Friday, December 30, 2005
News Anchor Worries in 2035
As part of a story about a new company that lets you send yourself a e-mail at a future date -- say 30 years from now -- the Orlando Sentinel asked two O-Town anchors what they would write to themselves in 2035. Here's a sampling of what WKMG's Jacqueline London and WESH's Wendy Chioji said they would put in their future e-mails:
London: "If you're still doing TV news, you might want to call the salon and get that gray covered up. By now, local news must be broadcast in high definition, and we KNOW how unforgiving that can be!" (Read London's full e-mail)
Chioji: "If it's been 30 years, you're 74, and there's not much life-changing advice I can give you. How about this: Don't forget to feed all your cats. You probably have at least a dozen by now. People think you're nutty, but no one will tell you. And keep riding your bike. It gives them something to talk about. W" (Read Chioji's full e-mail)
If you want to send yourself an e-mail to be delivered in the future, the site is FutureMe.org
5 p.m. News? Not on Fox 35
According to Fox 35 insiders, the station's oft-discussed foray into the 5 p.m. news battle has been delayed until after the February sweeps. Whispers about WOFL's news expansion have been around for almost a year, with most observers pointing to a January start-up.
But apparently there are bigger concerns now at the Lake Mary studios, such as staffing. Checking out the Fox 35 job board, the station currently lists openings for an A.M. producer, Assistant News Director, two News Anchors, Planning Editor, Assignment Editor, four Reporters, three Photogs, a Producer, an Associate Producer and a Broadcast Designer. That's 16 open jobs.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Where's O-Town's Candy Bar?
 The only time I lived outside Florida was the seven years I spent in Boise, Idaho, in the late 1970s and early '80s. (Florida and Idaho -- can there be two more opposite places?) Anyway, it was in Idaho that I got interested in journalism -- both print and electronic -- so that's the only tie-in I can use to justify this posting.
It was also in Idaho that I discovered the Idaho Spud Bar. What, you haven't heard of them? They're the best selling Idaho-made candy bars in the nation. (Oh, I'm sure that rings a bell now.) Actually, the potato-shaped candy bars are really, really tasty. Just read this description from the Idaho Candy Co. website: The popular Idaho Spud Bar is a wonderful combination of a light cocoa flavored marshmallow center drenched with a dark chocolate coating and then sprinkled with coconut (Sorry, no potato!). The potato shape and unique blend of ingredients appeals to both young and old, making the "Idaho Spud" one of the top hundred selling candy bars in the Northwest, and is Idaho Candy Company's best selling bar. The Idaho Spud Bar has been a favorite since it was first manufactured in 1918.
Anyway, I just placed my near-yearly order for Idaho Spud Bars. It's best to order these in the winter so they don't melt while sitting in a hot Florida mailbox. But it got me wondering ... why doesn't Orlando or Florida have a "signature" candy bar? It should probably be something orange-related. Any suggestions? Post them on the message board if you have some. But it would be tough to beat an Idaho Spud Bar!
The New News 13
Around 3 p.m. Wednesday, the switch was flipped and Central Florida News 13 began broadcasting from its new studios downtown. On air, the station's graphics have been tweaked, with the greatest improvement seen during weather segments now that the hideous "Stormchasers Digital Doppler X13" logo has been redesigned and reduced. An insider says the new studio is very impressive, with flat panel monitors everywhere. We're promised that we'll see more of the new setup in the coming weeks.
Hawaii Knights -- Only for Some
As 2005 draws to a close, what was the biggest local sports story of the year? Despite some strong contenders, the UCF Golden Knights would be at the top of the list. A winless team with the nation's longest losing streak turns it around, hosts its conference championship game and ends up in its first bowl game. Pretty interesting story.
Yet, because that bowl game was in Hawaii, it presented local stations with a problem: Shell out dough at the end of the year to send reporters to cover UCF in Honolulu or just keep everyone home for the holidays? Only three of O-Town's news outlets sent staff to Hawaii: WESH, which dispatched sports director Pat Clarke and a cameraman; WFTV, which sent No. 2 sports guy Zach Klein and a cameraman; and (surprisingly) Central Florida News 13, which sent sports guy David Bauman as a one-man band.
