Say goodnight, Bob. Opsahl exits 11 p.m. news

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Some Orlando TV quick takes for you…

Did you catch Bob Opsahl anchoring the 11 p.m. edition of Eyewitness News on WFTV-Channel 9 last week? If so, that may be the last time you see Bob at 11 in awhile. Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker broke the news about Opsahl being moved off the 11 o’clock shift, making way for anchor heir-apparent Josh Benson. But, did you know that this isn’t the first time Opsahl was moved off the 11 p.m. news? It wasn’t his choice then, but in the 1986, WFTV bumped him off the 11 p.m. (and 6 p.m.) shows for anchor Bud Hedinger. Once Bud left the station, Opsahl reclaimed the main anchor chair in 1989 and hasn’t given it up since … until now, on his terms. …

Good thing for upcoming WUCF TV, the future home of PBS in Orlando. After losing WMFE-24 as a home for PBS programming, the region’s other choice fro PBS, WDSC-15 in Daytona Beach, is dropping the public broadcasting network on July 1. The reason? Financial woes. Read it all here. …

Former WOFL-Fox 35 meteorologist Sabrina Fein has landed out West. She’s the newest addition to the weather team at San Diego’s XETV-CW 6. She’s forecasting on the station’s 10 and 11 p.m. shows.

Orlando TV News slogans. Can you match them to the station?

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Annetta Wilson and Wayne Bennett in a promo for WCPX NewsWatch 6 in early 1980s.

You hear them over and over again when you watch Orlando TV news. They are the slogans the stations use to brand their news — and hopefully get you to watch more. Over the years, there have been a lot of slogans used by Orlando TV stations for their news. Can you match the slogan with the station? Take the Orlando TV News Slogan Challenge. Below are 20 slogans — guess with one goes with which station. The answers after the jump. Post how well you did in the comments section …

  1. Where the News Comes First
  2. Working Harder For You
  3. The Original 10:00 News
  4. The One For News
  5. Go Where The News Is
  6. Your Breaking News Station
  7. Central Florida’s News Leader
  8. Your Generation
  9. Stories That Count. People Who Care.
  10. Florida’s Watching
  11. Your Problem Solver Station
  12. Change Your Tomorrow
  13. People You Can Count On
  14. The One For All
  15. Home of ClickOrlando.com
  16. Experience You Can Trust
  17. Local. Live. Late Breaking.
  18. Coverage You Can Count On
  19. Where Will We Take You Tonight?
  20. Believes In You

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Wicked weather disrupts sports, Casey Anthony coverage

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It’s not just Casey Anthony who can scramble Orlando TV programming. Mother Nature also has some clout.

Late afternoon tornado warnings on Saturday disrupted Orlando’s already mixed-up TV programming. Sports fans hoping to watch the U.S. Open golf tournament on WESH-2 and the Yankees-Cubs baseball game of the week on Fox 35 had to settle for split-screen coverage. [Update: A reader noted that WFTV left NASCAR coverage at the start of its storm coverage.] After briefly returning to regular programming around 7 p.m., Orlando’s stations were back in a flash with more weather warnings. The last batch even managed to knock off WFTV-Channel 9′s weekly Casey recap special. It will be rescheduled.

Despite four separate tornado warnings over two hours, there were no confirmed twisters. A look below at Orlando TV on Saturday afternoon:

WESH-2, which moved the U.S. Open to sister station WKCF-CW 18 during the week, shrinks coverage on Saturday to make way to weather warnings.

WOFL-Fox 35 broke into the baseball game of the week with its weather warnings. Even though it kept the split screen throughout the tornado warnings, it did resume audio from the Yankees-Cubs game from time to time.

WFTV-Channel 9 was able to air a few minutes of its weekly Casey Anthony trial recap before having to ditch it completely for more severe weather coverage.

 

Fox 35 top choice for Casey coverage

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As the Casey Anthony trial finished its third week, we are seeing an Orlando TV trend continue: WOFL-Fox 35 continues to be the top choice for local viewers in the most important demos. And it’s winning both the morning and afternoon sessions of the trial.

TVSpy.com reports that for the week of June 3-9, Fox 35 led it’s O-Town counterparts in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos. Here are the ratings in the 25-54 demo. Read the full TVSpy.com story here.

Casey Anthony trial: A tour of media village

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The Casey Anthony trial has brought unprecedented media attention to Orlando — as well a horde of reporters and satellite trucks now camped outside the Orange County Courthouse. Here’s a quick tour of this temporary media village, which some have dubbed “Casey Town.”

This is the main media village area, directly across Orange Avenue from the Orange County Courthouse. This is where the broadcast and cable networks are positioned, as well as Orlando stations WKMG-Local 6 and WOFL-Fox 35.

This is the south "suburb" of Casey Town, located south of the courthouse and home to WFTV-Channel 9, WESH-Channel 2 and WDBO-AM radio.

This is the northern boundary of Casey Town -- one of the Orlando Sentinel's parking lots. Univision secured space here, with a view of the courthouse parking garage as a background.

WESH joins Casey Anthony coverage parade

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After ending up as the only network broadcast station in town not to be offering wall-to-wall coverage of the Casey Anthony trial, WESH 2 will join the crowd on Wednesday.

“We took a deliberate approach and put our resources online and into newscasts,” WESH General Manager Jim Carter told the Orlando Sentinel. “The interest continues to be overwhelming. We feel with our people we can do a terrific job, a better job than others.”

WESH will move its regular programming to digital channel 2.2 when showing Casey Anthony coverage on its main channel.

Why did WESH blink? I had someone who used to be in the TV news biz explain that Casey coverage could be a game-changer in the TV ratings pecking order. Depending on what station viewers gravitate to for coverage, that decision could change their nightly TV news habits. We’ll see.