Tag Archives: WKMG-6

Recent RogerSimmons.com Orlando TV News reports involving WKMG-Channel 6, the CBS affiliate for Central Florida. The station calls its newscasts Local 6 News. Channel 6 was the first TV station in Orlando and has previously used the call letters WDBO-TV (Way Down By Orlando) and WCPX

WKMG’s election coverage plans include free airtime for candidates

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It’s almost 2012, and WKMG-Local 6 join its fellow Post-Newsweek stations in offering free airtime to candidates in the upcoming election.

In a news release out Monday, Post-Newsweek said its six stations would offer “free airtime and free web time opportunities to candidates in the 30 days preceding the general elections. The Free Airtime will give candidates a unique ability to directly address and describe why voters should cast their vote for them.”

In addition, P-N said that each of its stations will devote at least 10 minutes each weekday to locally produced political news coverage during the political season. “The coverage will continue throughout the entire broadcast day from the all-important early morning news to the early evening and late newscasts,” according to the news release.

WKMG and the other Post-Newsweek stations will also look for opportunities allowing candidates to participate in on-air debates and town hall meetings during key time-periods. In addition to WKMG, the other P-N stations are WPLG-ABC 10 in Miami, WJXT-Channel 4 in Jacksonville, WDIV-NBC 4 in Detroit, KPRC-NBC 2 in Houston and KSAT-NBC 12 in San Antonio.

Read the full news release here.

WKMG’s Ping gets Urban Meyer story right; 6 raises money for homeless

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Several Orlando TV news items for you …

“Ping” was right. And, yes, that’s news. As WKMG sports anchor David Pingalore first reported Tuesday, former Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer accepted the head coaching job at The Ohio State University on Monday. While Ping said Meyer agreed to a 7-year, $40-million contract, USA Today says. “Meyer agreed to a six-year contract worth $4 million annually with retention bonuses for 2014, 2016 and 2018.”  Local 6 was crowing about Ping’s scoop on Monday. Still waiting for this Ping scoop to happen. …

Following a 60 Minutes report on Sunday about homeless children in Central Florida, WKMG held a telethon on Monday. The station raised more than $19,000 and had additional offers of food and clothing. Nice job, Local 6. Read the full story here …

WKMG and WFTV weren’t able to agree on who won the demo crown for most viewers at 11 p.m. during the November sweeps — until now. Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reported Monday that in the fight for viewers in the 25-to-54 age group, Channel 9′s Eyewitness News averaged 29,000 viewers and WKMG’s Local 6 News had 28,300 — a difference of just 700 viewers. WFTV easily won in the household count in all newscasts. More November ratings results here. …

Former WKMG reporter Tarik Minor, now at WJXT-Channel 4 in Jacksonville, and wife Melanie Lawson are expecting a baby. Why is this news? Lawson, a morning anchor at the Jacksonville station, announced their happy news during a newscast on Friday. Click here for the video. …

An eagle-eyed Orlando TV news viewer sent us an email noting that WKMG did its Saturday night newscast “at a table in the newsroom.” Not sure what was up, but the Sixers were back at their regular anchor desk on Sunday night.

Urban Meyer to Ohio State – a scoop or bust for WKMG’s Ping

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"Ping"

The college football world has been buzzing since Tuesday night when WKMG-Local 6 sports director David “Ping” Pingalore broke the news that former Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer had agreed to a 7-year, $40-million deal to coach the Ohio State Buckeyes.

So far, Meyer is denying the report. But that hasn’t stopped Ping’s report from being picked up by national outlets and earning the local sports guy a sport on ESPN to talk about his big scoop.

Ping has been hit and miss with his big scoops before (see here and here), so it will be interesting to see if this story turns out to be accurate.

Sure, we’re glad to have Orlando weather cooling off but …

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I know I enjoyed the fantastic weather over the weekend. The cooler temperature was welcome, and it was a topic on all the Orlando TV newscasts. But look at what the 7-Day Forecast holds for us next Saturday — according to WKMG-Local 6′s weather forecast…

From Channel 6's late Saturday night newscast.

The weather blooper aired late Saturday night/early Sunday morning after the Florida-Alabama football game on Channel 6. Anchor Erik Von Ancken caught the error at the end of the newscast. A low of 5 would be a little extreme, but anything in the 60s or 50s would be fine by me.

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.

September ratings: Most Orlando news down year-over-year

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So much for keeping the audience that was glued to Orlando TV news stations during the Casey Anthony trial. In the just completed September ratings period, most of the O-Town stations saw year-over-year declines in household and demo numbers for nearly every newscast. One of the few bright spots was WOFL-Fox 35 — which increased its 5, 10 and 11 p.m. news audiences over the same period from 2010. Read the full ratings report from TV Guy Hal Boedeker. And read the 2010 September ratings here.

5 p.m. weeknights (households):

  • WFTV with 77,700 (86,800 in 2010)
  • WESH with 51,000 (66,700 in 2010)
  • WOFL with 31,000 (27,000 in 2010)
  • WKMG with 18,600 (no 5 p.m. news in 2010)

5 p.m. weekdays (25-54 demo):

  • WFTV with 19,400 (31,400 in 2010)
  • WESH with 18,800 (27,300 in 2010),
  • WOFL with 12,900 (11,900 in 2010),
  • WKMG with 7,000 (no 5 p.m news in 2010)

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