 Sept. 23 – WOFL did some addition and subtraction when it added its new 6 a.m. newscast today. Gone from the schedule is the funky "Newsic," Fox 35′s mix of Bloomberg-type scrolling headlines with music videos. Also gone is "Good Day Orlando." WOFL is now branding its three-hour morning news block as "Fox 35 News at 6," "Fox 35 News at 7" and (you guessed it) "Fox 35 News at 8." The living room set has been ditched, and the anchors are now behind the main anchor desk. In place of the usual nighttime skyline background, WOFL has recycled its old faux-newsroom backdrop for the new morning shows. While it initially seems odd that WOFL, a new Fox O&O, would drop the Good Day moniker (a trademark of morning newscasts at nearly every Fox station), it may make some sense. The new "Fox 35 News" title portrays a harder edge, and the show will no longer be confused with the Fox syndicated chatfest "Good Day Live," which airs at noon.  Click for the WOFL area on CFTV for screen shots and the new morning news opening |
| Ground control to Major Tom: 6 gets new weather toy Sept. 16 – Is it the first shot in another weather technology war? On Monday night, WKMG chief meteorologist Tom Sorrells unveiled Local 6′s hyped new “weather technology.” (Click on the link below to see it in action.) Basically it’s a high-resolution 3D satellite-photo map of Central Florida, with current radar and satellite weather imaging placed on top. A computer program allows Tom to "fly" viewers around the area — under clouds, over rivers, through rain — and zoom in to an area just a meter wide. This is part of Local 6′s fall campaign, advertising itself as "The Leader in News Technology." About a month ago, WKMG introduced a new live traffic map produced by Traffic Plus, a company that places sensors on area roadways to help produce real-time traffic-flow images for the Web or for TV stations. But back to the weather: Orlando has been a battleground for the weather version of arms races before. When WESH bought its own Doppler radar system, WFTV quickly followed by purchasing it own. WKMG then followed months later. WFTV then added Future Track, a computer-generated forecast model, "giving you tomorrow’s weather today." WESH countered with a similar forecasting tool called "Predictor." Now, 6′s new weather gizmo (now called Big Picture Weather) has raised the stakes again. Oh, the humanity! Watch Local 6′s new "weather technology" |
| ‘Goodnight and God bless you’: Hedinger signs off Sept. 13 – Thanking the many loyal viewers of his program, classy Bud Hedinger signed off Friday night on the final edition of "The Original 10:00 News" on WKCF-Channel 18. In a mid-newscast good-bye, lasting more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, Bud explained that the show was being replaced on WB18 by Seinfeld reruns. He noted with obvious pride that the newscast — produced with WB18 first by Channel 6 and now Channel 2 — has always been competitive, finishing "first or tied for first in three out of the last four rating periods." While acknowledging the coincidence of his show ending on unlucky Friday the 13th, Bud said he considered himself "to be one the of luckiest guys around." With his wife and one of his daughters in the studio, and with Bud getting a little choked up at the end, Hedinger said he and his family love Central Florida and hope to continue living here. Still, in recent interviews with the Orlando Sentinel and the Orlando Business Journal, Hedinger said that with no job offers right now, he’s not sure if he will be able to stay in the area. That would be a big loss for Orlando TV. (Skip, Bob, Ed — are you listening, er, reading?) At the end of the show, Bud had a final good-bye, telling viewers, "We’re glad you’ve been with us. Goodnight, and God bless you." Watch Bud’s goodbye message to viewers (Note: This is 2 minutes, 36 seconds) Watch Bud’s final signoff to end the newscast |
| An Original: History of Orlando’s 1st 10:00 News Sept. 9 – With "The Original 10:00 News" with Bud Hedinger on WKCF-Channel 18 fading to black, it seems as good a time as any to look back at the history of the groundbreaking newscast. When it went on the air on May 28, 1990, the show was called "The 10 O’clock Report," and you couldn’t watch it unless you had cable. WKMG-Channel 6 (then known as WCPX) wanted to expand its third-place newscast’s presence and make an extra buck, so it created a news show to sell to area cable companies. CableVision (now Time Warner) ran the newscast — with anchor Glenn Rinker, weathercaster Pam Kister (now Brady) and sports guy Mike Storms — on its public access channel. The show found a niche audience for not-so-late-night news. In June 1991, to reach more viewers (and to make more money), the show moved over to Orlando newcomer WKCF-Channel 68, which would become channel 18. Bud’s association with the show came in October 1993, when he returned to Central Florida at WCPX after leaving WFTV in 1989 in a contract dispute. When he was bumped as WCPX’s main anchor in March 1995, he was moved over to anchor the "The 10:00 News" newscast permanently. WCPX (and then WKMG) continued to produce the show until last year, when WESH-Channel 2 took it over. But Bud remained the constant for the newscast, which now fades to black and into Orlando’s TV Times. Check out CFTV’s Channel 6 area for vintage clips of Bud at WCPX in 1994. |
| Happy Talk: WKCF plays up its 10 p.m. comedies Sept. 9 – First they take Bud’s newscast off the air, then they take the show’s logo to promote the sitcoms replacing the news. Oh, those funny folks over at WB18! After dumping "The Original 10:00 News," WKCF is promoting Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond as "The Original 10:00 Comedies," right down to the same logo it used for its newscasts — changing only "News" to "Comedies." Ouch. |
| New News: WOFL 6 a.m. newscast gets start date Sept. 9 – As we mentioned back in July, WOFL-Channel 35 will expand its morning news to three hours — and the start date is now Sept. 23. The new 6 a.m. show puts WOFL it in direct competition with the local morning news on Orlando’s other big network affiliates for the first time. Fox 35′s year-old Good Day Orlando, with Michael Brooks, Melissa Ross and Doug Kammerer, has been alone as local competition for the network-produced morning shows, airing from 7-9 a.m. |
| Fall Fashion: UPN 65 readies its new look Sept. 1 – WRBW-Channel 65 is slowly rolling out its new logo, prompted by UPN’s decision to dump its "circle, triangle, square" ID for a Viacom-inspired circle. (How much money and research do you think they put into that decision?) UPN stations across the nation are working up variations of the new laid-back logo to use this fall. WRBW (which must be pretty ticked at UPN since the station just recently adopted a new logo after being acquired by Fox), has opted for the red version of the new signature UPN look. The new UPN 65 logo is already being placed on most Florida Lottery billboards (since WRBW is the official Lotto station in Central Florida) and also on the Orlando Magic’s Web site. Now, when will it show up on the side of Fox 35′s building in Lake Mary? |
