In addition to watching the Casey Anthony trial on Orlando TV news, many followed coverage via reporters’ and anchors’ tweets on Twitter. Here’s a sampling of Orlando TV tweets following the verdict. (I especially like WFTV news director Bob Jordan’s tweet at the bottom):
It’s back. The Orlando Sentinel’s annual ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas video has been posted. In addition to Sentinel staffers, it also includes prominent Orlando TV newsers, politicians, athletes and theme park characters reading the famous holiday poem. (I even make a cameo — see me waving my hands like an idiot in the background while Greg Dawson is reading his part.)
Merry Christmas to you and you family!
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.
We knew WESH 2 anchor Martha Sugalski has many admirers (one former co-worker I know seemed a little obsessed with her — but he moved to another state, so I think Martha is OK.)
Daniel Dennis of Real Radio 104.1′s Monsters in the Morning decided to put his affection for the Channel 2 anchor into song.
“Dear Martha,” with Lou Vooten featuring DJ Dr. Unfrozenburg, starts out: “Hey baby, you know I’m always watching you on the news. And I know you’re on Channel 2 and everything, but if it was up to me, you’d be on Channel 1.”
And the lyrics also note, “I can’t think of a single word that rhymes with Sugalski.”
After the jump, a link to listen to “Dear Martha”
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 …
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.)