The May sweep gets under way today and runs until May 24. Here's what to watch for in O-Town:

Who will be No. 1 for late news? This has become a competitive race between WOFL, WKMG and WFTV. Even though WOFL airs its news at 10 and the others do theirs at 11, the late-night bragging rights are up for grabs. American Idol has fueled Fox 35's rise, but can season finales on ABC and CBS boost Channel 9 or 6 back to the top spot?

Who will be No 4. at 5 p.m.? When Fox 35 launched its new 5 p.m. newscast recently, folks who see the numbers said it beat WESH's 5 p.m. news that first week. Can it still give WESH a run for its money. And if WESH finishes No. 4, what does that mean for the station?

Who will be No. 2 at 6 a.m.? Marla Weech's addition as fill-in anchor on Local 6's First News has brought viewers to the station, which has traditionally lagged behind WFTV and WESH in the mornings. Can Marla help WKMG overtake WESH?

Some quick-hits for Wednesday ...

Remember when all the Fox O&O stations, including our own WRBW, ditched their UPN branding shortly after news of the CW Network was released? Well, those stations are already in the process of tagging Fox's new My Network TV onto their identity. WWOR in New York, among the first to drop UPN from its logo, has rebranded itself "My 9." Look for Orlando's My Station, WRBW, to become "My 65" by the fall. . . .

Local 6 traffic reporter Secily Wilson made the big jump from O-Town to New York City -- if only for a day. She was on CBS' Early Show on Friday morning, mentioning that she was in NYC to see The Color Purple and also to send out best wishes to former CBS morning weatherman and WKMG morning anchor Mark McEwen. . . .

Central Florida still loves Marla. Hal Bodeker of the Orlando Sentinel blogs that WKMG's ratings were up in the first couple of days of Marla Weech's appearance on the Local 6 First News desk. He also points out a possible conflict of interest for Weech during her fill-in role for McEwen. . . .

I've had a couple of people ask where is John Brown, The Daily Show anchor whose job was recently advertised as being open. According to Buzz weatherman Mitch English's web site, Brown is working behind the scenes at the Buzz. No word on his replacement yet. . . .

If you had to choose between learning the TV biz at UF or UCF, which would you choose? That's been an ongoing debate at TV Spy's Watercooler. Interesting question, but even as a Knight I think Gainesville wins hands down. . . .

And finally, good news. Florida News Center is back up and running. Chris Blanton had taken his site offline after receiving threatening legal letters from some of the TV stations he covers, ordering him to remove logos and other multimedia items from those stations.

WESH's I-Team picked up two first place awards in the prestigious society of Professional journalists Green Eyeshade Awards, station GM Bill Bauman announced.

In investigation called "Ford Fires" -- focusing on how a defective cruise control switch and its wiring can cause late model Ford trucks and SUVs to spontaneously combust while parked -- won the top TV award in Business Reporting. Stephen Stock, Travis J. Sherwin, Shannon FitzPatrick, Marc Rice, Jason Morrow and Pete Delis contributed to the report, which caused Ford to issue a recall to fix the defective part.

WESH's "Doing Time, Stealing Your Money" reports captured first place in TV "Investigative Reporting." Channel 2 was the first media outlet in the nation to expose a widespread scam among prison inmates, who file false tax returns for employment while serving long prison sentences. A Treasury Department audit found this practice cost taxpayers more than $68 million in 2004. Stock, Sherwin, Rice, Morrow and Delis contributed to the report.

The first place winners in each division of the awards are now eligible for the overall Green Eyeshade Award Best of Show, which will be announced in May. Here's the full list of Green Eyeshade Winners.

WRDQ's Action News at 10 aired a story Wednesday night about a pair of Shih Tzu puppies that were stolen from a backyard in Buena Ventura Lakes. The story included tearful family members, who were upset over losing the pets. They also offered a $500 reward for the dogs' safe return.

According to sister station WFTV, "Within a half an hour of the first TV report, someone called the Cruz family and returned the puppies, no questions asked."

I'm sure there's a new news slogan in there somewhere: Where the Puppies Come First? Your Puppy Solver Station? Breaking news, fixing pets?

