Just a few short weeks ago, Orlando TV viewers were given the chance to view one of the newest “diginets” — Memorable Entertainment Television, or Me-TV for short. Me-TV, which replaced WeatherPlus on WESH’s 2.2 digital subchannel, offers classic sitcoms and dramas from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. I had seen Me-TV previously in…
Month: July 2011
Oh, Oprah! WESH pulls ahead of WFTV at 5 p.m.
The folks at WFTV are missing Oprah right now. In the just completed July ratings, WESH 2 News finished ahead of Channel 9’s Eyewitness News at 5 p.m. in the 25-54 demo. For years, WFTV’s 5 o’clock news benefited from following the Oprah Winfrey Show. But Oprah’s show is over — and so is the Casey…
Heidi Hatch, Todd Romero, Laura Diaz find new roles
Yes, Virginia — there really is life after Orlando TV, and here are some examples to prove it. Former Fox 35 morning anchor Heidi Hatch, who left the station in June, has landed at Salt Lake City’s KUTV. She’ll be anchoring a new 4 p.m. newscast at the CBS affiliate — with “Utah’s only all-female…
Blast from the Past: WESH 2 logo from 1965
Thanks to the online archives of the Daytona Beach Morning Journal, we’ve discovered another Orlando TV station logo from long ago. Here’s one for then-Daytona Beach based WESH-2. This logo from 1965 touts the station as “Florida’s Channel 2” and incorporates the NBC “snake” logo. Based on our research, the station used this logo for…
Blast from the past: WOFL ad from 1979
WOFL is now quite the ratings force locally, thanks in large part to Fox. But back in 1979, WOFL was just trying to survive. Orlando’s original “independent” station, WSWB-Channel 35, signed on in 1974 but ran into money troubles and went dark just three years later. A new ownership group returned Channel 35 to the…
Blast from the past: WESH ad from 1968
We’re climbing into the Wayback Machine again today, taking a look at an old newspaper ad from WESH-Channel 2. Back in the late 1960s, NBC was riding high with programs like Laugh-In, Bonanza and Julia. In Orlando, WESH 2 News was then known as Newscope. Here’s an ad from November 1969 showing some of the…
Blast from the past: Channel 6 ad from 1969
Orlando’s CBS station is known today at WKMG-Local 6. But 40 years ago, it was just WDBO-TV Channel 6. And the station’s newscast was known as “Newsbeat.” Here’s a newspaper advertisement from November 1969 promoting some of the shows on Channel 6 during the day — including a double dose of Truth or Consequences.
Blast from the past: ‘Eyewitness’ ad from 1971
It’s hard to believe today after more than 30 years of local dominance, but WFTV-Channel 9 used to be the least-watched station for Orlando TV news. Here’s a newspaper ad from that era — when “Eyewitness News” was just called “Eyewitness.” This advertisement from November 1971 shows that WFTV was trying — it had expanded…
Orlando TV news covers final space shuttle launch
The final launch of the space shuttle on Friday capped what arguably has been one of the busiest news weeks ever for Orlando TV news. Like the shuttle program, the Casey Anthony story is starting to wind down. But if the launch of Atlantis was any indication, some of the local TV innovations from the…
Casey Anthony trial: Orlando TV news coverage dissected
Broadcasting & Cable offers a report on how Orlando TV news covered the Casey Anthony trial. There’s nothing you probably didn’t already know, but it does give you an outsider’s perspective on the wall-to-wall coverage that has dominated the O-Town airways. But here’s one news nugget: By some estimates, 60% of the TVs in DMA…