Tag Archives: WRDQ-27

Recent RogerSimmons.com Orlando TV News reports involving WRDQ-Channel 27, an independent TV station for Central Florida. The station is part of a Cox Television duopoly in Orlando with WFTV-Channel 9.

Demos leaving WFTV/WRDQ for Miami

Posted on by
Reply

Some news nuggets for you, even if you aren’t headed back to school today…

 

WFTV/WRDQ anchor Cynthia Demos is heading to Miami after five years in O-Town, NewsBlues.com reports. Where’s she headed in Miami? The station that seems to be filling up former O-Town folks — CBS O&O WFOR. …

 

We all know how competitive weather is around here — i.e. my Doppler is bigger than your Doppler. So, I thought it was interesting that WFTV brought in chief met Tom Terry and WKMG brought in chief met Tom Sorrells on Sunday to cover Hurricane Dean. WESH and WOFL stayed with their regular weekend forecasters. ….

 

Also, WFTV has sent morning meteorologist Brian Shields to Cancun to cover the approach of Hurricane Dean. …

 

Now confirmed … features reporter Candice Coleman is indeed leaving Local 6. That’s too bad. As our local newscasts continue to focus on crime, cars running into houses and dogs biting people, the type of feature stories Coleman reported certainly helped the story mix and gave a nice respite from the relentless pounding drumbeat of “breaking news.” …

Continue reading →

WFTV-Channel 9 sweeps July sweeps

Posted on by
Reply

There are a lot of re-runs in the summer … and also in the O-Town ratings competition. WFTV-Channel 9′s Eyewitness News was again the top choice for Central Floridians. WFTV was No. 1 from 5-7 a.m., from 5-6:30 p.m. and at 11 p.m., according to the Orlando Sentinel’s TV Guy.

In the 6 p.m. competition, WFTV had 141,000 homes to 61,00o for WKMG-Local 6 News and 57,000 for WESH 2 News.
At 11 p.m., Eyewitness News wast No. 1 with 98,000 homes followed by Local 6 at 76,000 and WESH at 64,000. The Sentinel’s TV Guy says in that late-night timeslot, WKMG was down 11,000 from a year ago, WESH was up by 28,000 and WFTV was up by 4,000.

 

WESH was up across the board, actually. In a press release, Channel 2 said it was the only local broadcast station to see growth in all weekday newscasts. “We saw significant growth in both households and adult viewers in May, and it’s gratifying to see it continuing in July. It’s clear we are building some solid momentum,” said station President and General Manager Bill Bauman. High points for WESH: up 96 percent at 4 p.m. from a year ago, up 27 percent at 5 p.m., up 16 percent at 5:30, up 10 percent at 6 p.m. and up 13 percent at 11 p.m.

 

WESH was also eager to point out that its morning news on sister station WKCF-CW 18 from 7 to 9 a.m. is drawing 13 percent more viewers than The Daily Buzz did in the timeslot a year ago. Of course, now the Buzz is over on WRDQ-Channel 27, but it appears before and after WFTV’s morning news its sister station.

Continue reading →

WFTV’s Egert heading to Seattle

Posted on by
Reply

Anchor-reporter Chris Egert from WRDQ/WFTV is heading to the Pacific Northwest. NewsBlues.com reports that Egert is going to become the weekend news anchor at Cox sister station KIRO-CBS 7 in Seattle. It’s a jump up the market ladder for Egert, from O-Town’s No. 19 to Seattle’s No. 13. Egert, who arrived in Orlando in 2002, anchors the weekday Eyewitness News at 10 on WRDQ-Ch. 27 and is a fill-in anchor and reporter on WFTV-Channel 9.

But what kind of station will Egert be heading to? Talk on the TVSpy.com Watercooler is that KIRO’s affiliation with CBS is up, and that the Eye Net may want to move its programming over to the station it owns in the market, KSTW-CW 11. It happened before in the 1990s, when CBS took its affiliation from KIRO and moved it to KSTW, only to move it back again a few years later.

Continue reading →

The Daily Buzz is heading to WRDQ

Posted on by
Reply

The Daily Buzz is moving to a new home — and a new station.

WRDQ announced Friday that the Buzz is moving to TV 27 from WKCF-CW 18 starting May 28. According to the press release, "TV27 is taking The Daily Buzz back to the roots of where the show previously aired, and enjoyed its largest audience, at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday leading into Eyewitness News This Morning. A second hour will be tape-delayed and presented at 10:30 a.m."

The Buzz has been sort of a red-headed stepchild at CW18 after the station was acquired by WESH parent Hearst-Argyle. WESH expanded its morning news to CW18, bumping the Buzz to 9 a.m.-noon and running the show on a three-hour delay.

"The Daily Buzz has created a distinct brand that fills a void in the morning. It’s the perfect lead in to Eyewitness News This Morning, which will continue to air from 7-8:30 a.m.," said Shawn Bartelt, General Manager for WFTV/ WRDQ. "We recognize that there has been a longing in the community for The Daily Buzz to return to its original time period, and we are excited to give the audience what they are looking for."

As we reported earlier, The Buzz is currently broadcasting from the Disney-MGM Studios until its new broadcast facility at Full Sail is completed.

Continue reading →

Morning news battle heats up today

Posted on by
Reply

Good morning, Orlando. You may not realize it, but you’re waking up in what has become the most competitive market for morning news in the nation — with more local news, with more national news and with plenty of surprises.

Monday morning, WESH-Channel 2 and WFTV-Channel 9 will start their early newscasts at 5 a.m. and then keep on broadcasting once their respective network morning shows go on the air at 7 o’clock. Instead of watching NBC’s Today, you can view WESH 2 News on CW 18 from 7-9 a.m. by switching over to WKCF-Channel 18. Instead of watching Good Morning America, you can tune to Eyewitness News This Morning from 7-8:30 a.m. by going to WRDQ-Channel 27.

WESH’s and WFTV’s news expansion to their sister duopoly stations sets up a local 7-9 a.m. showdown for the first time. WOFL-Fox 35 has had the 7-9 a.m. local broadcast news franchise to itself for six years since it launched its morning news in 2000. (Oh, and we can’t overlook cable’s Central Florida News 13, whose all-local newscasts do well in the mornings, too.)

WFTV was the first to announce its plans to expand its Eyewitness News franchise in the morning to sister station WRDQ. The details were revealed in early December, but the station has been planning the new morning news since July.

Continue reading →

More Sweeps Analysis

Posted on by
Reply

 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.

Continue reading →