Monday, October 31, 2005
Fox 35 Sister Starting 11 p.m Show
WOFL's Fox O&O sister in Tampa, WTVT, is starting an 11 p.m. newscast in December, according to FTVLive.com. The 11 p.m. show will reportedly be in addition to the 10 p.m. show Fox 13 now airs. So, what does this mean for O-Town? Maybe something -- maybe nothing. If WTVT's 11 p.m. report is a ratings winner, you would think Fox would want its other O&O's to duplicate it. But, WTVT is a former CBS affiliate with a long history of news; WOFL is just gearing up to start a 5 p.m. show next year. An expansion to 11 p.m. might be a bit of a reach for Fox 35 -- at least in the near future.
WRDQ Names Weech's Replacement
 Cynthia Demos has been named Marla Weech's replacement on WRDQ's Action News at 10. She becomes co-anchor of the WFTV-produced show with Chris Egert starting tonight.
Demos has been on the air in Central Florida since July of 2002 as a weekend anchor and reporter for Channel 9 Eyewitness News. "We're excited about the change. Cynthia is a great fit with Chris and Tom on Action News at 10," said WFTV/WRDQ VP and GM Bill Hoffman. "The prime time newscast is one of the fastest growing news time periods and is currently one of the tightest ratings battles taking place in our market."
In addition to joining Egert and chief meteorologist Tom Terry on Action News, Demos will continue to be seen on WFTV's Eyewitness News frequently as a reporter and weekend anchor. Demos graduated from the University of Florida with a major in journalism and a minor in math. She decided she wanted to be a journalist when she was 13 years old. She says, "It's all I ever wanted to do, and now it's all I really know how to do."
20 Emmy Nominations for O-Town
Central Florida news outlets picked up 20 nominations in the 2005 Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards. WKMG-Local 6 led the way with nine nominations, followed by WESH-2 with four, WFTV-Channel 9 and Orlando-based Sun Sports with three, Central Florida News 13 with two and one each for WOFL-Fox 35 and WRBW-UPN 65.
Channels 2, 6, 9 and 13 all garnered nominations for coverage of last year's record hurricane season. WFTV and WESH were nominated in the "Team Effort News Event Coverage," CFN 13 in the "News Oriented Specials" slot and WKMG in the "Talent" category for chief meteorologist Tom Sorrells.
The winners will be announced on Dec. 3 in Miami Beach. The Suncoast Region covers TV markets in Florida, Puerto Rico, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.
Here are Central Florida's nominees and a link to the full list of nominees
NEWS ORIENTED SPECIALS
>> Heart of the Storm: A Season to Remember. Len Murray, Scott Harris, Max White, Gary Darling, Neil Petagno -- Central Florida News 13
NEWS/PUBLIC AFFAIRS REPORTS/SEGMENTS
>> Ruth's Chris Investigation. Mike Holfeld, Paul Giorgio -- WKMG
>> Ford Fires Investigation. Leslie Walden -- WESH
>> A Bullet's Path. Mike Holfeld, Tim Arnheim -- WKMG
SPOT NEWS
>> Dubsdread Plane Crash. Dan McCarthy, Chris Miller -- WKMG
SERIES REPORTS
>> Dirty Restaurants. Todd Ulrich, Gerry Mendiburt -- WFTV
>> Ford Fires. Travis J. Sherwin, Stephen Stock, Shannon Fitz Partick, Marc Rice, Jason Morrow -- WESH
>> Life Behind the Lines. Donald Forbes, Brent Singleton -- WKMG
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS
>> Highway Robbery. Wendy Saltzman -- WKMG
>> Doing Time, Stealing Your Money. Stephen Stock, Travis J. Sherwin, Marc Rice -- WESH
SPORTS
>> Inside The Heat: Dwyane Wade. Ed Filomia, Kristen Hewitt, David Kobert, Nelson Martel, Jeanette Farach, Mauricio Estrada, Charlie Lukin -- Sun Sports
>> NJ Nets @ Miami Heat. Ted Ballard, Eric Reid, Tony Florentino, Jason Jackson, AJ Speaks, Bob Hewitt, Lavaughn Wright -- Sun Sports
PROMOTIONAL SPOTS - NEWS
>> Tony Pipitone – Local 6 Problem Solver. David V. Lawrence, Vincenzo Marino -- WKMG
>> Does it Work – 1950's. Melissa Fountain, Robin Adney -- WOFL
PROMOTIONAL SPOT - PROGRAM
>> Watch Joe/Judy. Melissa Fountain, Rick Snyder -- WRBW
TEAM EFFORT NEWS EVENT COVERAGE
>> Hurricane Season 2004. WFTV News Staff -- WFTV
>> After the Storm – Hurricane Charley: Stories from the Eye. WESH News Team -- WESH
GRAPHIC DESIGN
>> Phoenix Suns @ Miami Heat. Gary Hartley, Bob O’Mara, Clay Lipsky, Jason Bognacki, Chris Liberty, Scott Pickens -- Sun Sports
REPORTING
>> Tower of Terror Tycoon. Scott Andrew Fais -- Central Florida News 13
>> Life Behind the Lines. Donald Forbes -- WKMG
>> Too Many Lights. Berndt Petersen -- WFTV
>> Creative Clean-up. Louis Bolden -- WKMG
TALENT
>> Tracking Frances. Tom Sorrells -- WKMG
>> All in One. Joe Manno -- RTC Entertainment, Orlando
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Was There Breaking News, Today?
