Blast from the Past features an icon of TV talk shows, Mike Douglas.
This ad from November 1965 touts Douglas’ show on WESH-Channel 2 as a “merry go round of mirth and madness.” I vaguely remember the Mike Douglas Show, and not sure I would use the words “mirth” and “madness” to describe it. But hey, I was only 9 months old when this ad appeared.
Blast from the Past continues with a bit of history in this classic advertisment.
The date was June 14, 1973. You would think having an embattled President Richard Nixon in town give the commencement address at UCF (then known as Florida Technological University) would be the top story on Orlando TV, but it wasn’t.
Tragedy struck in Central Florida. Two workers were killed when a 1,500-foot transmission tower — the tallest structure in Florida at the time — came crashing down in Bithlo. The tower included transmitters for Channels 6, 9 and 24 plus radio stations WDBO-92.3 FM and WDIZ-100.3 FM. The accident would have a profound impact on Central Florida media.
WFTV was off the air for several weeks after the accident. WDBO-TV was able to use an old backup tower, but with a greatly reduced transmission. Neither station would return to full power until more than two years. In the meanwhile, WESH-2 — with its transmitter in Orange City — became the dominant (and only full-power) station.
Here’s the advertisement from Channel 6 in November 1975 announcing that it was back to full power on a new TV tower.
Blast from the Past continues with this ad for the 1968 NBC fall lineup on WESH-2.
The online archives this came from are only in black and white. Too bad, since I believe the NBC peacock here was in its full color glory when this advertisement appeared in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal.
Just a few short weeks ago, Orlando TV viewers were given the chance to view one of the newest “diginets” — Memorable Entertainment Television, or Me-TV for short.
Me-TV, which replaced WeatherPlus on WESH’s 2.2 digital subchannel, offers classic sitcoms and dramas from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. I had seen Me-TV previously in Chicago and liked the shows, and I am finding myself watching it a lot during prime time now.
Since indulging me wasn’t the reason, why did WESH drop WeatherPlus for Me-TV? It has to do with revenue. TV stations across the nation are looking for ways to cash in with more programming on their digital channels — and for many the solution is to air programming from new start-up digital networks, or digitnets.
TVNewsCheck.com has a great article about digitnets, and am I surprised to see that Orlando TV actually has a large number of the available networks, but there are a lot of others out there. Check this list to see what’s available for digital channels.
The folks at WFTV are missing Oprah right now. In the just completed July ratings, WESH 2 News finished ahead of Channel 9′s Eyewitness News at 5 p.m. in the 25-54 demo.
For years, WFTV’s 5 o’clock news benefited from following the Oprah Winfrey Show. But Oprah’s show is over — and so is the Casey Anthony trial — creating a new early news race for viewers. According to the Orlando Sentinel, WESH averaged 27,600 viewers at 5 p.m. to WFTV’s 27,200 in the 25-54 demographic. WOFL’s Fox 35 News averaged 15,300 while WKMG’s Local 6 News had 8,200.
WESH also finished No. 1 in the demo at 11 p.m. Still, when using total viewers, WFTV won all newscasts.
But anytime WFTV doesn’t win a news time period, it is news. And if you think not finishing No. 1 in the demo isn’t important to Channel 9, think again. Did you see the last-minute push WFTV rolled out — using a cash stunt to get viewers to watch the last 5 minutes of Oprah (which, leads into Eyewitness News)? If WESH remains strong at 5 p.m., look for more cash giveaways from Central Florida’s News Leader.
Former Fox 35 morning anchor Heidi Hatch (left) with new KUTV 4 p.m. co-anchors Jill Marggetts and Cristina Flores.
Yes, Virginia — there really is life after Orlando TV, and here are some examples to prove it.
Former Fox 35 morning anchor Heidi Hatch, who left the station in June, has landed at Salt Lake City’s KUTV. She’ll be anchoring a new 4 p.m. newscast at the CBS affiliate – with “Utah’s only all-female anchor team,” the station says. “KUTV is proud to welcome Heidi Hatch back to Utah to co-anchor the show. Heidi is a Utah native who is returning home from Orlando where she was a morning anchor for 5 years.” Hatch is definitely missed by her former Good Day viewers, who keep posting comments about her departure.
Another former morning host has switched mediums. WKMG morning anchor Laura Diaz has officially joined the morning crew at WXXL-106.7 FM. She popped up on the radio show just after she left Channel 6. Now, she’s known on radio as Lady Laura.
Former WESH weekend anchor Craig Lucie has moved up to Cox flagship WSB-ABC 2, while WFTV reporter Mark Boyle has headed to Texas to Post-Newsweek’s KPRC-NBC 2 in Houston.
Meanwhile, former WKMG sports anchor Todd Romero (below) has also found employment out west. He’s been spotted doing sports report in Denver at the Tribune/Local TV LLC duopoly of KWGN-CW 2 and KDVR-Fox 31.
