Central Florida News 13 looks to have a new sports director. His name is Sean McDowell, and he's currently the sports anchor at WOWK-CBS 13 in Charleston-Huntington, W.Va.
McDowell, also known as "Seanny Mac," has been at the station since 1998. A Kentucky native, he graduated from Eastern Kentucky University and did graduate work at Marshall in Huntington.
He told a local West Virginia radio station last week that he starts at CFN 13 on Nov. 13. He also said he and his wife are also expecting their first child.
Regardless of how he is as sports anchor, there's one thing we here at RogerSimmons.com like about him already: He has a Web site named after himself -- www.SeanMcDowell.com.
At CFN 13, he'll be replacing Denise Cullen, who left the station earlier this month to pursue other opportunities.
Vanessa Medina'scareer is heading south -- but that's good news. The WKMG-Local 6 reporter is headed to WSVN-7 in Miami. We're told her new gig was announced at an O-Town Hispanic journalists mixer on Thursday. Medina previously worked in South Florida before she came up the Turnpike to Orlando ...
Local 6 anchor Mark McEwen, still recovering from a massive stroke nearly a year ago, made his first public speaking appearance on Thursday. WKMG has video of the speech. Local 6 and McEwen have said he will spend a great deal of his time focusing raising awareness about strokes. From the video, it looks to me that McEwen has made a lot of progress in his recovery, even since the last time we saw him on TV a couple of weeks ago during an interview with CBS' Harry Smith. McEwen's voice seems stronger, and he still has a great sense of humor. We wish him well. ...
Hearst-Argyle is having a good year. The parent of WESH-2 and WKCF-18 reported that its expects its full-year revenue to exceed previous estimates of $756 million to $777 million. The company cites better-than-expected revenue from political advertising and from WKCF, which it recently acquired to give it an O-Town duopoly. Read the full story here.
As the seasons change, so too does the weather staff at WFTV. Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reports that newcomer Brian Shields is the station's new weekday morning meteorologist. Arch Kennedy, the Channel 9 veteran who has been filling in on the morning shift, will take over forecasting duties on sister station WRDQ's Action News at 10 and also do the weekend evening weather shifts on WFTV. Julie Watkins gets the weekend morning news shifts. The new assignments start Monday -- four days before the start of the November sweeps. ...
The regional Suncoast Emmy nominations were announced, and WKMG led the way among the local stations. Local 6 has 10 nominations, with Nancy Alvarez and Darran Caudle named in multiple categories. Up next was WFTV with seven nominations, followed by Sun Sports with five, WESH with two and then WOFL and Central Florida News 13 with one each. Click here for the full list of nominees. The winners will be announced Dec. 2 in Miami.
So, with it being ESPN, you are assuming the sports net is hiring someone from one of the local TV stations, right? Wrong.
Orlando Sentinel columnist Jemele Hill is leaving her newspaper gig to join the Worldwide Leader in Sports. In her new role at ESPN, Hill will be appearing on-air, writing for ESPN.com as well as ESPN The Magazine. One Web site, TheBigLead.com, reports Hill signed a two-year deal worth $400,000.
I'm not sure if that part is true, but I do know that Hill is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, is very talented, is very funny and is very likely the next big star on ESPN. Of course, I'm biased because I've worked with Jemele. Good luck!
WESH reporter Stephen Stock is one of a handful of media members selected to "witness" the execution of Danny Rolling this week. Rolling is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the gruesome deaths of five Gainesville students in 1990. ...
I was in South Florida last week and had more than one person ask me, "How's Martha doing up there?" Yes, new WESH anchor Martha Sugalski was pretty popular in Miami. The folks I spoke with also got a chuckle out of the recent Sentinel story on how Martha has brought "South Florida style" to the anchor desk here in li'l ol' O-Town. ...
While in SoFla, also spotted former WFTV weekend anchor Jorge Estevez doing the morning news on WFOR-CBS 4 and former Channel 9 reporter Raelin Story, now doing video reports for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper. (Click on "Easy Afternoon Project" to see Raelin.) ...
There's a saying in the sports biz that "every night is election night in sports." But the news-side folks do get pretty busy on election night, too. Spotted this video on You Tube from 1972, and it brought back a lot of memories. Election coverage has really changed in the past 34 years, hasn't it?
I missed it, but apparently WESH allowed something inappropriate to air during its Web coverage of the funeral for Lake County Sheriff Chris Daniels on Friday.
