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Roger Simmons
Roger Simmons

Birds, Words, Pics + TV

Changes afoot at Bright House’s News 13

Roger Simmons, January 5, 2011

Wow — I need to go buy a lottery ticket.

Just a day after I made my 2011 predictions for the Orlando TV market — looks like one has come true — and another may be about to.

I received this communication Tuesday afternoon: “CFN13 just laid off news director Sean McNamara.  The general manager, Robin Smythe, announced the news in an e-mail sent [around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday], but did not give a reason.”

NewsBlues.com, meanwhile, reports “Elliott Wiser, the Bright House VP who oversees CFN13 and sister-station Bay News 9 in Tampa (Market #14), has scheduled an attendance-mandatory all-hands-on-deck staff meeting in both newsrooms today. Rumors of news-sharing swirl. The two news operations, reaching an estimated 3.3 million households, are separated by just 85 miles of crowded interstate, and their coverage areas are bumping shoulders. Both news operations have become powerful forces in their respective markets, particularly in the morning and when severe weather threatens.”

Stay tuned.

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