A deal to sell Orlando's WB18 is in "final discussions," Emmis Chairman Jeff Smulyan told TVWeek.com on Tuesday. Smulyan said an announcement could come by June.

WKCF is among three Emmis stations still up for sale after the company put all of 16 its stations on the block last year. The other two remaining are WVUE-Fox in New Orleans and KGMB-CBS in Honolulu. But it's WKCF that is getting all the notice nationally.

WB18 is considered the top performing WB affiliate in the nation, and also having it in fast-growing Central Florida makes it very attractive. That's why it's been a bit perplexing that its for-sale sign has been out for so long. This fall, it joins the new CW Network.

So, who may buy the station? My speculation: Post-Newsweek or Hearst-Argyle are the favorites, as it would give either one a douopoly in O-Town. And, as far-fetched as it sounds, I wouldn't rule out a run by CBS, NBC or ABC. Having an O&O here would make sense, even if it would mean starting a news operation from scratch and ultimately causing a shuffle of network affiliations in the market.

Weatherman Al Roker is coming to Orlando next Monday and Tuesday to broadcast part of NBC's Today show -- and he needs an audience.

A posting on WESH.com says, "Al will be having fun in and around Universal's great attractions, but he needs an enthusiastic live audience just like the one he interacts with on the plaza outside the studio in New York."

But please note: "We'll need you to be at Universal by 6 a.m. and be happy and excited to be there." The only place I'm happy to be at 6 a.m. is still in bed.

Lena Sadiwskyj, former news director at Channels 6 and 35 here, has a new gig out West. She's been named news director at KGUN-ABC 9 in Tucson, Ariz. Sadiwskyj comes to the station from KTVK-TV in Phoenix, where she has been working as executive producer.
Click here to read more from the Arizona Daily Star.

Some quick Monday memos for you ...

GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD WORK: O-Town broadcasters picked up four Edward R. Murrow awards in the regional RTNDA contest. WFTV won for Sports Reporting and Videography, WKMG's Tony Pipitone won for Investigative Reporting, and WDBO-AM won for Radio Spot News. Here's the full list of Murrow winners.

SDX-RATED AWARDS: Pat Duggins, Judith Smelser and Richard Paul of WMFE-FM won the Sigma Delta Chi Award for best radio documentary. "Countdown Discovery" as among the winners in the national contest run by Society of Professional Journalists. Here's the full list of SDX winners.

AND THE AWARD FOR NO.1 LATE NEWS: You may have seen the promos on WOFL stating "There's a New No. 1 in town." Fox 35 says its 10-11 p.m. news outrated the 11 p.m. news on WESH, WFTV and WKMG in February in the 25-to-54 age group. Thanks, American Idol.

Take a look at the new logo you will soon be seeing on WOFL.

Fox is in the midst of a rapid makeover of its owned and operated affiliates, and it all started here in the Sunshine State. WTVT, the Fox O&O in Tampa, created a new station logo for an 11 p.m. newscast it launched late last year. Its design is based on the animated Fox News Channel bug. The new vertical-rectangle logo has been tapped to replace the decade-old horizontal rectangular logos at all Fox-owned stations.

So far, Fox-owned stations in New York, St. Louis, L.A. and Boston have also adopted the new-style logo. Fox is rolling out the logo change at a rapid pace, so look for it on Fox 35 in O-Town any day now.

And, according to NewsBlues.com, look for new web addresses for the Fox stations. All will have the prefix MyFox... so, the one already registered for here is MyFoxOrlando.com.

You've seen Nielsen ratings used to rank the area stations, so here's a little different perspective. These rankings of the local stations are based on the popularity of their websites. The data for this came from the website Alexa.com, which keeps stats on which sites are the most popular in the world. In these rankings, the lower your number, the better. No. 1, for example, is Yahoo.com. So, here are the latest stats for Central Florida stations' sites -- plus a peek at what they used to call themselves on the web.

