Tag Archives: Guy Rawlings

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.

Poor sports and hunkiest hunks

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Orlando Sentinel sports columnist Jerry Greene reports that new WKMG sports anchor David Pingalore has been “delayed” in leaving Cleveland for his new O-Town gig. That has led to a further diminishing of the declining sports product on Local 6. For example, at 11 p.m. Tuesday night there was no sports anchor again — news anchor Bob Frier did a brief sports recap. And on the night the first major-league baseball game was played in Central Florida between the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Texas Rangers, WKMG showed highlights of a Devil Rays-Blue Jays game while Frier did the voice over. (Wow.) By contrast, WESH had sports guy Guy Rawlings anchoring from Disney’s Wide World of Sports stadium — with actual highlights of the Rays and Rangers. …

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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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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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