Tag Archives: David Pingalore

WKMG’s Ping gets Urban Meyer story right; 6 raises money for homeless

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Several Orlando TV news items for you …

“Ping” was right. And, yes, that’s news. As WKMG sports anchor David Pingalore first reported Tuesday, former Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer accepted the head coaching job at The Ohio State University on Monday. While Ping said Meyer agreed to a 7-year, $40-million contract, USA Today says. “Meyer agreed to a six-year contract worth $4 million annually with retention bonuses for 2014, 2016 and 2018.”  Local 6 was crowing about Ping’s scoop on Monday. Still waiting for this Ping scoop to happen. …

Following a 60 Minutes report on Sunday about homeless children in Central Florida, WKMG held a telethon on Monday. The station raised more than $19,000 and had additional offers of food and clothing. Nice job, Local 6. Read the full story here …

WKMG and WFTV weren’t able to agree on who won the demo crown for most viewers at 11 p.m. during the November sweeps — until now. Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reported Monday that in the fight for viewers in the 25-to-54 age group, Channel 9′s Eyewitness News averaged 29,000 viewers and WKMG’s Local 6 News had 28,300 — a difference of just 700 viewers. WFTV easily won in the household count in all newscasts. More November ratings results here. …

Former WKMG reporter Tarik Minor, now at WJXT-Channel 4 in Jacksonville, and wife Melanie Lawson are expecting a baby. Why is this news? Lawson, a morning anchor at the Jacksonville station, announced their happy news during a newscast on Friday. Click here for the video. …

An eagle-eyed Orlando TV news viewer sent us an email noting that WKMG did its Saturday night newscast “at a table in the newsroom.” Not sure what was up, but the Sixers were back at their regular anchor desk on Sunday night.

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.

Big East denies WKMG report about UCF

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With college football in the midst of an expansion craze, WKMG Sports Director David “Ping” Pingalore had a big scoop Wednesday: “multiple college football sources have said that the University of Central Florida and Memphis could be invited to join the Big East conference as soon as next week.”

So far, Big East officials have denied any offer to UCF is imminent. The New York Post called Local 6′s story “a bogus Florida TV report.” Here’s what AOL’s Fan House reported:

Big East commissioner  John Marinatto and other league officials told FanHouse that an Orlando TV report claiming the Memphis and the University of Central Florida would be invited to join the  Big East as soon as next week is inaccurate. ”Those reports are not true,” Marinatto told FanHouse Thursday.

This isn’t the first time Ping has gone out on a limb with a report. Back in December, he reported that  Florida Gators football Coach Urban Meyer had a heart attack during mid-season — one health reason that may have led to the coach’s decision to take an indefinite leave of absence from the team.

As a UCF grad and Knights fan, I hope Ping’s latest report proves to be true.

WKMG: Urban Meyer told Gators he had heart attack

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WKMG-Local 6 sports anchor David “Ping” Pingalore said Monday evening he stands behind his Saturday report that Florida Gators Coach Urban Meyer had a heart attack during mid-season — one health reason that may have led to the coach’s decision to take an indefinite leave of absence from the team.

During WKMG’s “The 6 O’Clock News,” Pingalore reported live via phone from New Orleans, where the Gators are set to play Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl. He elaborated on his Saturday report, saying Meyer himself told the Gators players he had a heart attack.

“On Saturday night I did report from a source that head coach Urban Meyer did tell the team sometime on Saturday that in mid-season he suffered a heart attack, and that source continues to stand by that story. We stand by that story,” Pingalore said. “Coach Meyer on Sunday denied any kind of rumor or fact or whatever it is that he suffered a heart attack. He said he did not suffer a heart attack. But our source inside that team meeting did say that Coach Meyer did tell the team he did suffer a heart attack. And Meyer, he kind of walked around a lot of those questions that were asked of him about his health [during Sunday's news conference.]”

“Ping” has been right with other Gators scoops, so that’s why this claim is being taken seriously by many despite UF’s denials.

Also one other interesting note about the Urban Meyer saga: WOFL-Fox 35 — which got rid of its full-time sports anchors and segments awhile ago — is running promos touting that it was the only station in town to carry Meyer’s Sunday afternoon news conference.

Orlando Magazine readers pick TV favorites

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tt-orlandomagThe fine readers of Orlando Magazine have once again selected the choices for “Best of Orlando” in a number of categories. Alas, RogerSimmons.com didn’t place among best local Web sites this time, but here are the results for the television categories:

Best Local TV Station: (1) WFTV-Channel 9,  (2) WESH-Channel 2,  (3) WOFL-Channel 35

Best TV News Team: (1) WESH-Channel 2, (2) WFTV-Channel 9, (3) WKMG-Channel 6

Best TV Sportscaster: (1) Pat Clarke, WESH; (2) David Pingalore, WKMG; (3) TIE: Phil Burton, WFTV; Stuart Scott, ESPN

Best TV Forecaster: (1) Tom Terry, WFTV; (2) TIE: Tom Sorrells, WKMG; Danny Treanor, Central Florida News 13

Check out the full list of winners at OrlandoMagazine.com

Fox 35 hires Maliska as new news director

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 Here’s your Friday Fast Five:

Gavin Maliska is the new news director for WOFL-Fox 35, according to NewsBlues. Maliska comes from Tribune-owned Fox affiliate WXIN in Indianapolis, where he was the ND. His Fox-heavy background includes being the deuce at WJBK in Detroit and managing editor at WFLD in Chicago. He also was managing editor for an internet sports company, and he was formerly the deputy business editor at the Chicago Sun-Times (got to like those newspaper guys!). …

Good news for Maliska is that the also-ran station he’s arriving to lead didn’t finish last in Tuesday night’s election coverage. According to Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker, WFTV led the local ratings race with an 11.1 rating, followed by WESH (8 rating), CNN (7), Fox News Channel (6.7), MSNBC (4.6), WOFL (3.8) and — ouch! — WKMG (3.8). That placed Local 6 ahead of only Central Florida News 13′s 1.9 rating. …

WKMG sports anchor “Ping” — aka David Pingalore — is playing sports instead of covering it this week. He’s playing as an amateur in Disney’s Children Miracle Network Classic tournament that started Thursday. According to the Sentinel’s Josh Robbins, Ping played college golf at Jacksonville University, lettering during the 1993-94 academic year.  “Just being out here on the driving range now, I feel the adrenaline,” Pingalore said before the event. “But I can only imagine Thursday. It’ll be the equivalent of six Mountain Dews.” Ping shot a 65 on the par 72 course and was tied for 51st place among the amateurs after the first round. Click here for the leaderboard. …

Don Smith is leaving WESH’s creative servics department to head West to Salt Lake City for a similar role with the ABC/CW duppoly. Smith came KHOU to WESH back in 2005, ane he helped change the station’s on-air look with some memorable campaigns. And he likes barbecue, so you know he’s a good guy. …

And finally, Andy Fisher — former general sales manager at WFTV — is retiring his post as president of Cox Television. Fisher has been with Cox for 24 years and he has been the company’s president since 2001.  Cox, of course, owns Channel 9.

 

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