It wasn't a surprise Fox 35 was MIA, since it doesn't care about sports, as evidenced by its diminished appearances on WOFL newscasts (if it appears at all some nights). But WKMG, which started its turnaround several years ago by owning the Apopka Little League story, sat this sports story out. Is this a new O-Town trend? Stay tuned.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
CFN 13 To Ring In New Year in New Home
The folks at Central Florida News 13 have been emptying out their Concord Street studios preparing for this week's big move to the Wachovia Bank building downtown and their new home. And as anyone who has ever moved will tell you, redecorating becomes a must.
The news station will introduce new sets and new graphics as part of its new surroundings, according to the Orlando Business Journal. GM Robin Smythe told the paper that the station also plans to make its presence known in downtown Orlando -- a huge television monitor will face Orange Avenue at Wall Street to show the channel's programming, and an electronic headline crawl will be on the other side of the building on Central Avenue. "We're going to create our own little mini-Times Square right here in downtown Orlando," Smythe said.
CFN 13 started as a partnership between Tribune Co.'s Orlando Sentinel and Time Warner. The Sentinel left the partnership and Bright House took over Time Warner's role. Observers say the new CFN 13 may more closely resemble its more successful sibling in Tampa, Bay News 9. In the Bay area, Bay News 9 is reportedly No. 2 behind WFLA-8 (NBC) in viewer preference polls.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Newspaper Readers Top TV Viewers
Amid all the recent talk about the impending death of newspapers (a subject near and dear to my heart -- as well as wallet), there was an interesting ad in today's Orlando Sentinel. According to a recent readership survey conducted for the newspaper, the Sentinel has 92 percent more adult readers each day than the combined daily adult viewers of Orlando's top 5 late news programs. WFTV, WKMG, WESH, WOFL and WRDQ combine for 370,500 adult viewers with their 10 or 11 p.m. newscasts, while the Sentinel has 712,800 daily adult readers. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Anchor Tries Golfing With Pool Cue
WESH 2 Sports anchor Pat Clarke's annual Celebrity Golf Tournament on Saturday had a big turnout of local politicos and TV personalities. Among them, according to the Orlando Sentinel's Scott Maxwell, was Clarke's on-air colleague Wendy Chioji. Not a big golfer, Chioji's unusual golfing equipment included a pool cue and a squash racquet. The event at ChampionsGate raised $30,000 for the Salvation Army.
10 Emmys for Central Fla. Stations
WKMG was Central Florida's Emmy leader, picking up three of the diminutive statues at the recent Suncoast Emmy Awards in Miami Beach.
Local 6's Dan McCarthy and Chris Miller, whose live coverage of a plane crash at the Dubsdred Golf Course was replayed nationally, won in spot news. Other WKMG winners: Donald Forbes and Brent Singleton in series reporting for Iraq War stories called "Behind the Lines," and Louis Bolden in reporting for "Creative Clean-up."
WFTV won two Emmys, including a big one for team effort news event coverage for Eyewitness News' much-praised 2004 hurricane season coverage. Berndt Petersen also won in the reporting category for "Too Many Lights."
WESH's strong investigation into fires in Ford vehicles earned an Emmy in series reporting for Travis J. Sherwin, Stephen Stock, Shannon FitzPartick, Marc Rice and Jason Morrow.
Orlando-based Sun Sports picked up two Emmys for Miami Heat coverage, and WRBW-UPN 65 won a promotional spot Emmy.
Here's the list of all the winners.
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Newsrooms Talking about 911 Tape
As you may have read on the Orlando TV Times forum, WFTV anchor Martie Salt broke down on Eyewitness News last Wednesday after an emotional story that included a 911 call from a 7-yaer-old girl describing her brother killing her mother.
The Orlando Sentinel's Hal Bodeker has a terrific story about how each of Orlando's major news outlets wrestled with the decision on whether to run the 911 tape. Only WESH 2 News and Fox 35 News decided not to air the tape. Central Florida News 13 did air it, and GM Robin Smythe defended the decision. "The availability of that call tells the story better than any journalist could," she told the Sentinel. "This one is particularly tough to listen to, but we report these stories, and we can't sugarcoat what happened."
