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

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.

Share on Social Media
xfacebookredditemail
Orlando TV

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Related Posts

Going Out of the Biz, and Going Out of Town …

March 30, 2006

WESH Sunrise reporter Shannon FitzPatrick signed off Wednesday morning. She’s leaving the TV biz to pursue a career in real estate and marketing. (I’d like to have a dollar for every TV person who has gone into real estate, but I digress.) FitzPatrick started at WESH in 1998 and moved…

Read More

Here’s A Cool Cat: Original Channel 9 logo found

July 31, 2002

  July 31 — Thanks to an exhibit at the Orange County Historical Museum, the unique original logo for WFTV-Channel 9, the former WLOF, has been uncovered. When the station went on the air on Feb. 1, 1958, its "9" logo was created by a cat’s tail. Check out a…

Read More

Orlando TV news pioneer Frank Vaught, 81, dies

December 4, 2011

Frank Vaught, an Orlando TV news pioneer who began broadcasting here in 1958, has passed way. Vaught, 81, died Nov. 29 of complications related to esophageal cancer. Vaught is likely remembered mostly for his sports reporting — which he did at WDBO-Channel 6 and later on radio stations WKIS-740 AM and…

Read More

Latest Posts

  • Well-traveled Bobolinks stop over for visit
  • Remembering the launch of Artemis II
  • Summertime birds across Central Florida
  • 3 different Florida owls, 3 different locations
  • Could drought be driving Snail Kites to Central Florida?

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 Flamingo American Kestrel Anhinga Bald Eagles Barn Swallow Barred Owl Belted Kingfisher Black-and-White Warbler Black-Crowned Night-Heron Caspian Tern Common Gallinule Common Yellowthroat Digital TV Eastern Bluebird Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green Heron Limpkin Little Blue Heron Northern Cardinal Northern Parula Orlando Wetlands Park Osprey Palm Warbler Prairie Warbler Purple Gallinule Red-bellied Woodpecker Red-shouldered Hawk Red-Winged Blackbird Reddish Egret Roseate Spoonbills Sandhill Crane Savannah Sparrow Snail Kite Snowy Egret Tricolored Heron WESH-2 WFTV-9 White Ibis WKCF-18 WKMG-6 WOFL-35 Wood Stork WRDQ-27 Yellow-rumped Warbler

©2025 Roger Simmons | All Rights Reserved