As we mentioned awhile back, former Channel 6 meteorologist Reynolds Wolf has joined CNN. His hometown newspaper, the Clanton (Ala.) Advertiser, profiles the local boy who’s done pretty good and chronicles the big break he got to jump start his on-air career.
"I’ve always been interested in weather, but the big turning point for me was in 1993 – there was a tornado outbreak in Northeast Alabama. They were Palm Sunday tornados," he said.
Here’s the link to the full story.
Spring time: I’m taking a few days off from work this week, and I’m not alone. It’s spring break time but for many O-Town anchors. Just flipping around the dial last night, I discovered these anchors are also taking time off this week:
WFTV — Bob Opsahl, Martie Salt, Tom Terry
Fox 35 — Cale Ramaker
WESH 2 — Jim Payne
Local 6 — Bob Frier
Love is on the air: Not sure if you caught the funny story in Philly involving former WOFL morning weather guy Doug Kammerer. He was doing a live shot for NBC O&O WCAU when some young lovers started going at it behind him. Here’s the Philly Daily News’ item about it.
From big screen to computer screen: While getting the link for Doug’s bio for the above item, on his web page at WCAU — and those of other on-air talent — you can download their pictures as your computer’s wallpaper. Not sure why, but …
Going all in: The Orlando Sentinel’s Scott Maxwell has the scoop on WKMG sports anchor Lee Goldberg’s annual Celebrity Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament, benefiting Maitland’s Jewish Community Center. Wrote Maxwell, "Once the dealing started, WKMG anchor Jacqueline London was one of the first celebs out. ‘I had to be back on the air,’ she cheerfully protested. ‘Otherwise, I would’ve won it all.’ " The event raised more than $30,000.
Local 6 morning and noon anchor Mark McEwen, still recovering from a November stroke, stopped by the WKMG studios on Wednesday to visit with his co-workers. He said he was eager to get back to work, and that doctors have told him he will soon be able to return to the office for a couple of hours.
Still, no official date has been set for McEwen’s return to the anchor desk. Initially, he was expected to be back in January and then March, but his recovery is taking a little longer than expected.
Viewers continue to send McEwen their get-well wishes. You can too by e-mailing firstnews@wkmg.com
As the dust from the February ratings period settles, it’s become clear there’s no stopping the WFTV juggernaut. Channel 9 was No. 1 in six of the seven daily newscasts, with only WKMG’s noon news preventing a clean sweep by WFTV.
The real race is for No. 2 in O-Town, and it looks like WKMG has improved to solid second-place status ahead of WESH in most news time periods.
Based on information distributed to the media by WFTV, here are some details:
Continue reading
It’s been a newsy couple of days so far this week …
The new CW Network signed up its first round of affiliates on Wednesday, and among the group of five was Orlando’s WKCF-Channel 18. The future former home of the WB network will now be the place where the CW calls home in Central Florida. WKCF won out over independent WRDQ-Channel 27. I’m not sure how strong of a contender Channel 27 was for CW affiliation, but a couple of insiders said the station sure was interested. Emmis-owned WKCF is still up for sale, by the way, and CW affiliation should help those prospects. The other new netlet this fall, Fox-owned My Network TV, will end up on Fox-owned WRBW-Channel 65, currently home to UPN. Read the full story.
Marc Middleton ended a 20-something-year career at WESH on Tuesday, signing off after the noon news. Middleton came to WESH initially as its sports director back in the early 1980s. He later swapped places with then-morning anchor Bill Shaffer. As reported earlier, Middleton is teaming up with former Channel 2 anchor Andrea Coudriet in starting a media relations company.
Reynolds Wolf, former morning meteorologist at WKMG-Channel 6, is joining CNN as a new weathercaster. After leaving O-Town, Wolf was at KMOV in St. Louis. He starts Monday. Here’s more info.
Central Florida News 13 is getting a full-time Tallahassee bureau. Station owner Bright House Networks said the bureau, working out of FSU station WFSU-Channel 11 (PBS), will feed stories to CFN 13 as well as sister station Bay News 9 in Tampa. "What happens in Tallahassee on a daily basis affects all of us living in Florida," Elliott Wiser, vice president of news programming for Bright House Networks Florida Group, told the Orlando Sentinel.
Following up on the item about the two WKMG reporters who posted on MySpace.com, listing themselves as 15 year olds …
Heard from several people, including one person who said he was a friend of the women, who explained this is a common practice on the MySpace site to keep some privacy.
Another agreed, "The only way to hide your profile is to change your birthday to 14 or 15. The police actually encourage it in order to protect your information. If you list your age over that then anyone can read your profile, stories, and see your friends! Most users are listed this way … duh!"
Duh, indeed! That was news to me. Anytime I see adults posing as 15 year olds, I get suspicious. But apparently that suspicion was misplaced.
Meanwhile, the MySpace pages for Jessica D’Onofrio and Jessica Sanchez now list their real ages.