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

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)

Continue reading →

Orlando TV news history chronicled in new galleries

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Channel 9's news team in 1978

Bob Jordan never looked so young. Same with Danny Treanor.

And remember Dave Walker from CNN’s early days? Before he went to cable, he was on the anchor desk at WESH-Channel 2, reporting “Newscope” each evening.

Those are just a few of the many images you can view in three new galleries being posted on RogerSimmons.com today. We’ve spent the past several months going through thousands of pages of online archives of several area newspapers to create galleries of advertisements promoting Orlando TV news. We have compiled advertisements from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. And we’re only getting started. So click around and take a look back at Orlando TV history.

Veteran Orlando TV news anchor Scott Harris in hospice care

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Scott HarrisAnchor/reporter Scott Harris, a familiar face to Orlando TV news watchers since the 1970s, is now in hospice care.

David Waters, Harris’ former colleague at Central Florida News 13, posted this update Saturday on Facebook: “For friends of Scott Harris, stop by if you are up to it. His family is moved by all the people who love him. It is time to mention it like this since a few people hadn’t heard he was in hospice, and have raced to be with him.”

Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reports that Harris has been battling kidney cancer.

Harris spent his entire career in Florida and is widely regarded for his political knowledge, coverage of the space program and great sense of humor. In the 1970s and ’80s at WESH 2, he co-anchored the evening news with Wayne Bennett and later Carol Granstrom. He also worked as a reporter for WCPX-Channel 6 before joining Central Florida News 13 for its launch in 1997. He was at News 13 until March of this year, when he stopped anchoring. Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell had a great post in March about Harris’ changing role.

Our thoughts — and those of countless others — are with Harris and his family.

Scott Harris from his anchoring day at WESH -- with Wayne Bennett in this 1978 advertisement, then with Dave Marsh, Don Gould and Carol Granstrom in 1982.