Blast from the past: Prime time on WMOD-Channel 43

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Blast from the Past goes back to 1986 today. That’s not that too far back, but a lot has changed since then. Take these advertisements for WMOD-Channel 43 for example.

In 1982, the Melbourne-based station became the area’s second independent station — following in the footsteps of Channel 35. WMOD had the staples of an indy station — classic sitcoms, movies, sports and even local newscasts. But it also had a very weak signal, which hindered its efforts to make a name for itself in Orlando TV.

Despite the slogan, “Don’t Stay Home Without Us” — many area homes went without WMOD.

Ownership eventually changed and the station became a Home Shopping Channel affiliate for awhile before becoming a Telefutura affiliate — which it remains this day.

News 13 to start mornings with Marla Weech

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Central Florida News 13 announced Monday that Orlando TV news veteran Marla Weech is now the anchor for Your Morning News.

Weech, who has been on Orlando TV since the 1980s on channels 6 and 9, joined News 13 earlier this year.

“I can’t think of a better person than Marla to help Central Florida start their day,” News 13 VP/GM Robin said in a news release. “Marla is smart, she’s talented, she’s warm, and she truly cares about our community and our viewers.”

Said Weech: “I’m excited to be greeting Central Florida every morning. It’s also wonderful to be part of a team of journalists who work around the clock to make sure our viewers have the very latest news. We’re going to make sure they have all the news, weather, and traffic information they need to get their day started right.”

Blast from the past: WFTV ad from 1981

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Our summertime series, Blast from the Past, continues with this ad for the Eyewitness News team that first boosted Channel 9 to news dominance in Central Florida. Here you see the promotion for the 5:30 p.m. newscast with anchors Bob Opsahl and Carole Nelson, and then the 6 o’clock team that included (from left) sports director Mike Storms, Nelson, news director/anchor Bob Jordan and weatherman Danny Treanor.

WESH’s Me-TV part of diginet expansion

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Just a few short weeks ago, Orlando TV viewers were given the chance to view one of the newest “diginets” — Memorable Entertainment Television, or Me-TV for short.

Me-TV, which replaced WeatherPlus on WESH’s 2.2 digital subchannel, offers classic sitcoms and dramas from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. I had seen Me-TV previously in Chicago and liked the shows, and I am finding myself watching it a lot during prime time now.

Since indulging me wasn’t the reason, why did WESH drop WeatherPlus for Me-TV? It has to do with revenue. TV stations across the nation are looking for ways to cash in with more programming on their digital channels — and for many the solution is to air programming from new start-up digital networks, or digitnets.

TVNewsCheck.com has a great article about digitnets, and am I surprised to see that Orlando TV actually has a large number of the available networks, but there are a lot of others out there. Check this list to see what’s available for digital channels.

Oh, Oprah! WESH pulls ahead of WFTV at 5 p.m.

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The folks at WFTV are missing Oprah right now. In the just completed July ratings, WESH 2 News finished ahead of Channel 9′s Eyewitness News at 5 p.m. in the 25-54 demo.

For years, WFTV’s 5 o’clock news benefited from following the Oprah Winfrey Show. But Oprah’s show is over — and so is the Casey Anthony trial — creating a new early news race for viewers. According to the Orlando Sentinel,  WESH averaged 27,600 viewers at 5 p.m. to  WFTV’s 27,200 in the 25-54 demographic. WOFL’s Fox 35 News averaged 15,300 while WKMG’s Local 6 News had  8,200.

WESH also finished No. 1 in the demo at 11 p.m. Still, when using total viewers, WFTV won all newscasts.

But anytime WFTV doesn’t win a news time period, it is news.  And if you think not finishing No. 1 in the demo isn’t important to Channel 9, think again. Did you see the last-minute push WFTV rolled out — using a cash stunt to get viewers to watch the last 5 minutes of Oprah (which, leads into Eyewitness News)? If WESH remains strong at 5 p.m., look for more cash giveaways from Central Florida’s News Leader.

Read the full Orlando Sentinel story here.

Heidi Hatch, Todd Romero, Laura Diaz find new roles

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Former Fox 35 morning anchor Heidi Hatch (left) with new KUTV 4 p.m. co-anchors Jill Marggetts and Cristina Flores.

Yes, Virginia — there really is life after Orlando TV, and here are some examples to prove it.

Former Fox 35 morning anchor Heidi Hatch, who left the station in June, has landed at Salt Lake City’s  KUTV. She’ll be anchoring a new 4 p.m. newscast at the CBS affiliate  – with “Utah’s only all-female anchor team,” the station says. “KUTV is proud to welcome Heidi Hatch back to Utah to co-anchor the show. Heidi is a Utah native who is returning home from Orlando where she was a morning anchor for 5 years.”  Hatch is definitely missed by her former Good Day viewers, who keep posting comments about her departure.

Another former morning host has switched mediums. WKMG morning anchor Laura Diaz has officially joined the morning crew at WXXL-106.7 FM. She popped up on the radio show just after she left Channel 6. Now, she’s known on radio as Lady Laura.

Former WESH weekend anchor Craig Lucie has moved up to Cox flagship WSB-ABC 2, while WFTV reporter Mark Boyle has headed to Texas to Post-Newsweek’s KPRC-NBC 2 in Houston.

Meanwhile, former WKMG sports anchor Todd Romero (below) has also found employment out west. He’s been spotted doing sports report in Denver at the Tribune/Local TV LLC duopoly of  KWGN-CW 2 and KDVR-Fox 31.