Breaking down more sweeps numbers, from Friday’s Orlando Sentinel.
>> WOFL’s 10 p.m. newscast is up 17 percent from a year ago. From Monday-Sunday, Fox 35 News has 52,200 households and WRDQ’s Action News has 36,000.
>> Showing how much the network lead-in helps or hurts, WFTV (ABC) is up 28 percent at 11 p.m., and WESH (NBC) is down 15 percent. WKMG, home of top-rated CBS, was off a surprising 10 percent at 11 p.m.
New WKMG sports anchor David Pingalore gets a profile in today’s Sentinel. We find out that GM Henry Maldonado likes Ping for his zany interaction at the anchor desk. "It brings the ensemble cast together," Maldonado told the Sentinel. (If you wonder about the state of TV news, just read that sentence again. )
So far I’m mixed on "Ping." He does bring a lot of energy to his reports (I’m not calling them sports reports), but I find one of his segments, where he insists on folks smelling a $100 bill, a bit obscene. "Here, smell it … Smell it again … Give it another whiff," he urges. Reminds me of that Spinal Tap album, perhaps.
What do you think of Ping? Leave comments below.
WKMG was the big winner when the 2006 Florida Associated Press Broadcasters awards were presented on Saturday night. Local 6 News won both first- and second-place awards in the Best TV Newscast and Individual Achievement categories, plus a first place in spot news.
The Jan. 11, 2005, WKMG newscast — featuring exclusive video of a fatal plane crash on Dubsdread Golf Course — was voted best newscast, edging another WKMG newscast from Aug. 2. Sky 6 pilot Dan McCarthy and photojournalist Chris Miller won the spot news category with the aerial video of the Dubsdread crash.
In the Individual Achievement competition, Tony Pipitone took first place with a composite of live, investigative and feature reports, while Local 6′s Erik von Ancken won the second-place award.
WFTV received a first-place award in Hard News Feature for Berndt Petersen’s "Lake County Cold Case." Channel 9 also picked up second-place awards for Sportscast, Public Affairs and Best Overall.
WESH received one award, for a Marc Rice photo essay with Kathy Marsh titled "The Chicken Man."
Orlando’s stations were competing in the AP’s large-market division, that also includes stations from Miami and Tampa.
Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel breaks the news that longtime Central Florida anchor Marla Weech is coming back to TV, this time on WKMG-Channel 6. The gig is listed as only temporary (for now), as she will join Local 6′s morning show to fill in for Mark McEwen as he recovers from his stroke.
Weech, who anchored at WFTV from the 1980s until 2003 when she was bounced to sister station WRDQ-Channel 27 to helm its 10 p.m. newscast, has anchored at Channel 6 before. She was the weekend anchor at then-WCPX (click for video) before joining WFTV as one of its lead anchors.
Maxwell reports that WKMG station manager Henry Maldonado said his decision bring in Weech once her non-compete clause with WFTV/WRDQ ended was an easy one. "I’ve always liked her," he said. "And she’s always been on the radar of viewers." Weech starts later this month.
You may have seen the promos touting Local 6 newscasts now being presented in digital widescreen. Yep, the newscasts have gotten wider.
Unfortunately, all WKMG has done is expand the old analog-size 4:3 ratio picture to fill the new digital-size 16:9 ratio screens on digital TVs. What that has done on digital TVs is make everyone on WKMG look a little shorter and a little fatter. That’s not something most folks would thrilled about. On the plus side, the new stretched picture does get rid of the gray bars that used to frame the old 4:3 ratio picture on digital TVs.
I posed the question awhile back, wondering which Orlando TV station will be the first to broadcast the news in HD. I suppose this is a step toward that, but I guess we still have a long way to go.
You now have one fewer choice for weekend morning news. WKMG has pulled the plug on its weekend First News shows, with the last one airing this past Sunday morning.
WKMG started the weekend morning newscasts three years ago, with Steven Cooper anchoring and Michele Cimino reporting the weather. When the shows debuted in April 2003, they ran for two hours, then they were cut to 90 minutes, then to just an hour each by January 2004.
WKMG News Director Skip Valet said the weekend newscasts are on "hiatus" but could return. "When the time is right, we will revisit the weekend AM broadcast, and then produce the newscast with the resources and support it deserves," he said.
The weekend newscasts’ biggest highlight might have been on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2004 — when they were part of WKMG’s coverage of Hurricane Charley. Cimino and Cooper reported to duty early that Saturday morning as Local 6 was the only area station to stay on the air overnight, despite not having power at the station.