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

Do WESH, Payne have WFTV to thank for Obama interview?

Roger Simmons, October 2, 2011

Catching up with the latest Orlando TV news …

WESH 2’s Jim Payne was among several local anchors invited to the White House last week to interview President Obama — who was pushing his jobs plan. But why WESH instead of market-leader WFTV-Channel 9? I’m guessing the Obama team still hasn’t forgotten Barbara West’s satellite interview with Joe Biden during the 2008 campaign. …

Speaking of WESH, Steve Rifkin was named creative services director for Hearst Television’s Orlando properties, which include WESH, WKCF, MeTV, ThisTV, Estrella TV, WESH.com and CW18tv.com. Read more here. …

WFTV.com has undergone a makeover, and it is featuring more national and world news on its home page. The site has been asking its registered users to re-register. WFTV.com and WESH.com usually are pretty close in the ComScore rankings of local websites — leading the Orlando TV stations but still pretty far behind local leader OrlandoSentinel.com in market share. …

Saturday marked the 40th anniversary of the opening of Walt Disney World. And unless I missed it, I didn’t see any Orlando stations showing their footage from opening day in 1971. I hope they kept that film — since it was a pretty historic day for all of us. But I suspect like many old news films, it’s probably disappeared. Too bad.

Share on Social Media
x facebook reddit email
Orlando TV WESH-2WFTV-9

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Related Posts

Cleveland anchor is 6’s new sports director

April 6, 2007

David Pingalore, weekend sports anchor at Cleveland’s WOIO-CBS 19, has been hired as the new sports director at WKMG-Local 6. Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker reports that Pingalore will join the station in late April. Boedeker wrote: "David is a creative, aggressive and original sportscaster with a distinctive personality," news…

Read More
Orlando TV

Happy birthdays to Channel 6, WUCF-TV

July 1, 2011

Today is a historic day for Orlando TV for two important reasons, with something old and something new. First, it was on this day 57 years ago that television began in Orlando. WDBO-Channel 6 started broadcasting, airing shows from CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont. It would be the area’s only…

Read More
Orlando TV

‘Batman’ Adam West dies at 88, had huge impact on ABC, WFTV-Channel 9

June 10, 2017

Adam West, the  caped crusader “Batman”  who helped change the ratings fortunes of ABC and WFTV-Channel 9 in the mid-1960s, died Friday night at age 88.  West is best known as TV’s “Batman,” and the show’s three-season run made a huge impact across the nation and here in Central Florida on Channel 9

Read More

Latest Posts

  • Merritt Island birds back in May
  • Barn Swallows return to Lake Apopka for summer
  • Black-neck Stilts bring babies, summer fun
  • Important anniversary for Indian River flamingos
  • Enjoying a quiet morning at Orlando Wetlands

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 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Common Gallinule Common Yellowthroat Digital TV Eastern Bluebird Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green Heron Limpkin Little Blue Heron Northern Cardinal Northern Mockingbird 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