Has NBC's Today jumped the shark? Thursday morning, Matt and Al were yuking it up at the antics of the star of a one-man Star Wars play, when WESH dumped out of Today for breaking news. Harriet Miers was withdrawing her name from consideration for her Supreme Court nomination. Pretty big story. So, why did a local station have to break into a network "news" show to give us the news? Interesting, huh?
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Some Wilma-Related Reading
Here are some other Wilma-related stories you might want to check out:
[] Orlando Sentinel TV critic Hal Boedeker writes, "One reason Floridians feel hurricane fatigue is reporters' stupefying willingness to stand in lashing winds and carry on like Indiana Jones." Click here for that story.
[] Former WESH meteorologist Mike O'Lenick, who has become a budding print journalist with his weather-related commentaries for the Sentinel's op-ed page, offers some insight into those hurricane computer models. Click here for that story.
[] Wilma knocked some South Florida TV stations off the air, but that was nothing compared to what the storm did to newspapers down state. With their facilities damaged, The Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel had to be printed hundreds of miles away. Click here for that story.
Reviewing the Wilma Coverage
I spent a good portion of Monday watching Wilma coverage on the local stations and the cable nets. Fortunately of us, this was really a South Florida story -- and surprisingly a Southeast Florida story, considering all the damage done there. As far as O-Town coverage, not a whole lot stood out -- positive or negative. Unlike Charley, no station blew its coverage or elevated itself above others, from what I saw. But, again, WESH did give us some things to talk about:
[] All the stations used their morning anchors for the bulk of storm coverage, considering it was an early morning event. But while WFTV, WKMG and WOFL had their chief mets on air for Monday morning, WESH relied on morning guy Tony Mainolfi and Leslie Hudson instead of chief met Dave Marsh and main weathercaster Amy Sweezey. Not sure why, other than to give Tony and Leslie more exposure.
[] When 7 a.m. came, WESH unexpectedly dropped local coverage to pick up the Today show. Perhaps hearing all the local remotes clicking to its O-Town competitors, Channel 2 then dropped Today and went back to local storm coverage.
[] It was a long day for everyone, but perhaps no anchor had a longer one than WKMG's Lauren Rowe. Local 6 began its morning show at 4:30 a.m. -- and Rowe was back in the anchor chair 12 hours later for a special hour-long edition of First News at 4 p.m.
[] WFTV's Steve Barrett got the "I'm Glad I Don't Have to Explain This to the Boss Award." Down in Southwest Florida for Wilma's approach, he concluded his report noting a huge fallen tree was right where Channel 9 had parked three of its vehicles earlier. They moved the vehicles to cover Wilma's arrival, but when they returned, the tree was on top of their former parking spots.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Wilma Coverage Update
[] Both WESH and WFTV expanded their 11 p.m. Sunday newscasts to an hour to cover the preparations for Wima's arrival. ...
[] Because of the World Series and a CBS football/movie overrun, WOFL and WKMG didn't start their late newscasts until after 11:30, but both are covering Wilma and possible tornado-related damage in Brevard County. In fact, despite the late start, I think both got on video from damaged Cocoa Village before WESH. WFTV had the first video ...