Website (station) -- Ranking -- Former Web names
1. Local6.com (WKMG) -- 2,746 -- WCPX.com, MyCentralFloridaNow.com
2. WFTV.com (WFTV) -- 6,460 -- InsideCentralFlorida.com
3. WESH.com (WESH) -- 25,078 -- StormTeam.com, NewsChannel2000.com
4. CFNews13.com (CFN13) -- 104,611
5. WOFL.com (WOFL) -- 400,492 -- Fox35WOFL.com
6. WMFE.com (WMFE) -- 607,515
7. WB18.com (WKCF) -- 1,412,397
8. WRBW.com (WRBW) -- 2,351,621 -- UPN65.tv
-- WRDQ.com (WRDQ) -- No info available

Almost 10 years after it launched the market's first news in the 4 p.m. hour, WESH is moving its news clocks back an hour again. Channel 2, in an attempt to combat the ratings powerhouse that is Oprah on WFTV, will give 4 p.m. news another shot starting this August.

"If you don't have Oprah Winfrey, you have a challenge on your hands. That's true all over America," WESH GM Bill Bauman told the Orlando Sentinel, which broke the story.

WKMG gave up trying to run talk shows against Oprah long ago. Local 6 started its half-hour 4 p.m. newscast in January 2005, and has seen its ratings double from a year ago. WESH has been running Ellen against Oprah and Local 6's First at 4 and Inside Edition hour of information.

WESH's new newscast will be an hour. Plans for the show might also explain the recent new job postings on WESH's website looking for, among others, an evening anchor, meteorologist, executive producer, news producer, associate producer and video tape editor.

As mentioned at the top, this isn't the first time WESH has tried to counter Oprah with news. In 1997, Channel 2 launched "Discover Orlando," an ambitious local magazine show, and a 4:30 p.m. edition of its news. After a couple of months, it flipped the lineup with the news moving to 4 p.m. and "Discover Orlando" going to 4:30. Both were later canceled after failing to make a dent in Oprah's audience on WFTV.

Click here to see a promo from 1997 for WESH's new 4:30 news.

When word came down that prosecutors were charging state Sen. Gary Siplin with stealing thousands of dollars in public money by paying three staffers on his re-election campaign, WFTV was the station to turn to to see what crazy thing would happen next. And, of, something did happen.

A Channel 9 photog and reporter Josh Wilson, who has a colorful history trying to interview Siplin, caught the senator slipping out of the back of his Orlando office, climbing a chain-link fence to avoid an on-camera interview. Pretty amazing video.

But that was actually pretty tame considering some of Wilson's and Siplin's previous meetings. Weeks ago, when Wilson first tried to ask Siplin about allegations of wrongdoing, the senator answered every question by repeating, "I love you, Josh. I love you, Josh..."

The second time Wilson caught up with Siplin, things become more touchy-feely. In addition to refusing to answer Wilson's questions, Siplin again repeated, "I love you, brother. I love you, Joshua," and also hugged the reporter several times.

Now Siplin is avoiding Wilson. Where's the love?

Local 6 has posted a story on its website confirming Marla Weech's impending arrival as substitute morning anchor. The story points out that she's just filling in for Mark McEwen. But even when he returns -- by summer, possibly -- expect to see more of Marla at WKMG.

Lauren Rowe, who anchors the news at 4, 5 and 6 p.m., will be taking on maternity leave in the not too distant future, meaning there will be another spot on the Local 6 anchor desk that needs to be filled. Jacqueline London and Bob Frier would help fill in during Rowe's absence, but why not move Marla to the early evening to help out there once McEwen returns?

Just my speculation, but it makes sense to me.

WKMG was the big winner when the 2006 Florida Associated Press Broadcasters awards were presented on Saturday night. Local 6 News won both first- and second-place awards in the Best TV Newscast and Individual Achievement categories, plus a first place in spot news.

The Jan. 11, 2005, WKMG newscast -- featuring exclusive video of a fatal plane crash on Dubsdread Golf Course -- was voted best newscast, edging another WKMG newscast from Aug. 2. Sky 6 pilot Dan McCarthy and photojournalist Chris Miller won the spot news category with the aerial video of the Dubsdread crash.

In the Individual Achievement competition, Tony Pipitone took first place with a composite of live, investigative and feature reports, while Local 6's Erik von Ancken won the second-place award.

WFTV received a first-place award in Hard News Feature for Berndt Petersen's "Lake County Cold Case." Channel 9 also picked up second-place awards for Sportscast, Public Affairs and Best Overall.

