Tag Archives: Mike Dunston

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.

Fox 35 shuffles anchor assignments

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New Fox 35 news director Gavin Maliska is starting to shake things up at WOFL.

This week he shuffled the station’s anchor lineup.  Mike Dunston, who was on Fox at 5, is now the morning co-anchor with Jacquie Sosa and Heidi Hatch. Former morning anchor Tom Johnson has been moved to sports anchor. And temporarily filling in on the 5 p.m. newscast is weekend anchor and Fox 35 utilityman Keith Landry.

Johnson, who previously was a sportscaster, has been helping out in the Fox 35 sports department for awhile. Fox has been short-handed in sports for nearly a year after sportcaster Thomas Forester departed the station after an ugly incident with then-news director Bob Clinkingbeard.

Will it help improve ratings? We’ll see, but Fox 35 traditional sees a bump from American Idol — so making the change now that Idol is starting up makes sense.

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WOFL to launch 11 p.m. newscast

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 WOFL will launch its oft-discussed 11 p.m. newscast on Jan. 7, Florida Today reported. News about the late newscast was first revealed nearly a year ago, with a then-projected launch date of sometime in April. But the project never got off the ground. In the meantime, Fox 35 did launch its 6 p.m. newscast.

Cale Ramaker, who has been co-anchor of the 6 p.m. show, will leave that post to helm the 11 p.m. newscast as well as continue as the 10 p.m. co-anchor with Corrina Sullivan. Station newcomer Mike Dunston inherits Ramaker’s anchor chair on the 6 o’clock show.

GM Stan Knott told Florida Today that the 11 p.m. news will be a “hyper-local program designed to complement” Fox 35 News at 10.”The show is going to have a great energy, great feel and pace,” he said. “It really will be designed as an alternative to the other newscasts in the market, which have a lot of similarity to each other.”

Knott said the newscast will have “11 at 11,” — the day’s top stories in the first 11 minutes of the show — plus “Five Things You Need to Know,” — tips for viewers.

Knott didn’t say it, but I would assume Fox 35 will follow the model of nearly every other Fox O&O which launched an 11 p.m. newcast and use the News Edge format made popular at Fox sister WTVT in Tampa.

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Fox 35′s 11 p.m. news starts Jan. 7

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WOFL will launch its oft-discussed 11 p.m. newscast on Jan. 7, Florida Today reported. News about the late newscast was first revealed nearly a year ago, with a then-projected launch date of sometime in April. But the project never got off the ground. In the meantime, Fox 35 did launch its 6 p.m. newscast.

Cale Ramaker, who has been co-anchor of the 6 p.m. show, will leave that post to helm the 11 p.m. newscast as well as continue as the 10 p.m. co-anchor with Corrina Sullivan. Station newcomer Mike Dunston inherits Ramaker’s anchor chair on the 6 o’clock show.

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