Stations deliver with storm coverage

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All of the area media outlets did an outstanding job with coverage of Friday’s deadly tornadoes. They alerted viewers overnight about the tornado warnings and then went wall to wall with more than 12 hours of coverage of the storms’ destruction.

Even before their regularly scheduled 5 a.m. newscasts Friday, the meteorologists at WESH, WKMG and WFTV were providing weather cut-ins before and after midnight. All those stations stayed with coverage from 5 a.m. through 6:30 p.m. WOFL-Fox 35 was also in storm-coverage mode, but returned to regular programming long before the other Big 3 did. CFN 13 also did well providing coverage during its regular 24-hour news schedule.

WESH not only pre-empted programming on Channel 2 for storm coverage, but also ran its news for hours on sister station WKCF-CW 18. Much of WESH’s coverage was also broadcast on MSNBC, and CNN was taking feeds from WESH, WFTV and WKMG. WESH and WKMG closed out Friday night with extended editions of their 11 p.m. newscasts.

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iVillage Live gets renewed through 2008

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iVillage Live!, the daily NBC-Universal TV show based at Islands of Adventure, has been given a green light through June 2008. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the 10 NBC O&O stations that have been airing the show since it began in December are apparently pleased enough with its performance to extend their relationship with the program. And, another two TV stations are picking it up — in Seattle and Oklahoma City.

The show is broadcast live from Islands each Monday-Friday from noon to 1 p.m. If you want free tickets to attend a show, call 1-866-448-5360 or e-mail a request to ivillagelivetickets@nbcuni.com.

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At home with the news (from 1982)

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Twenty-five years ago in Orlando TV was a much simpler time. You could conduct a standup at the airport with your main anchors and bump into a sailor. You could talk about weather with a group of people who happen to all have yellow umbrellas to protect you when a sudden rain starts. You could walk by the space shuttle. And you could wear really weird looking pants while watching WCPX’s News Watch 6 with your family. Here’s a classic news promo clip from 1982 — "Heart of Florida, We’re at home with the news." (Click here to watch the clip)

 

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6 scratches Lewis from sports lineup

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WKMG main sports anchor Todd Lewis will be leaving Local 6 at the end of March, when his contract with the station expires. It is not being renewed.

Local 6 GM Henry Maldonado told the Sentinel’s Scott Maxwell that the decision to part ways with Lewis was mutual. Others say the move was not that unexpected. Still, Lewis hopes to remain in the area.

"I love Central Florida," Lewis told Maxwell. "So I’m going to make every effort to keep my life here."

Who will replace Lewis has yet to be announced. The logical choice would seem to be No. 2 sports guy Lee Goldberg. He was bypassed for the top sports job 3 years ago when Ryan Baker left. At that time, the station decided to bring Lewis back to the sports desk after he had been moved to mornings as news anchor.

Lewis’ replacement will join a growing list of new sports directors in Central Florida. WFTV (Zack Klein in for Dan Hellie) and WESH (Guy Rawlings in for Pat Clarke) have also changed their main sports guys within the past several months.

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Fox 35 adding 11 p.m. newscast

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Following the lead of other Fox O&O’s, WOFL is adding an 11 p.m. newscast.

NewsBlues.com reports that the new show will start in April. The 11 p.m. slot was previously filled with the dreadful Geraldo At Large. Since that show was canceled, the even more dreadful Still Standing has been running in the 11 p.m. spot.

Fox 35 has done well with its hour-long 10 p.m. news, which it will continue to produce. But it will be interesting to see if the new show can make any headway against the established 11 p.m. newscasts on the other locals. WOFL’s 10 p.m. news has benefited from having American Idol and 24 as lead-ins — while the new 11 p.m. show will only have the 10 p.m. show as its lead-in.

No word yet on anchor or anchors for the 11 p.m. show, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see newcomer Corrina Sullivan have a role. In a recent interview with Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker, Sullivan talked about the lack of hard news on the station — but in a nice, polite way, of course. "In St. Louis, we had an older demographic," Sullivan said. "There’s a more vibrant, energetic team here. In St. Louis, you have a lot of hard news. It’s very hard-hitting. Here we believe in empowering people with information that they can use. It’s a little different here."

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Assessing WESH’s changes

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This week began with the anchors and weather personnel at WESH taking on their new news assignments. So far: Wendy Chioji is walking a lot, Tony Mainolfi isn’t sleeping a lot but the ratings look good.

The re-named, solo-anchored "WESH 2 News at 6 with Wendy Chioji" is definitely different from the other early-evening newscasts on the station — and the ones on the other stations, too. (Watch a clip of the first show here) The stories are a bit longer, and nightly interview segment with Chijoi is something that seems worthwhile. Chioji also is now standing while delivering the news, walking about the studio for the weather segment with Mainolfi and the sports segment with newcomer Guy Rawlings. If WESH was going for distinguishing this newscast from its others, it’s succeeded.

Mainolfi, though, is losing sleep over the changes. He’s been reassigned from the morning newscasts to the 6 and 11 p.m. shows — but his morning replacement hasn’t arrived yet. So, when Mainolfi finishes the 11 p.m. show, he basically takes a nap at a nearby hotel then returns to the studio for the 5-7 a.m. morning news and then the 7-9 shift on CW 18 . Fortunately for Mainolfi, new morning weather guy Jason Brewer starts on Feb. 12.

WESH insiders have been happy with the ratings for the revamped shows so far this week. The station says this is its long-term plan, so we’ll see how things fare during the sweeps.

And, speaking of WESH, former assistant ND Anzio Williams has been bumped up the Hearst-Argyle chain. After WESH, Williams became the news director at H-A’s WDSU in New Orleans — leading the station’s Hurricane Katrina coverage there and later in Orlando when the station temporarily moved its ops here. Now, Williams is going to be the ND at KCRA-NBC 3 in Sacramento.

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