Skip to content
Roger Simmons Roger Simmons

Birds, Words, Pics + TV

  • Home
  • All Posts
    • Orlando Wetlands
    • Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
    • Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive
    • Joe Overstreet Road
    • UCF Arboretum
    • Fort DeSoto Park
  • My Bird Catalog
    • All Birds Catalog
    • American Flamingos
    • Bald Eagles
    • Barred Owls
    • Belted Kingfishers
    • Black-and-White Warblers
    • Eastern Bluebirds
    • Florida Scrub-Jays
    • Green Herons
    • Little Blue Herons
    • Northern Parulas
    • Ospreys
    • Reddish Egrets
    • Red-Shouldered Hawks
    • Roseate Spoonbills
    • Sandhill Cranes
    • Whooping Crane
  • Orlando TV News/History
    • Orlando TV Schedules
    • Florida TV History
  • About this Site
Roger Simmons
Roger Simmons

Birds, Words, Pics + TV

Year: 2009

Florida’s early TV station history

Roger Simmons, April 19, 2009

I love history and — as is evident by this site — broadcast history. So, I’ve been compling a list of Florida’s first television stations. You’ll likely notice some familiar call letters as well as some you may never seen before. Those lesser-known stations are Florida’s early UHF stations, such as…

Continue Reading

Florida TV Station History

Roger Simmons, April 19, 2009

sadf sdf sdf Station Date City Etc WTVJ-Ch. 4 March 21, 1949 Miami Now WTVJ-Ch. 6 (NBC) WMBR-Ch. 4 Sept. 15, 1949 Jacksonville Now WJXT-Ch. 6 (Indy) WSUN-Ch. 38 May 13, 1953 St. Petersburg Was city-owned ABC affiliate until 1965 WEAR-Ch. 3 June 13, 1954 Pensacola Second station in Pensacola-Mobile,…

Continue Reading

Casey Anthony coverage: Local 6 wins

Roger Simmons, April 13, 2009

Following up to the recent Florida Associated Press Broadcasters competition …  AP still hasn’t updated its site with the results, but we’re finding out about them the old-fashioned way: folks at the stations are e-mailing me their results. Today, we recognize the winners at WKMG-Local 6. The station won first place…

Continue Reading

Break from news: Zac Efron on SNL in HSM4

Roger Simmons, April 12, 2009

We pause briefly from our coverage of Orlando TV News for something that follows the news: Saturday Night Live. If you caught Saturday’s show (following WESH 2 News — see, there’s a news reference), you know the host was Zac Efron. Anyone with a "tween" in their house (yep, I…

Continue Reading

Top Orlando TV news videos on YouTube

Roger Simmons, April 11, 2009

If you’ve checked out the channel pages on this site, you’ll know I have lots of video of Orlando TV — past and present. But as much as I have, YouTube has more. (In fact, many of my videos have been posted by others onto YouTube.) I’ve created a YouTube…

Continue Reading

Hawk terrorizes Fox 35 employees — again

Roger Simmons, April 7, 2009

You have to be tough to be in the TV news business — dealing with angry viewers, demanding bosses and overprotective hawks. Yep, hawks. Folks at WOFL-Fox 35 are making news themselves after an agressive mother hawk has been attacking employees outside the station’s Lake Mary studios. One recent high-profile…

Continue Reading

Digital signals bring good news, bad news

Roger Simmons, April 7, 2009

When Orlando’s TV stations — and all others in the nation — finally turn off their analog transmitters on June 12, some Central Florida viewers might be in for a surprise. Because of tower relocations and the switch to a digital signal, many area stations will reach more households over…

Continue Reading

News 13, WESH pick up awards

Roger Simmons, April 6, 2009

Central Florida News 13 took home three awards from the Florida Associated Press Broadcasters competition on Saturday. Chief met Jeff Day won first place for best weathercast for his coverage of Tropical Storm Fay. Scott Fais won second place for best short light feature about Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon. And the station took second…

Continue Reading

New GM hints of changes at Local 6

Roger Simmons, April 5, 2009

Former Local 6 news director Skip Valet returned to WKMG last week as its new general manager. He’s replacing retiring GM Henry Maldonado — and it sounds like he’s ready to get to work to push WKMG out of the ratings cellar. In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Valet said, “I…

Continue Reading

Fox 35’s singing anchors in video

Roger Simmons, April 4, 2009

  We knew that Fox 35 weatherman Jim Van Fleet could sing, but who knew about some of the other anchors over at WOFL? This clip I stumbled across on YouTube is more than a year old, but still entertaining nonetheless. I believe it was produced by “John” aka Jhbmw007….

Continue Reading
  • Previous
  • 1
  • …
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • …
  • 11
  • Next

Latest Posts

  • Tricolored Herons, others in St. Augustine
  • Screech Owls, other birds on Merritt Island
  • Shorebirds and sunset at Fort DeSoto
  • Orlando Wetlands sunset visits are rewarding
  • Great Egrets and their babies in St. Augustine

Top Locations

Orlando Wetlands

Posts about visits to Orlando Wetlands


UCF Arboretum

Posts about visits to UCF Arboretum


Merritt Island

Posts about visits to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge


Lake Apopka

Posts about visits to Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive


Fort DeSoto

Posts about visits to Fort DeSoto Park


Galleries

Roger's Favorites

An ever-changing collection of my favorite pictures


American Flamingos

Photos of American Flamingos in Indian River


Belted Kingfishers

Photos of Belted Kingfishers across Central Florida.


Oystercatchers

Pictures of American Oystercatchers at Fort DeSoto Park


Spoonbills

Pictures of Roseate Spoonbills in Central Florida


Whooping Crane

Pictures of one of the last Whooping Cranes in Florida


MORE GALLERIES


Topics

American Kestrel Anhinga Awards Bald Eagles Barn Swallow Barred Owl Belted Kingfisher Black-and-White Warbler Black-Crowned Night-Heron Caspian Tern Common Gallinule Common Yellowthroat Digital TV Eastern Bluebird Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green Heron Limpkin Little Blue Heron Loggerhead SHrike Northern Cardinal Northern Parula Orlando Wetlands Park Osprey Palm Warbler Prairie Warbler Red-bellied Woodpecker Red-shouldered Hawk Red-Winged Blackbird Reddish Egret Roseate Spoonbills Sandhill Crane Savannah Sparrow Snowy Egret Tricolored Heron Tufted Titmouse WESH-2 WFTV-9 White Ibis WKCF-18 WKMG-6 WMFE-24 WOFL-35 Wood Stork WRDQ-27

©2025 Roger Simmons | All Rights Reserved