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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