Tag Archives: WKCF-18

Recent RogerSimmons.com Orlando TV News reports involving WKCF-Channel 18, the CW affiliate for Central Florida. The station is part of a Hearst Television duopoly with WESH-Channel 2. WKCF originally broadcast on Channel 68.

WKCF rises to top of CW

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The CW network may be struggling, but you can’t blame that on WKCF-CW 18.

The network has announced that O-Town’s CW station is the No. 2-rated affiliate in the nation. In the November 2008 demos, WKCF was rated No. 2 in the nation in Adults 18-34, Adults 19-49, Women 18-34, Persons 12-34.

“TV is a very competitive environment and to have CW18/WKCF as one of the top two stations in the country is a huge achievement,” WKCF/WESH President and GM Jim Carter said in a press release. “It also shows that the Central Florida viewers support CW18 and enjoy its programming.”

WKCF has always been a very strong affiliate for its network. Back when it was with the defunct WB network, WKCF was consistently one of the top WB affiliates in the nation.

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Martinez signs off at WESH

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Starting to catch up on the latest news …

Anchor/reporter Raoul Martinez, who has been at WESH for about six years, is leaving the station. His last day will be Sunday, according to Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker. Martinez performed a number of roles at WESH during his tenure, including being an early-evening anchor, morning anchor for WESH’s news show on WKCF-CW18 and most recently weekend anchor. …

Zach Klein signed off this week as sports director at WFTV-Channel 9. He had been with the station since 2003 and is jumping to Cox flagship WSB in Atlanta. His replacement is Phil Burton from Boston’s CN8. ….

Speaking of WFTV, the station changed programming on its digital 9.2 subchannel. It used to be full-screen, live weather radar, which was very handy during our summer thunderstorms. Now, the station has shrunk the presentation from 16:9 to 4:3 and is adding weather forecasts and traffic reports to a rotation that also includes the live Doppler. If I wanted all that, I’d sit through WESH’s boring WeatherPlus. I’d rather have just the Doppler, thank you. …

Former WKMG reporter Trace Gallagher continues to move up at Fox News Channel. This week he became co-anchor of FNC’s Live Desk. Of course, the most famous Channel 6 alum at Fox News Channel is still Shepard Smith. Click here for video.

KOAT in Albuquerque, N.M., has kicked off an interesting summer experiment. It’s expanded its late newscast to an hour. That’s not so unusual for a Fox affiliate or independent station, but it is unusual for an ABC affiliate. KOAT is delaying Nightline by a half hour to have an hourlong late show. OK, so what’s the Orlando connection? Former Fox 35 anchor Shelly Ribando is one of the anchors on the hourlong experiment. If it works in New Mexico, I wonder how many other stations may jump at the chance to wring some more money out of news? Of course, KOAT’s newscast runs from 10-11 p.m. — which even with the time zone consideration is a lot different than having a local newscast from 11 p.m. to midnight. Click here to see a video with Ribando explaining the decision for the expanded show. (Final footnote: KOAT is owned by WESH parent Hearst-Argyle.)
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WESH expands morning news on CW18

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Want more morning news? This week WESH began a six-week experiment simulcasting the 6-7 a.m. hour of its Sunrise newscast on CW18 — leading into the two-hour block of local news it airs on WKCF.

 

According to a WESH news release, “The goal of the simulcast is to expand the reach of WESH-TV’s morning news while strengthening the lead-in to WKCF-TV’s morning news block.” Said WESH/WKCF GM Bill Bauman: “This is a great opportunity to use the power of both stations to build our morning news audience. If the simulcast experiment is successful, we’ll consider expanding it or making a permanent programming change.”

 

In the Novemeber sweeps, the WFTV-produced Eyewitness News This Morning on WRDQ-Channel 27 jumped past WESH 2 News on CW18. One reason could be that WRDQ started airing The Daily Buzz from 6-7 a.m. as a lead-in to its news.

 

The irony is that WESH booted The Daily Buzz from its 6-9 a.m. slot on WKCF to make way for its local news show.

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Orlando TV ratings — a look at the numbers

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The November sweeps brought us original episodes of our favorite shows, but the ratings results for the O-Town news looked more like another rerun.

Based on information provided in news releases by WFTV and WESH, Channel 9 once again dominated the local news scene in a ratings period that saw most everyone dropping a bit from a year ago. Here’s how the stations rank in the news time periods:

5 a.m. – WFTV-Ch. 9, WKMG-Ch. 6, WESH-Ch. 2 and WOFL-Ch. 35. Local 6 displaces WESH 2 News at No. 2, but everyone was down in share

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WFTV-Channel 9 sweeps July sweeps

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There are a lot of re-runs in the summer … and also in the O-Town ratings competition. WFTV-Channel 9′s Eyewitness News was again the top choice for Central Floridians. WFTV was No. 1 from 5-7 a.m., from 5-6:30 p.m. and at 11 p.m., according to the Orlando Sentinel’s TV Guy.

In the 6 p.m. competition, WFTV had 141,000 homes to 61,00o for WKMG-Local 6 News and 57,000 for WESH 2 News.
At 11 p.m., Eyewitness News wast No. 1 with 98,000 homes followed by Local 6 at 76,000 and WESH at 64,000. The Sentinel’s TV Guy says in that late-night timeslot, WKMG was down 11,000 from a year ago, WESH was up by 28,000 and WFTV was up by 4,000.

 

WESH was up across the board, actually. In a press release, Channel 2 said it was the only local broadcast station to see growth in all weekday newscasts. “We saw significant growth in both households and adult viewers in May, and it’s gratifying to see it continuing in July. It’s clear we are building some solid momentum,” said station President and General Manager Bill Bauman. High points for WESH: up 96 percent at 4 p.m. from a year ago, up 27 percent at 5 p.m., up 16 percent at 5:30, up 10 percent at 6 p.m. and up 13 percent at 11 p.m.

 

WESH was also eager to point out that its morning news on sister station WKCF-CW 18 from 7 to 9 a.m. is drawing 13 percent more viewers than The Daily Buzz did in the timeslot a year ago. Of course, now the Buzz is over on WRDQ-Channel 27, but it appears before and after WFTV’s morning news its sister station.

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The Daily Buzz is heading to WRDQ

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The Daily Buzz is moving to a new home — and a new station.

WRDQ announced Friday that the Buzz is moving to TV 27 from WKCF-CW 18 starting May 28. According to the press release, "TV27 is taking The Daily Buzz back to the roots of where the show previously aired, and enjoyed its largest audience, at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday leading into Eyewitness News This Morning. A second hour will be tape-delayed and presented at 10:30 a.m."

The Buzz has been sort of a red-headed stepchild at CW18 after the station was acquired by WESH parent Hearst-Argyle. WESH expanded its morning news to CW18, bumping the Buzz to 9 a.m.-noon and running the show on a three-hour delay.

"The Daily Buzz has created a distinct brand that fills a void in the morning. It’s the perfect lead in to Eyewitness News This Morning, which will continue to air from 7-8:30 a.m.," said Shawn Bartelt, General Manager for WFTV/ WRDQ. "We recognize that there has been a longing in the community for The Daily Buzz to return to its original time period, and we are excited to give the audience what they are looking for."

As we reported earlier, The Buzz is currently broadcasting from the Disney-MGM Studios until its new broadcast facility at Full Sail is completed.

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