Construction on WACX’s Majesty Building, the unfinished high-rise office tower along Interstate 4 in Seminole County, started in February 2001. Does it have a prayer of ever being finished? SuperChannel 55 President Claud Bowers told the Orlando Sentinel that he expects the tower to be ready for tenants by October 2012. But local building officials…
Month: November 2010
Blast from the Past: Channel 9’s daytime in ’61
We continue our Blast from the Past series with this Orlando Sentinel advertisement for WLOF-Channel 9 from Nov. 1, 1961. WLOF? Yep, you read that right. When it signed on in February 1958, Channel 9 was known as WLOF (which stood for We Love Orlando Florida). It would not become WFTV until 1963. Here’s what…
Spotlight on top Orlando TV advertisers
They’re what you watch — or maybe don’t watch — between the news, weather and sports on Orlando TV. Either way, you can’t avoid them. They’re the iconic commercials that dot the television landscape in Central Florida. Orlando Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker takes a look at several of the local TV ad stars —…
Orlando is test market for new Fran Drescher show
Fran Descher — aka “The Nanny” — is taking baby steps into the talk show world right through Orlando. “The Fran Drescher Tawk Show” premieres Friday at 11 a.m. on WOFL-Fox 35 and five other Fox owned-and-operated stations. It’s a three-week experiment to see if the show generates enough audience to warrant a national rollout,…
Blast from the Past: Channel 6’s Sunday night
Continuing our Blast from the Past series of newspaper ads for Orlando TV stations, today we roll back the clock to 1968. Here’s an advertisement that appeared for CBS’ Sunday night lineup on WDBO-Channel 6. “Channel 6 has the look of a winner,” was the Orlando station’s slogan — and it was likely true that…
WFTV’s sister station adds more news
When Oprah takes her final bow, we know that in Orlando we’ll see Dr. Oz appearing in her place on WFTV. That won’t be the case at Channel 9’s Atlanta sister station, Cox flagship WSB-ABC 2. The Atlanta station announced Tuesday that it will add an hour of news starting at 4 p.m. the day after…
Blast from the Past: WESH’s Cinema 2 ad
In addition to cataloging Orlando TV history, I also collect old newspapers. Lots and lots of old newspapers. And I have many copies of the Orlando Sentinel (or, as it was known for a time, the Sentinel Star). Over the next couple of days, I’ll post different newspaper advertisements from Orlando TV stations. Today’s ad…
Another news channel for Orlando cable TV?
Between lots of travel for business (and some for pleasure), I’m playing catchup with the latest Orlando TV news… Interesting — and unconfirmed — rumor passed on by a tipster: Bright House may be getting ready to add its Tampa Bay news channel, Bay News 9, to its Orlando channel lineup that already includes Central…
WFTV returns to cash giveaway to win ratings
WFTV is reaching into its past to try to secure a ratings win in the November sweep. Today and tomorrow — the last days of the sweep — Channel 9 is offering $5,000 to lucky morning news viewers. The reason? “WFTV is the longtime leader in the 6 a.m. time slot and will win most…
Election Night plans for Orlando’s TV stations
Floridians will select a new governor and a new senator on Tuesday. And Orlando’s TV stations will be following the local results as votes in the off-year election are counted. Here’s what’s the local stations have been advertising for election night … WESH 2: Will air NBC News’ election coverage at 9 p.m., then local…