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

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.

Blast from the past: WDBO-6 ad from 1975

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Blast from the Past continues with a bit of history in this classic advertisment.

The date was June 14, 1973. You would think having an embattled President Richard Nixon in town give the commencement address at UCF (then known as Florida Technological University) would be the top story on Orlando TV, but it wasn’t.

Tragedy struck in Central Florida. Two workers were killed when a 1,500-foot transmission tower — the tallest structure in Florida at the time — came crashing down in Bithlo. The tower included transmitters for Channels 6, 9 and 24 plus radio stations WDBO-92.3 FM and WDIZ-100.3 FM. The accident would have a profound impact on Central Florida media.

WFTV was off the air for several weeks after the accident. WDBO-TV was able to use an old backup tower, but with a greatly reduced transmission. Neither station would return to full power until more than two years. In the meanwhile, WESH-2 — with its transmitter in Orange City — became the dominant (and only full-power) station.

Here’s the advertisement from Channel 6 in November 1975 announcing that it was back to full power on a new TV tower.

 

Oh, Oprah! WESH pulls ahead of WFTV at 5 p.m.

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The folks at WFTV are missing Oprah right now. In the just completed July ratings, WESH 2 News finished ahead of Channel 9′s Eyewitness News at 5 p.m. in the 25-54 demo.

For years, WFTV’s 5 o’clock news benefited from following the Oprah Winfrey Show. But Oprah’s show is over — and so is the Casey Anthony trial — creating a new early news race for viewers. According to the Orlando Sentinel,  WESH averaged 27,600 viewers at 5 p.m. to  WFTV’s 27,200 in the 25-54 demographic. WOFL’s Fox 35 News averaged 15,300 while WKMG’s Local 6 News had  8,200.

WESH also finished No. 1 in the demo at 11 p.m. Still, when using total viewers, WFTV won all newscasts.

But anytime WFTV doesn’t win a news time period, it is news.  And if you think not finishing No. 1 in the demo isn’t important to Channel 9, think again. Did you see the last-minute push WFTV rolled out — using a cash stunt to get viewers to watch the last 5 minutes of Oprah (which, leads into Eyewitness News)? If WESH remains strong at 5 p.m., look for more cash giveaways from Central Florida’s News Leader.

Read the full Orlando Sentinel story here.

Heidi Hatch, Todd Romero, Laura Diaz find new roles

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Former Fox 35 morning anchor Heidi Hatch (left) with new KUTV 4 p.m. co-anchors Jill Marggetts and Cristina Flores.

Yes, Virginia — there really is life after Orlando TV, and here are some examples to prove it.

Former Fox 35 morning anchor Heidi Hatch, who left the station in June, has landed at Salt Lake City’s  KUTV. She’ll be anchoring a new 4 p.m. newscast at the CBS affiliate  – with “Utah’s only all-female anchor team,” the station says. “KUTV is proud to welcome Heidi Hatch back to Utah to co-anchor the show. Heidi is a Utah native who is returning home from Orlando where she was a morning anchor for 5 years.”  Hatch is definitely missed by her former Good Day viewers, who keep posting comments about her departure.

Another former morning host has switched mediums. WKMG morning anchor Laura Diaz has officially joined the morning crew at WXXL-106.7 FM. She popped up on the radio show just after she left Channel 6. Now, she’s known on radio as Lady Laura.

Former WESH weekend anchor Craig Lucie has moved up to Cox flagship WSB-ABC 2, while WFTV reporter Mark Boyle has headed to Texas to Post-Newsweek’s KPRC-NBC 2 in Houston.

Meanwhile, former WKMG sports anchor Todd Romero (below) has also found employment out west. He’s been spotted doing sports report in Denver at the Tribune/Local TV LLC duopoly of  KWGN-CW 2 and KDVR-Fox 31.