Tag Archives: WFTV-9

Recent RogerSimmons.com Orlando TV News reports involving WFTV-Channel 9, the ABC affiliate for Central Florida. The station calls its newscasts Eyewitness News. Channel 9′s original call letters were WLOF (We Love Orlando Florida).

Former Channel 9 reporter Leland Vittert in hot water with Fox News

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A lot of Orlando TV news folks move on to bigger and better gigs after O-Town. Some end up making some news themselves.

That appears to be the case with former WFTV-Channel 9 reporter Leland Vittert. NewsBlues.com reports that Vittert — who was hired last year to cover the Middle East for Fox News Channel – may be in a bit of trouble.

According to NewsBlues, “A crew from CNN reportedly saw him in the middle of a high-stakes card game in Tel Aviv, using Fox’s expense money as a gambling bankroll, and squealled on him.”

NewsBlues also says that sources told the site that Vittert has been suspended and is now back in the U.S. Vittert reportedly said he was using the money as pretend currency and no actual money was exchanged. Stay tuned.

With November sweeps near end, what does Bob Jordan think?

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Bob Jordan (courtesy OrlandoSentinel.com)

As the November sweeps wind up, TVSpy.com asked a number of news directors around the country to talk about the quarterly sweeps period — and what are “successful” sweeps stories they plan and execute coverage during the important ratings period. One of those polled was WFTV veteran news director Bob Jordan. His answer, below, is that a successful station needs to act like it’s in a sweeps period all the time …

If the definition of a “sweeps story that works” is one that increases ratings, I would argue that most sweeps stories produced by local television stations do not work. They don’t move the needle.

I analyze ratings every day. Here’s what drives them: consistent execution of superior local news coverage. A strong lead-in is highly desirable (almost every station that ran “Oprah” as a news lead-in enjoyed a #1 newscast in the time period that followed) and trumps stunting.

It’s true that severe weather and breaking news spike ratings, but you can’t schedule either to happen during a ratings period.  A well-executed, highly promoted investigative piece can spike ratings, but few of them actually do.

In today’s media environment, a winning station has to produce compelling content every day. At WFTV, we run a modified “sweeps drill” 12 months a year and simply ramp it up during rating periods. We choose stories that reinforce our brand.

Producing so-so content 9 months out of the year and then trotting out special content for the other 3 is not a winning strategy.

Jason Brewer, Vanessa Welch welcome son Wilson

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Jason Brewer and new son Wilson (courtesy WESH.com)

The fiercely competitive newsrooms at WESH and WFTV both had reasons to celebrate a new arrival in town this week.

WFTV anchor Vanessa Welch and her husband WESH meteorologist Jason Brewer welcomed son Wilson Beech Brewer on Monday night. He arrived a few days early at 20 inches and 6 pounds, 15 ounces.

“He’s just perfect. He’s so handsome,” Welch told Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker. “We’re blessed.”

The multi-station couple has been married for seven years, and Wilson is their first child.

“Mom, dad and baby all doing well,” WESH news director Bob Longo told Boedeker.

Added WFTV news director Bob Jordan: “Vanessa’s Channel 9 family is thrilled at the birth of Wilson. Vanessa will return to WFTV, but no firm date has been set.”

Best wishes to Jason, Vanessa and “Wils.”

Do WESH, Payne have WFTV to thank for Obama interview?

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Catching up with the latest Orlando TV news …

WESH 2′s Jim Payne was among several local anchors invited to the White House last week to interview President Obama — who was pushing his jobs plan. But why WESH instead of market-leader WFTV-Channel 9? I’m guessing the Obama team still hasn’t forgotten Barbara West’s satellite interview with Joe Biden during the 2008 campaign. …

Speaking of WESH, Steve Rifkin was named creative services director for Hearst Television’s Orlando properties, which include WESH, WKCF, MeTV, ThisTV, Estrella TV, WESH.com and CW18tv.com. Read more here. …

WFTV.com has undergone a makeover, and it is featuring more national and world news on its home page. The site has been asking its registered users to re-register. WFTV.com and WESH.com usually are pretty close in the ComScore rankings of local websites — leading the Orlando TV stations but still pretty far behind local leader OrlandoSentinel.com in market share. …

Saturday marked the 40th anniversary of the opening of Walt Disney World. And unless I missed it, I didn’t see any Orlando stations showing their footage from opening day in 1971. I hope they kept that film — since it was a pretty historic day for all of us. But I suspect like many old news films, it’s probably disappeared. Too bad.

Antenna TV lands on WRDQ’s 27.2 subchannel

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Somehow I missed this when it happened, but WRDQ recently added Antenna TV on its digital 27.2 subchannel.

Much like Me TV on WESH’s Channel 2.2, Antenna TV features classic TV shows — but the fare is a little more recent than MeTV. We’re talking 70′s and 80′s shows on Antenna, like Three’s Company and Married With Children. Still, good stuff — and in my view an upgrade over the RTV fare that WRDQ was airing on previously on 27.2.

If you have Bright House cable, you can watch Antenna TV on channel 465. It’s on channel 210 on Comcast, too. And with good, old rabbit ears, it’s on 27.2, of course. Get the program schedule and learn more about Antenna TV here.

(Full disclosure: I work for Tribune Co., which is the parent of Antenna TV — but that has nothing to do with me liking the programming.)

In other news …

  • So much for Orlando TV News going crazy over murder trials. When the jury in the Bob Ward trial returned its guilty verdict on Saturday morning, it appears only WFTV and WOFL broke into programming to air it. The other stations ran the video on their websites. Seemed a bit anticlimactic considering the amount of air time they gave coverage of the trial.
  • WUCF TV finished its first PBS pledge drive, and pulled in $60,000, Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reports. Even though this drive is over, the station will always need funds. Between drives, or during a drive, you can make a donation here.
  • Speaking PBS, when is WMFE-TV supposed to switch to its new religious format? It’s still airing the V-Me programming.

More Orlando and Florida TV history added to the site

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These 1975 ads for Channel 2 News with Dave Walker, Dave Marsh and Ken Brown are some of the many that have been added.

So now you’ll know why you haven’t seen many story updates recently on the site. We’ve been busy adding content in other areas — continuing to build the television history scrapbook for Orlando and for Florida. Here’s some of the new stuff on the site:

  • Our Orlando TV ad section has grown, now with more than 600 newspaper advertisements for our local stations. Look at the Orlando TV ad section here.
  • We’ve also divided the Orlando TV ad galleries by stations. Just scroll over the navigation at the top for WESH, WKMG, WFTV and WOFL to see their specific galleries.
  • Wonder what was on Orlando TV in its early years? We’ve compiled sample TV schedules for the first 25 years of Orlando television, from 1954 to 1978. See the year-by-year Orlando TV schedules here.
  • Miami is where television started in the Sunshine State, and there’s great history down south. Our gallery for South Florida stations has grown to more than 300 newspaper ads, going back to the start of TV there in 1949. See the South Florida TV ad gallery here.
  • What about other nearby markets? We’ve started work on those and invite you to check out the Tampa Bay TV station ad gallery, with more than 80 ads so far. The Jacksonville TV station ad gallery is now also up, with some 20 images.

You can access all of the above and more in our navigation at the top of the page. Just look under the “More TV” tab. And keep checking as we continue to add to all of those sections.