[] As would be expected, all the stations have their big weather names working: Tom Terry on WFTV, Amy Sweezey on WESH, Tom Sorrells on WKMG and Glenn Richards on WOFL. ...
[] WESH will start its Sunrise newscast well before sunrise, at 4:30 a.m. Monday. That's when WFTV usually starts Eyewitness News Daybreak. Haven't heard if they are moving up their start time because of the storm. WKMG will start is First News at 4:30, also ...
[] WESH has been airing a promo showing Tony Mainolfi's trip into Wilma aboard the Hurricane Hunter aircraft. Kind of interesting to see promos touting weather coverage for a storm that hasn't even officially arrived here yet. ...
[] Touting it as "First and only on Fox," WOFL just promoted an upcoming story about a flight into Wilma aboard a hurricane hunter aircraft. Guess they must have missed that WESH promo, huh? ...
[] With Bob Opsahl off this week, Chris Egert has been getting lots of air time on Channel 9's early and late evening newscasts, as well as his regular gig on Channel 27. ...
[] WFTV will start streaming its storm coverage on its website starting at 5 a.m. Monday. ...
[] Everybody stay safe.
Wall-to-Wall Wilma? Not Yet
Here at mid-morning, Orlando's stations are holding off wall-to-wall coverage of Hurricane Wilma, but they have been breaking in with regular updates. Just guessing here, but if the storm stays on its southerly course, full-blown coverage might begin overnight with the morning shows starting early, and then continuing throughout Monday. It's a tough call for Orlando's stations. Right now, only tropical storm-force winds are forecast for most of Central Florida. But Brevard has a hurricane warning, and Osceola and Orange are under an inland hurricane warning from the NWS.
[] SOUTH FLORIDA: Miami's stations started wall-to-wall coverage Saturday night. Here are some links to their coverage in advance of Wilma:
WFOR-CBS 4 video
WTVJ-NBC 6 video
WPLG-ABC 10 video
WSVN-Fox 7 video
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Do You Have a Hummer for Wilma?
 The folks at Miami's WTVJ do ... Awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Wilma, the NBC O&O has unveiled the NBC 6 Weather Plus Hurricane Hummer. It's a specially configured vehicle loaded with lots of weather measuring instruments that can gather data and transmit that information to viewers. We'll see how it does this weekend. You know... taking a cue from WTVJ's Hurricane Hummer, maybe the Weather Channel should start a new reality show for local TV stations called "Pimp My Hurricane Ride." Remind me to copyright that.
[] MORE WILMA: WESH morning met Tony Mainolfi took a ride into Wilma on NOAA's Hurricane Hunter aircraft on Friday. From 40,000 feet, he reported seeing white caps on the churned up Gulf below. ... Not sure if it will factor into local Wilma coverage, but WKMG has a new weather cam, its SeaWorld Cam. The camera shows views of the marine park. This counters WESH's Universal Cam. So, shouldn't Disney give ABC affiliate WFTV the Disney World Cam?
Thursday, October 20, 2005
"Gut" Forecast: Wilma Goes South
During Thursday's Fox 35 News at Ten, Chief Met Glenn Richards gave his "gut" forecast about where Hurricane Wilma will go. Despite some new computer models showing the storm could move much farther north -- coming very close to Orlando, even -- Richards said his "gut forecast" was the Wilma would actually go father south of even the current official forecast in South Florida. Hope WOFL's "Weather Authority" is right on this one!
WB18 Expanding Daily Buzz
 How happy is WKCF with its Orlando-based morning show, The Daily Buzz? So much, that the three-hour show has expanded to ... about 16 hours a day. That's the air time WB18 is giving the show on its secondary digital channel, 18.2. In fact, The Daily Buzz replay is the only show airing on the 18.2 digital channel when it's on the air, usually around 6 a.m. to midnight. There's a small logo in the upper left corner reminding viewers that they can catch the show live weekdays from 6-9 a.m. Considering the other local stations program their digital subchannels with weather loops or Doppler images, this is a pretty cool idea. And it gives folks who aren't necessarily morning people exposure to the zany a.m. antics. Buzz on!
[] FOR SALE? Speaking of WB18, what's the deal with the sale of the station? Does Emmis still have it on the block? It still seems that WESH's Hearst-Argyle or WKMG's Post-Newsweek would be potential buyers to set up another O-Town duopoly.
