Central Florida News 13 announced Monday that Orlando TV news veteran Marla Weech is now the anchor for Your Morning News. Weech, who has been on Orlando TV since the 1980s on channels 6 and 9, joined News 13 earlier this year. “I can’t think of a better person than…
Blast from the past: WFTV ad from 1981
Our summertime series, Blast from the Past, continues with this ad for the Eyewitness News team that first boosted Channel 9 to news dominance in Central Florida. Here you see the promotion for the 5:30 p.m. newscast with anchors Bob Opsahl and Carole Nelson, and then the 6 o’clock team…
WESH’s Me-TV part of diginet expansion
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…
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 —…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…