WKMG Channel 6 is dropping longtime sports anchor David Pingalore, reports Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel.
“His contract is up,” news director Allison McGinley told Boedeker. “His final newscast will be at 6 p.m. Friday.”
“Ping,” as he is popularly known, arrived in Orlando 10 years ago from Cleveland, changing the traditional sports report at Channel 6.
He was less about giving scores and stats and more about entertaining, including sports trivia quizzes with his anchors, answering letters and emails from viewers and rapid-fire questions with sports figures in a segment he called “Ping Pong.” He was also notorious for bold breaking sports news predictions, some of which actually did come true.
Ping also had become a regular guest several times a week on Sentinel sports columnist Mike Bianchi’s “Open Mike” morning radio show on 96.9 FM. In an interesting coincidence, Bianchi had sponsor Lee Goldberg — a former Channel 6 sports anchor himself — on Thursday during a segment with Ping, and Goldberg praised Pingalore for his sportscast style and delivery.
According to Boedeker, Channel 6 is promoting weekend sports anchor Jamie Seh to sports director. Seh has been with WKMG for six and a half years.