WESH blinks first for Wilma
WESH, perhaps still smarting over its lackluster performance during Hurricane Charley more than a year ago, is the first area station heading toward full storm mode for Hurricane Wilma.
WESH will air a special edition of the news at 4 p.m. This morning, it was running a storm crawl, and before noon it interrupted Martha Stewart's show to air a briefing from the National Hurricane Center. No other local station (including CFN13) aired the briefing, although CNN did pick up a portion of it. Button up those rain coats!
[] UPDATE: WKMG expanded its regularly scheduled 4 p.m. newscast to an hour to match WESH's special 4 o'clock hour of hurricane news.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
GMA going HD on WFTV
Sources at WFTV say that Good Morning America will start broadcasting in high definition on Nov. 3. The start of the HD era in morning television will coincide with the celebration of the ABC show's 30th anniversary season.
This raises a couple of questions. Considering how competitive the morning shows have become, will NBC's Today try to beat ABC to the HD punch? And, when do you think a Central Florida station will start broadcasting the news in HD?
Fox finds a human
In one of the best, most useful consumer reports I've ever seen, WOFL reporter David Martin uncovered how to "find a human" when you get stuck in those automated corporate phone mail mazes. In his story on Fox 35 News at Ten on Tuesday, Martin directed viewers to Google, where all you have to do is type in "find a human" to be directed to the holy grail of phone mail cheat codes. He then demonstrated how it worked -- and it did work for everything from banks to credit card companies to computer support. A big thumbs up for this report!
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Where's the Fox blimp?
 Whether or not Marla Weech is there when it starts, WOFL plans to begin its new 5 p.m. newscast around January. But will Fox 35 have the proper resources for the new show?
A check of job listings on the station's website shows it is seeking three reporters, three photogs, a producer and an associate producer for the 5 p.m. news. That's seems fine, but what about the blimp? Yeah, the blimp!
WOFL's Fox-owned sister station in Minneapolis, KMSP, launched its new 5 p.m. newscast on Monday. To promote the new news, the station is giving away Fox 9 logoed iPod Shuffles and ... rides on the Fox 9 blimp. Yeah, the station has a blimp. It's been using the blimp to fly around town to draw attention to its 5 p.m. show.
So, Fox 35 -- forget Super Doppler or even a chopper like Skywitness, for ratings you need a blimp! Oh, the humanity!
Monday, October 17, 2005
Goodbye, WDSU ... Hello, future?
Another sign of recovery from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans: Local NBC affiliate WDSU is leaving Orlando's WESH and returning to its Big Easy studio. For the past seven weeks, the two Hearst-Argyle stations have been broadcasting from Channel 2's Winter Park headquarters. WESH even built WDSU staff members their own control room and set so they could continue their post-hurricane coverage hundreds of miles away from the devastation.
WESH's and WDSU's folks made this technological marvel look easy. Too easy, perhaps. ''This is the model for how to do this in the future,'' UCF radio/TV professor Tim Brown told Bob Mervin of the Orlando Business Journal. Brown says it’s possible that media companies could look at the WESH-WDSU emergency arrangement and see a way to centralize newscasts and other operations to save money. Add that to the damage Katrina has already done.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Former WOFL anchor lands in K.C.
Former WOFL-Fox 35 anchor Brad Stephens is heading to Kansas City, according to ShopTalk on TVSpy.com. Stephens will join KCTV-Channel 5 as the CBS affiliate's 4 p.m. anchor and nightside reporter starting Monday. He signed off as Fox 35 anchor in August 2004 after News Corp. acquired the station and decided not to renew his contract. He had been with WOFL since 1999, hired when the then-Meredith-owned station expanded its fledgling 10 p.m. newscast from 30 minutes to an hour.
Christmas comes earlier and earlier ...
'Twas 16 days before Halloween, and all through the house, everyone was stirring, but there wasn't a mouse.
The TV was turned on, by the chimney with care, in hopes of finding a football game there.
When on the tube, I heard such banter, I looked up to see what was the matter. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a WESH PSA that could have included reindeer.
(OK, I'll stop now.)
But while watching TV on Saturday, Oct. 15, I was a bit surprised to see Channel 2 run a promo for its annual Share Your Christmas food drive. The drive is worthwhile and has helped many folks, but running such a promo BEFORE even Halloween? Even before, heaven's forbid, a November sweeps promo?
Just catching up:
Yeah, it's been a while but wanted to address some of the items that created a buzz around town ...