Reporter Greg Fox -- one of the best in the market -- posted this statement on WESH.com: "During a livestream of funeral coverage on WESH.com, my microphone was on, and I said something I wish I had not. Sometimes we are guilty of using improper language when we are under stress. It's language we later regret. But that is no excuse, and I apologize to those who were offended. We are taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again."
The big question: What did he say?
Generally most stations' Web-exclusive streams of live events are treated as raw video -- the quality varies and you can hear the usual off-air back and forth between the reporter and the station. But as such video streams become more common -- and are watched by more and more people -- greater sensitivity and sophistication is probably needed.
WESH's reaction -- with a near immediate post of apology from Fox -- was the right way to handle the situation.
Local 6's Jacqueline London sums it up: "It's nice to think viewers only pay attention to what we say as opposed to what we wear. I know that's unrealistic in a visual medium." The Orlando Sentinel has a story about the fashion choices of female anchors, tied to the arrival of WESH anchor Martha Sugalski (right) and her much-talked-about South Florida fashion sense. Read more here. ...
In an O-Town broadcasting shocker, Clear Channel has released radio fixture Marc Daniels from WQTM-AM 740 The Team. The Sentinel reports the move was part of budget cuts by Clear Channel, which operates seven radio stations in Central Florida. Said Daniels: "I'm disappointed but not angry because industries change. I do not plan on leaving the area because this is our home. I feel fortunate to continue working with UCF and to also have other opportunities locally." Still, is this the beginning of the end of local sports radio in Orlando? Read the full Sentinel story here. ...
"Chopper" Dan McCarthyis landing at at new pad. The former Sky 6 helicopter pilot/reporter for WKMG is now working for WESH. Local 6 played up Chopper Dan's reports in its 4 p.m. newscast, and that's what WESH is doing with him now that it has launched a 4 p.m. show.
WESH was the only area station to interrupt regular programming for extended coverage of a tornado warning for Orange County on Saturday night.
When I saw the other area stations were staying with their regular shows and only running a standard weather crawl, I figured maybe WESH was over-hyping the weather situation. But it turns out, there was a tornado touchdown in Apopka that tore the roof off an apartment building and caused other damage.
Kudos for making the right call to WESH, meteorologist Ivan Cabrera, who anchored the coverage, and met Tony Mainolfi, who called in from home to help with the weather duties.
Goop. Sound appetizing to you? It does to WESH sports anchor Pat Clarke. He's sharing his recipe for sloppy hot dogs with some golfing buddies, who have put it on the menu at their American Pie Pizza Co. restaurants across Central Florida. Essentially, Goop Dogs are like sloppy Joes, with hot dogs replacing the ground beef. It's served on a hot dog bun. "My mom named it and created it," Clarke told the Orlando Sentinel. "She would say, 'Kids, come and eat this goop.' We loved it. It's very Midwest. It's mom's basic recipe, but I love to cook, so I've tweaked it a bit." ...
Cox Cable customers in the Ocala and Gainesville area are without WESH's high-definition channel. Cox and WESH owner Hearst-Argyle couldn't reach terms on a deal to allow the cable system to continue carrying Channel 2's digital signal. It's analog signal remains on the system, however. Interesting -- just recently Cox added Cox-owned WFTV's analog and digital signals to the Ocala-area cable system. More details from WESH. ...
Fox, taking a page from ABC, announced a deal Tuesday that will place previously aired episodes of its prime-time shows on MySpace and on its O&O stations, which would be WOFL-Fox 35 here in O-Town. Here's the catch: the shows are being made available now as a way to keep viewers' interest in them while they are pre-empted for the next couple of weeks by the Major League Baseball playoffs. It's unclear if the shows will remain on the Web sites after the World Series. But I would bet once they are on the sites, Fox will have a hard time taking them off with out ticking off fans. More information here.
Carole Nelson, who was the first female radio and TV anchor in Central Florida, is going back on the air. She's taken a radio gig at WMEL-AM 920 in Melbourne. "Talk to Me with Carole Nelson" airs Sundays from 2 to 3 p.m. Florida Today has a great profile that chronicles her career in broadcasting. ...
I've been meaning to mention that Eric Burris, who previously worked at WFTV as a weather producer and in other roles, is now a meteorologist at WPBF-ABC 25 in West Palm Beach. ...
With Heidi Hatch's arrival on the WOFL morning anchor desk, Trei Johnson is anchoring from 5-7 a.m., with Hatch anchoring from 7-9 a.m. ...
WFTV's big sister, Cox flagship WSB in Atlanta, has followed Channel 9's lead and gone HD with its news. WSB GM Bill Hoffman helped plan WFTV's HD launch before leaving to take the Atlanta gig.
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