There’s a new morning show that will go on the air in about a week. What’s different about it? Well, it’s being produced at a newspaper. SouthFlorida.com Live is the brainchild of Tribune Co., owner of the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida’s Sun Sentinel. In addition to owning the newspaper…
Year: 2009
No March madness: WFTV still No. 1
The unusual — and basically meaningless — March sweeps ended on Wednesday. To no one’s surprise, WFTV-Channel 9 was once again the Nielsen powerhouse for Central Florida. The ratings numbers show 9’s Eyewitness News was the top choice in households and in the 25-54 demo in all the time periods. WESH…
Blago! WESH gets video of gov at Disney
Score one for WESH. Reports on Thursday had former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich spotted spending time at Walt Disney World — hours before an expected indictment over allegedly trying to sell Pres. Barack Obama’s senate seat. All the local media outlets were looking for Blago — and asking readers/viewers to…
Who will jump into the pool with Fox 35?
As you may have heard, Fox O&O stations are teaming with other stations in their markets to create a pooled news service to feed news to both stations and cut costs. The latest examples came Wednesday when Fox announced a deal with E.W. Scripps stations to pool resouces. According to TVNewsday.com,…
Television in Florida turns 60
Although I missed it by a couple of weeks, I couldn’t let an important milestone in Florida television history go unnoted. Miami’s WTVJ celebrated its 60th anniversary on March 21. WTVJ, originally broadcasting on Channel 4, was the first television station in Florida — and just the 16th in the…
Not many folks see Frier’s goodbye on Local 6
Why did WKMG let go longtime anchor Bob Frier? Could be a combination of things — budget tightening, wanting to go in a different direction … yadda, yadda, yadda. But one key reason has to be Local 6’s ratings. Yes, WKMG’s 11 p.m. newscast — once ranked No. 1 —…
5 Orlando stations turn off transmitters tonight
Turn out the lights, the party’s over … in analog. At 11:59 p.m. tonight, five Orlando TV stations will permanently end their analog broadcasts, entering an all-digital era and most likely making your older model television sets obsolete. The stations turning off their analog transmitters, according to the FCC: Public…
Bob Frier out as anchor at WKMG-Local 6
Bob Frier is out as anchor at WKMG-Local 6. This last newscast will be tonight at 6. Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reports the station and the longtime anchor have “mutually agreed to part ways.” New arrival Mike Garofalo will become the main anchor along side Jacqueline London. Garofalo…
CW18 bringing back Steve Wilkos Show
Are you a fan of Steve Wilkos? If so, this should make you happy. NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution announced The Steve Wilkos Show has been renewed for a third season by stations across the nation, including Orlando’s WKCF-CW 18. Wilkos — the former muscle man on the Jerry Springer…
WMFE, WRDQ, WVEN to turn off analog signals next week
Three Orlando TV stations have notified the FCC they plan to turn off their analog signals next Tuesday — the date originally set for analog’s end. Public broadcaster WMFE-Ch. 24, independent WRDQ-Ch. 27 and Univision’s WVEN-Ch. 26 all decided not to extend their analog broadcasting to the government’s new cut-off…