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King of Orlando TV? Tom Sorrells, of course

Roger — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:35:11 +0000

The Orlando Sentinel’s fun summer online contest, the Orlando Celebrity Smackdown, has its championship match up.

The winner among all the local television personalities is WKMG chief meteorologist Tom Sorrells. He reached the finals by knocking out fellow Channel 6 weatherman Eric Wilson in opening round, then dispatching Fox 35 morning meteorologist Jim Van Fleet in the second round, upsetting WFTV chief met Tom Terry in the third round, then rallying late to defeat WESH-2 anchors Jim Payne and Martha Sugalski in the semifinals.

Facing Sorrells from the radio side of the contest bracket are Doc and Grace, morning DJs on K92FM. They made it to the finals by upsetting the Monsters of the Morning from Real Radio 104.1.

On Wednesday night, Doc and Grace were leading Sorrells. Voting concludes this week. You can make choice for ruler of O-Town airwaves by clicking here. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, Aug. 19.

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WESH anchors keep rolling in Celebrity Smackdown game

Roger — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:32:38 +0000

The WESH duo of Jim Payne and Martha Sugalski dispatched WKMG’s main anchors to move into the third round of OrlandoSentinel.com’s Celebrity Smackdown game. Also advancing to face the Channel 2 Cinderellas — the anchors of WFTV’s top-rated Daybreak show, Greg Warmoth and Vanessa Echols. Earlier, Payne and Sugalski upset WFTV evening anchors Bob Opsahl and Martie Salt.

More on the other big O-Town TV matchup after the jump …

The other big Orlando TV battle is between the matchup is a battle of the Toms — chief meteorologist Tom Terry of WFTV vs. chief met Tom Sorrells of WKMG.

On the radio side of the bracket, Ellis Feaster and Tyler McKenzie of Z88 take on the Monsters of 104.1, and Doc and Grace of K92 tackle Johnny and Jayde of 106.7.

Voting in this round continues until Sunday. Nearly 30,000 votes were cast in the second round.

To cast your vote or to just check on the totals, click here.

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WESH’s Payne-Sugalski about to knock off WFTV’s Opsahl-Salt?

Roger — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:11:11 +0000

We’re in the dog days of summer. The Casey Anthony case has cooled down, the tropics are relatively quiet, and other than the python-killing mania sweeping the state, there’s not much going on.

That’s why the folks in the Orlando Sentinel’s marketing department decided to shake up the summer a bit. They’ve produced an online contest to pick the most popular broadcasters in Orlando TV and radio. Called the Orlando Celebrity Smackdown, the summer sizzler is already pulling in thousands of online votes from Central Floridians. The contest is structured like a tournament, with matchups of broadcasters in each round. Winners from each week’s voting advance to the next round to face a new "challenger."

So far, the results on the TV side pretty much mirror what you would find in the Nielsen book — with one major exception. The No. 1- and No. 2-rated evening anchor teams are facing each other in the opening round: WFTV’s Bob Opsahl and Martie Salt against WESH’s Jim Payne and Martha Sugalski. Checking on the vote totals Thursday night, the WESH pair has more votes than the WFTV duo. I guess this would be akin to a No. 1 seed being knocked out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, if the voting pattern holds.

The deadline for the first round of voting is midnight on Sunday. Round 2 will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday. You can play and follow along here.

(Full disclosure: Yeah, it’s a silly, unscientific contest, but I do love the traffic this is generating for OrlandoSentinel.com.)

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Conan O’Brien with an alligator? Must be Super

Roger — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 06:46:51 +0000

Conan O’Brien got a first-hand look at some Central Florida media stars when he visited WESH on Saturday.

O’Brien, in the area before attending Sunday’s Super Bowl in Tampa, dropped by the WESH 2 studios to talk about his Bud Light Super Bowl commerical as well as his upcoming move from Late Night to the Tonight Show on NBC. WESH anchor Jim Payne and Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker interviewed O’Brien about both topics.

But it was the other local media stars who grabbed the late-night funnyman’s attention. WESH had Gatorland deliver a group of gators and crocodiles to greet O’Brien (must be sort of like attending an NBC-Universal corporate meeting). The Gatorland residents, who have been featured on countless TV shows over the years, got up close and personal with the NBC star.

Click here to see a photo gallery of O’Brien with the gators and Payne at WESH.

Click here to read Boedeker’s interview with O’Brien, and click below to watch video of the interview:

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After 20 years, Wendy Chioji to leave WESH

Roger — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:33:50 +0000

WESH veteran anchor Wendy Chioji — who celebrates her 20th anniversary with the station today — will leave Channel 2 at the end of the May sweeps. In a press release issued Thursday, WESH said Chioji’s decision to leave “was based on her personal interest in moving west and the opportunity to open a new business in Park City, Utah. She and two partners will launch a new Vision Quest cycling center in that city.”

”It’s a bittersweet time for me,” said Chioji. “I have loved living in Central Florida for 20 years. I’ve also learned that life cycles have an ending, and it’s time to end my life cycle at WESH. I am forever grateful to Hearst-Argyle and WESH for the amazing two decades-long run here. It has allowed me to work with the most talented people in the business and live in one of the greatest cities on earth. I am excited about my new adventure.”

It became apparent not too long ago that WESH was turning away from its iconic anchor when the station brought in Martha Sugalski to anchor the 11 p.m. news with Jim Payne. Despite WESH’s improved numbers at 11 p.m., Chioji remains popular.

How popular? News of Chioji’s departure was among the top stories on the OrlandoSentinel.com Web site, and a photo gallery of her career at WESH had more than 65,000 page views on the Sentinel Web site on Thursday. That’s really not surprising for someone who has been in viewers’ homes for 20 years, sharing personal information such as her battle with breast cancer.

”Wendy is a class act,” said WESH 2 News Director Barbara Maushard. “She will be greatly missed in the WESH 2 newsroom and in homes all around Central Florida.”

No decisions have been made regarding Chioji’s replacement or other anchor assignment changes at the station.

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Poor sports and hunkiest hunks

Roger — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 17:05:51 +0000

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. …

Orlando’s male TV anchors/reporters are competing this week for the coveted title of Orlando TV’s Hunkiest Hunk. It’s the 16th year for the contest, sponsored by the always entertaining Scott and Erica Morning Show on Mix 105.1 (WOMX-FM). The guys have been calling into to solicit listener votes. Early leaders this week have included WKMG’s Frier and Larry Mowry, WESH’s Jim Payne, WFTV’s Chris Egert and Brian Shields and WOFL’s Jim Van Fleet and Tom Johnson. In fact, WOFL closed out its morning news on Tuesday by posting a graphic of its candidates and urging viewers to vote for them. The voting continues through Friday.

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