Jim Van Fleet, Guy Rawlings, Mike Dunston leaving Orlando TV news

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Jim Van Fleet and anchor John Brown chat during the meteorologist's last newscast for Fox 35 Monday.

Comings and goings in Orlando TV news …

After nearly a decade with WOFL, meteorologist Jim Van Fleet presented his last forecast on Monday morning. The popular Fox 35 weatherman is heading to WTSP-CBS 10 in Tampa to become the station’s chief meteorologist. On Monday’s Good Day show, Van Fleet said, “It is bittersweet. Fox has been my family. For the record, I think this is the worst time for me to leave Fox 35 because I feel this is the strongest Fox 35 has been. So, I realize what I am doing but it is an opportunity that is too big to say no to.” …

WESH 2 sports anchor Guy Rawlings is heading to Atlanta to become a news anchor at WGCL-CBS 46. “I’m really excited and a little bit anxious,” Rawlings told the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Monday. “I wanted to try something different, look for a new challenge. A lot of my friends who are sports anchors are unemployed. Local sports seems to be shrinking. This opportunity is a hybrid of news and sports. I had to jump on it!” Rawlings’ last day at WESH will be Dec. 23. Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reports that WESH will start “a national search” for Rawlings’ replacement. Veteran Pat Clarke will help fill the sports gaps at WESH for awhile. …

Another familiar face in the mornings at Fox 35 is leaving town, too. Mike Dunston is heading to Cleveland to anchor “Good Morning Cleveland” for WEWS-ABC 5. Dunston has been with WOFL since 2007. He’ll join his new station in December.

Before super doppler, there was “Miss Fairweather”

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WFTV's weather team in 1963 -- years before Tom Terry and his doppler would arrive.

As regular readers probably know, we’ve been busy archiving newspaper advertisements for TV stations in Orlando (and other Florida markets too.)

We recently came across one that is a gem — a 1963 advertisement for Channel 9′s “Mid Florida News.” This was from the era long before Eyewitness News became “Central Florida’s News Leader.” At this point, the 5-year-old station was struggling for an audience and trying all sorts of gimmicks to try to grab viewers from WESH-2 and WDBO-6.

That included “Andy Wilson and Miss Fairweather” hosting “Amazing Action Weather” on WFTV. Since this was the era way before computer graphics, I hesitate to ask what part Miss Fairweather played in providing the Action for “Amazing Action Weather.” Does anyone know who Miss Fairweather is (or was)?

But, another piece of Orlando TV news lore: Yes, we had our own weather girl on WFTV. See the full WFTV ad here.

Former Channel 9 reporter Leland Vittert in hot water with Fox News

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A lot of Orlando TV news folks move on to bigger and better gigs after O-Town. Some end up making some news themselves.

That appears to be the case with former WFTV-Channel 9 reporter Leland Vittert. NewsBlues.com reports that Vittert — who was hired last year to cover the Middle East for Fox News Channel – may be in a bit of trouble.

According to NewsBlues, “A crew from CNN reportedly saw him in the middle of a high-stakes card game in Tel Aviv, using Fox’s expense money as a gambling bankroll, and squealled on him.”

NewsBlues also says that sources told the site that Vittert has been suspended and is now back in the U.S. Vittert reportedly said he was using the money as pretend currency and no actual money was exchanged. Stay tuned.

Urban Meyer to Ohio State – a scoop or bust for WKMG’s Ping

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"Ping"

The college football world has been buzzing since Tuesday night when WKMG-Local 6 sports director David “Ping” Pingalore broke the news that former Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer had agreed to a 7-year, $40-million deal to coach the Ohio State Buckeyes.

So far, Meyer is denying the report. But that hasn’t stopped Ping’s report from being picked up by national outlets and earning the local sports guy a sport on ESPN to talk about his big scoop.

Ping has been hit and miss with his big scoops before (see here and here), so it will be interesting to see if this story turns out to be accurate.

Meteorologist Leslie Hudson gets part-time gig at Fox 35

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A familiar face to Orlando TV news viewers will be reappearing shortly on Fox 35. It’s meteorologist Leslie Hudson, who previously reported on the weather at Central Florida News 13 and at WESH-2.

“I’ve told a few friends this, now I am telling the rest of my friends! …  I will be working at Fox 35 as their freelance meteorologist in December,” Hudson posted on her Facebook page Tuesday. “It’s very part time, but I am very excited.”

WOFL needs the additional weather help with the upcoming departure of morning meteorologist Jim Van Fleet, who is scheduled to leave in early December for his new job as chief meteorologist at Tampa CBS affiliate WTSP-10.

Hudson, who was with WESH during 2004′s historic hurricane season, added, “Can’t wait to track the radar again!”

With November sweeps near end, what does Bob Jordan think?

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Bob Jordan (courtesy OrlandoSentinel.com)

As the November sweeps wind up, TVSpy.com asked a number of news directors around the country to talk about the quarterly sweeps period — and what are “successful” sweeps stories they plan and execute coverage during the important ratings period. One of those polled was WFTV veteran news director Bob Jordan. His answer, below, is that a successful station needs to act like it’s in a sweeps period all the time …

If the definition of a “sweeps story that works” is one that increases ratings, I would argue that most sweeps stories produced by local television stations do not work. They don’t move the needle.

I analyze ratings every day. Here’s what drives them: consistent execution of superior local news coverage. A strong lead-in is highly desirable (almost every station that ran “Oprah” as a news lead-in enjoyed a #1 newscast in the time period that followed) and trumps stunting.

It’s true that severe weather and breaking news spike ratings, but you can’t schedule either to happen during a ratings period.  A well-executed, highly promoted investigative piece can spike ratings, but few of them actually do.

In today’s media environment, a winning station has to produce compelling content every day. At WFTV, we run a modified “sweeps drill” 12 months a year and simply ramp it up during rating periods. We choose stories that reinforce our brand.

Producing so-so content 9 months out of the year and then trotting out special content for the other 3 is not a winning strategy.