It was a tough story to report. As Salt told the Sentinel: "I couldn't read the next story. I was crying. Bob [Opsahl] took over. He picked up where I left off. I had to get my composure over the next few minutes. He had tears in his eyes too, but he could read." Bodeker reports WFTV received no complaints about Salt's on-air reaction, and but that dozens of viewers sent her sympathetic e-mails. "Martie's reaction was spontaneous and human," News Director Bob Jordan said. "She had read the script but hadn't heard the sound bites. It's nothing we foresaw.''
Friday, December 2, 2005
More Sweeps Analysis
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.
>> WESH, which replaced Claire Metz and Marc Middleton on its 2 News Sunrise show, was down 26 percent from a year ago at 6 a.m. Still, that's an improvement. "We were down more than this in September and October," WESH GM Bill Bauman told the Sentinel. "We're coming back from it." WKMG, still third at 6 a.m., was up 28 percent.
>> Morning numbers are up, up, up at Fox 35. WOFL is a close fourth at 6 a.m., up 74 percent in homes from 2004. At 5 a.m., where it launched another hour of news this year, it's up 233 percent from the same time a year ago.
>> WKMG's 4 p.m. newscast, started in January, is up 43 percent from last Novermber when the station aired Inside Edition.
>> The Spanish-language competition has WVEN-Univision 26 with 16,500 homes at 6 p.m. and WVEN-Telemundo 40 at 6,500. WVEN draws 14,800 for its 11 p.m. show
Thursday, December 1, 2005
Wearing the November Crown
Think of the recently completed November sweeps like it were a beauty pageant. The winner walking down the stage with the diamond tiara and roses is WFTV. WKMG is like the first-runner-up -- looks good in a swimsuit and won a couple of the prelim contests. And WESH, well ... it sure has a great personality, right?
Based on information released by Channel 9, viewership for all WFTV's newscasts increased from the same time last year -- a pretty impressive feat. Among the gains was a whopping 26 percent leap in viewers for its 11 p.m. newscast , which now is tied with WKMG's for the top spot Monday-Sunday (uh, thanks Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy). WKMG has the edge at 11 p.m. using just the Monday-Friday numbers.
Mornings: Channel 9 is up 11 percent from 5-7 a.m., and now has more viewers than WESH and WKMG combined. WFTV says it has 29,319 more households than its closest competitor from 5 to 7 a.m. Local 6 First News and 2 News Sunrise tie at 5 a.m., WFTV's release shows. (Note: Heard from someone at Fox 35 who says WOFL is No. 2 at 5 a.m. ahead of WESH and WKMG.)
Noon: Channel 9 is up 8 percent year to year at noon, but Local 6 is still No .1 followed by WFTV and then WESH.
5 p.m.: Eyewitness News is up 5 percent from last year to remain No. 1, followed by WKMG and WESH. Still, WFTV beats its news competitors combined by 41 percent.
5:30 p.m.: WFTV is up 10 percent and beats No. 2 WKMG and No. 3 WESH combined by 23 percent.
6 p.m.: Up 5 percent at 6 p.m., WFTV tops the combined viewers of its two rivals -- who are essentially tied for second -- by 9 percent. From 5-6:30 p.m., Channel 9 reports that it has 91,101 more households watching than its closest competitor.
10 p.m.: Fox 35 News finishes comfortably on top. WFTV-produced Action News at 10 on WRDQ increased its viewership by 33 percent to 40,401 homes.
For Sale Sign Still Out at WB18?
When Emmis put its 16 TV stations on the block, the buyers came calling pretty quickly. Among them were Gray TV, LIN TV and Journal Communications, who together purchased 13 stations. This week, Emmis announced that some of those transactions -- first announced in August -- are now complete. But what about the three remaining Emmis stations? Orlando's WKCF and stations in New Orleans and Honolulu are still twisting in the wind. Are they still up for sale? Who's going to buy them? Why has there been such a delay? WKCF would seem like a hot property as one of the strongest WB affiliates in the nation (even if the WB network isn't having the best of years). I'm surprised this hasn't been resolved yet.
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