<<>> Former WKMG anchor Shawn Killinger's booting off of Martha Stewart's Apprentice -- Her "fake it until you make it" comment really struck a nerve. Martha didn't like it, and neither did Killinger's former bosses at Channel 6. I'm guessing it was just a throw-away line she used to try to joke her way out of a tough situation. When rumors were swirling that she was going to be replaced at WKMG, I emailed her to ask her if she was planning to leave. She responded, something on the lines of, "Some people say I'm going to Chicago, some people say I'm going to Buffalo. All I'll say is right now I'm going to get a bagel." I thought it was kind of funny at the time.
<<>> NewsBlues.com had the story about WKMG reporter Vanessa Medina being drafted for emergency duty on the anchor desk when Lauren Rowe forget she was supposed to fill-in on the morning First News. Wrote NewsBlues' Mike James: "Medina, with no preparation, pulled off the show with barely a hitch. Medina, who recently arrived from Miami and speaks fluent Spanish, appears to be a natural for the Orlando market ... and locals are whispering that her last-minute fill-in performance may turn out to be one of those "star is born" moments. " <<>> I've seen it only once, but Fox 35 is airing an ad asking for viewers to give it content ideas for its news 5 p.m. newscast, which debuts in January. I tend to think this is more hype than actually wanting to know what viewers want, right?
New news guy at CFN 13
The changes keep coming at Central Florida News 13. When the 24-hour local cable outlet moves into its new downtown studios in November, it will have a new news leader. Veteran Rod Fowler has been hired as news director and will join CFN 13 in October. He replaces Stephen Chavarie, who is moving from his position as News Director into the newly created position of Director of News Programming.
The best news is that Fowler comes from Bay News 9 -- CFN 13's far superior sister station in Tampa -- so some positive changes could be afoot. Fowler has held executive news management positions in Atlanta, Hartford, Portland and Huntington, WV. Fowler also worked for more than a decade for ABC News in the early stages of his career.
Chavarie, who has been with News 13 for nearly five years, will be overseeing the station's web products, Central Florida on Demand, and News 13 Weather NOW. He will also manage the planned 2006 launch of CFN's Spanish-language newschannel
Hey, something looks different here
If you notice things looking a little different on the Central Florida Television news page here, you're right. I'm now using some blogging software which will allow me to update the site more often and in less time. Previously, anytime I wanted to post an update, it would take a minimum of 15-20 minutes to go through the process of writing the news item, then formatting it and getting it uploaded. After awhile, that got just a little too much (hence, the reason why the postings have been dropping). But this new software cuts the time and effort involved, so you'll get fresher news more often. At least that's the plan!
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Weech signs off tonight
Sept. 30, 2005 -- Longtime Orlando anchor Marla Weech signs off tonight when she anchors Action News at 10 for the last time on WRDQ. Since news of Weech's plan to leave the anchor desk broke, speculation has been growing about what her departure means. Is she going to Fox 35 to head up that station's new 5 p.m. newscast? Is she going to ratings-challenged WESH to try to draw some viewers back to that station? Or is she just getting out of the biz?
For her part, Weech has been very coy about her plans, not revealing much during a radio interview earlier this week. Whatever the future holds, Weech is a huge part of Central Florida TV history, anchoring at Channel 6 and then for more than 20 years at WFTV and later at sister station WRDQ.
''It was an honor to be invited into people's living rooms night after night. Very few people allow that kind of access into their homes, even to their next door neighbor or their closest relative,'' Weech said in a press release. ''I want to thank Central Florida for that privilege and for their trust. We've been through fires, hurricanes and many other life altering events together, but this departure is what is right for me at this time. I have enjoyed my time at WFTV and WRDQ. Some of the most dedicated people in the world work there and it was wonderful to have worked with them for so many years.''
The Orlando Sentinel has more about Weech's departure.
<<>> Emmis Communications announced the sale of four more of its TV stations on Thursday, but Orlando's WKCF-WB 18 was not among them. In the past several weeks, Emmis has entered into deals to sell all of its TV stations, except WB 18, WVUE in New Orleans and KGMB in Honolulu. Those three stations are still for sale, and I have to say I'm a bit puzzled that WB 18 been sold yet. It's one of the strongest WB affiliates in the nation in a fast-growing market. It's still likely that a parent company of one of the local stations will make a play for WKCF to create another duopoly here. ...
