rated WEWS-ABC 5 did on Friday night -- when LeBron James hit a game-winning 3-pointer against the Orlando Magic. Watch the clip below and judge for yourself. You'll see bedlam break out on the set at the 40-second mark of the video when sports guy Terry Brooks jumps out of his seat screaming, "CAVS WIN! CAVS WIN!"

So, are Cleveland anchors more passionate about their team than Orlando's anchors are about the Magic, are or Orlando's anchors more professional than Cleveland's? Just askin'.

Not only is this clip on YouTube, WEWS is publicizing the anchors reaction on its own Web site. (Thanks to the Sentinel's Magic BasketBlog for letting us know about the clip.)

A visitor to the Web site spotted this the other day on WFTV-Channel 9, from an episode of Family Feud.

The category for the two teams to guess: Name a Famous Roger. Sure, there's Roger Moore (the filmmaker -- or is it the Orlando Sentinel movie critic? -- take your pick). And baseball's Roger Clemens, and even Disney's Roger Rabbit.

You'll have to watch until the end of the short clip to see why I'm equally happy and humbled:

WKMG's new schedule goes into effect today. No more news at 4, 5 or 5:30 p.m. -- the new hourlong 6 p.m. show starts, followed by the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric at 7 p.m.

Taking over one of Local 6 News' former time slots -- from 5 to 6 p.m. -- is talk show host Dr. Phil. WKMG moved the good doctor to be the lead-in for its local news -- an idea that was first tried at Post-Newsweek sister station WPLG-ABC 10 in Miami in 2006 with great ratings success. Back then I asked then-GM Henry Maldonado if WKMG had any plans to copy the Dr. Phil programming strategy.

"Dr Phil is doing better than ever here at 7," Maldonado wrote in an e-mail back then. "We were the first major market station to put Dr Phil in the evening, and now others are following our lead. Our news is doing just fine, we are No. 2 in those time periods, and looking to keep moving up."

"But," he added, "it's good to know that there's a strategy out there in case this town runs out of news."

Well, I think we have plenty of news -- just not as many people watching it.

Also of note: The news schedule that WKMG is starting today -- hour of news from 6-7 followed by CBS Evening News -- was employed here in the Sunshine State back in the 1980s when WTVT-Fox 13 was still a CBS affiliate. It ran "Pulse 13 News" as an hourlong block leading into CBS' news at 7 p.m. As they say, the more things change ...

Here's a clip from WTVT:

Breaking Radio News: OrlandoSentinel.com is reporting that Shannon Burke of Real Radio 104.1 is in jail today, accused of firing a gun -- the bullet from which injured his family's dog and grazed his wife in the head. Burke, 43, is facing charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and animal cruelty. Burke used to have a regular segment on the Orlando-based morning show, The Daily Buzz, on WRDQ-Ch. 27.