WESH received one award, for a Marc Rice photo essay with Kathy Marsh titled "The Chicken Man."

Orlando's stations were competing in the AP's large-market division, that also includes stations from Miami and Tampa.

Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel breaks the news that longtime Central Florida anchor Marla Weech is coming back to TV, this time on WKMG-Channel 6. The gig is listed as only temporary (for now), as she will join Local 6's morning show to fill in for Mark McEwen as he recovers from his stroke.

Weech, who anchored at WFTV from the 1980s until 2003 when she was bounced to sister station WRDQ-Channel 27 to helm its 10 p.m. newscast, has anchored at Channel 6 before. She was the weekend anchor at then-WCPX (click for video) before joining WFTV as one of its lead anchors.

Maxwell reports that WKMG station manager Henry Maldonado said his decision bring in Weech once her non-compete clause with WFTV/WRDQ ended was an easy one. "I've always liked her," he said. "And she's always been on the radar of viewers." Weech starts later this month.

Recently received this photo of former 1980s WESH anchors Bobby Estill, Bruce Hamilton and Carol Granstrom, posing on the Channel 2 anchor desk. If only Dave Marsh had been around for the photo!

Which Orlando anchor has been spotted behind the wheel of a verrry expensive red Ferrari? And what about this co-anchor, who was seen happily holding a bag from Cartier, showing off a new sparkling bauble? Click to see who they are.

You'll likely be seeing some new faces on WESH soon, but the real question is whether these new faces will be replacing any existing ones at the station.

WESH is advertising for an evening news anchor and a meteorologist on its website. The anchor might be part of Channel 2's plan to break its evening newscasts back into 30-minute blocks. Several months ago in a staff shakeup, WESH sent 5:30 anchor Raul Martinez to weekends and decided to package the 5 p.m. newscast as an hourlong show with Jim Payne and Wendy Chioji anchoring it as well as the 6 p.m. newscast.

As for the meteorologist, WESH has not yet filled its weekend morning weather slot, previously held by Marty Stebbins. This might be it, or is there another change in the weather coming? Stay tuned ...

SPEAKING OF THE WEATHER ...
Orlando Sentinel good guy Scott Maxwell writes today about WOFL's Jim Van Fleet -- weatherman by day, country music sensation by night. Give it a read here.

Yesterday, we reported how WFTV is having a contest to try to liven up its live shots. Well, now the subjects of the stories are doing their part to spice things up even in taped pieces.

WFTV reporter Leland Vittert was doing a story about local residents who are waiting for headstones for their departed loved ones to be delivered, and how the headstone maker has been very hard to contact. Vittert went to the last-known address of the headstone maker. He was greeted by having a pitcher of water thrown on him. Here's the video from WFTV.

Reporting from the middle of a busy highway toll plaza, or reporting from down in a sinkhole. Those are two things that may have made you shake your head when watching Eyewitness News this past month. You may have asked yourself, "Are those reporters crazy?"

No, maybe they're just trying to win a TV.

Since November, WFTV has been encouraging its reporters and photographers to liven up their live shots. The contest, we're told, includes a grading system with the reporter and photog with the top scores winning plasma TVs at the end of May.

The station's promotions department has been really pushing this contest, one that everyone is encouraged to take seriously. But one WFTV source told us that the emphasis is still on doing the best stories. Besides the stand-up contest, we're told there is also an ongoing contest for who can break the biggest and best stories that the other stations don't have.

The Orlando Sentinel has more on the stand-up contest.

You may have seen the promos touting Local 6 newscasts now being presented in digital widescreen. Yep, the newscasts have gotten wider.

Unfortunately, all WKMG has done is expand the old analog-size 4:3 ratio picture to fill the new digital-size 16:9 ratio screens on digital TVs. What that has done on digital TVs is make everyone on WKMG look a little shorter and a little fatter. That's not something most folks would thrilled about. On the plus side, the new stretched picture does get rid of the gray bars that used to frame the old 4:3 ratio picture on digital TVs.

I posed the question awhile back, wondering which Orlando TV station will be the first to broadcast the news in HD. I suppose this is a step toward that, but I guess we still have a long way to go.