<<>> I was up early -- very early -- and noticed that WFTV's Eyewitness News Daybreak was starting at 4:30 a.m. Yes, 4:30 a.m.! ...
<<>> It happened awhile ago, but we should note that Problem Solver Wendy Saltzman has left WKMG to head to snakebit WGCL in Atlanta. Good luck! ...
>> Plans are still on for Central Florida News 13 to clear out of the Orlando Sentinel's campus in mid-November to head to its new headquarters in downtown Orlando.
Weech leaving WRDQ
Sept. 27, 2005 -- Marla Weech, one of Central Florida’s best known and most watched television news anchors, will leave the anchor desk later this week following a career with WFTV Channel 9 and WRDQ TV 27 that spanned almost 20 years, the stations announced Tuesday evening.
Weech joined WFTV in 1985, later becoming co-anchor of its top-rated evening newscasts with anchor Bob Opsahl. Most recently she joined Chris Egert as co-anchor of Action News at 10 on WRDQ TV 27. In the just ended July rating period, Action News at 10 achieved its highest share of audience ever.
No decision has been made regarding a replacement for Weech. Her last appearance on WRDQ will be Friday.
More details to come ...
WDSU plans to be at WESH for 'months'
Sept. 9, 2005 -- The folks from New Orleans' WDSU are planning on broadcasting from Orlando's WESH for awhile. How long? ''Months and months and months,'' one insider told us. In advance of Hurricane Katrina, WDSU's employees evacuated from their downtown N.O. studios, first to Hearst-Argyle sister station WAPT in Jackson, Miss., and later to H-A sister station WESH. They have been broadcasting from both Jackson and Orlando since Katrina hit.
This week, WESH has been busy building a dedicated set for the WDSU folks and outfitting a second control for the New Orleans crew. The new set is in the same studio as WESH's current news set, and its using parts of old Channel 2 sets. The control room reportedly is being outfitted with a semi-new or brand new switcher.
For now, we're told WDSU has stationed a couple of anchors, a director, a producer and some others at WESH for the duration. One of the anchors is Helena Moreno, who on Labor Day was anchoring for both WDSU and for WESH's early evening news with Raoul Martinez. The New Orleans station will still keep some crew at WAPT in Jackson as well. ...
<<>> WKMG has been simulcasting post-Katrina coverage from New Orleans on its digital sub-channel, 6.2. Channel 6 has been showing news reports from WWL-Channel 4, which is now working out of Baton Rouge at Louisiana Public Broadcasting. ...
<<>> WESH's current Sunrise morning team signed off on Friday. Claire Metz, an 18-year veteran of the morning broadcast, and Marc Middleton will be replaced Monday by WESH weekend anchors Tom Schaad and Sally Schulze. WESH also repackages its 5 and 5:30 p.m. shows into an hour block on Monday, with 5:30 anchor Raoul Martinez being shipped to the weekends to replace Schaad and Schulze.
WESH assists New Orleans coverage
Aug. 31, 2005 -- It's been three days since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and WESH is continuing to help New Orleans' WDSU provide live coverage. Orlando anchors, including Wendy Chioji and Jim Payne, are alternating shifts broadcasting on Hearst-Argyle sister station WDSU to give their New Orleans colleagues a break.
Watching the streaming video coverage on the WDSU.com website, WESH's broadcasts from Orlando have been spotted at many times during the day -- afternoons, evenings, even into the early morning hours. Orlando viewers initially saw the WESH effort on Sunday evening when the station simulcast its Orlando newscast on WDSU as the New Orleans station's employees evacuated to Jackson, Miss., ahead of the storm. Because of the devastation, WDSU continues to operate out of WAPT in Jackson -- and looks like it will be doing so for awhile.
More Katrina Notes: In addition to their corporate connection, WESH and WDSU have close ties for another reason. WDSU News Director Anzio Williams came to the station from WESH in December. ... In addition to the WESH-WDSU live stream, another great view of the situation can be found at WWLTV.com, from New Orleans powerhouse WWL-TV. That station is broadcasting from Baton Rouge, with its live video steam being routed though Belo sister station KHOU in Houston. ... Reporters from the local stations are filing reports from the scene, but WFTV also sent meteorologist Tom Terry to the Gulf Coast on Tuesday with the Eyewitness News Skywitness chopper. ... Not really media-related, but check out this link w |
COMMENTS 
