Former longtime Orlando anchor Steve Rondinaro has a new assignment: finding a job. Rondinaro, the former WESH and WFTV anchor who in 2007 became the lead anchor and managing editor for WWAY-ABC 3 in Wilmington, N.C., was dropped by the station earlier this month. “By now you may have noticed that…
Sam Champion’s underwater forecast at Epcot
We told you yesterday about Good Morning America weatherman Sam Champion’s plans to give his forecast underwater at Epcot for Earth Day. And that’s just what he did. It’s one part cool, one part distracting. Until you have to listen to someone giving a weather forecast in scuba suit, you…
GMA’s Sam Champion at Epcot for Earth Day
Good Morning America’s Sam Champion was Tweeting Wednesday about his arrival in Orlando and visit to Walt Disney World’s Epcot. The ABC News morning weatherman is at the theme park for Earth Day, and he’s taking a dive in the Living Seas exhibit. (That’s a Twitpic he posted Wednesday afternoon.)…
Fox 35 also adds 4:30 a.m. newscast
Just two weeks after WESH 2 launched the first 4:30 a.m. newscast in Orlando, it already has some early, early morning competition. With little fanfare, WOFL-Fox 35 has expanded its morning newscast, now starting at 4:30 a.m. too. The Fox O&O now produces FIVE-AND-A-HALF hours of local news each morning….
Switching channels: New faces on TV
Some new and familiar faces in new places on TV … Nancy Alvarez, former member of the Problem Solvers investigations unit at WKMG-Local 6, is returning to Central Florida. She’s the new weekend anchor at WFTV, according to Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker. She left Local 6 in 2007 to…
WKMG’s summit and other news to note
Here’s the latest Orlando TV News … WKMG’s much-discussed mandatory “newsroom summit” is now history … but what happened? According to some folks who were there, it wasn’t nearly as draconian as anticipated. “It was a lot of uproar over nothing,” a Local 6 staffer told the Orlando Sentinel. “It was…
Wonder why Bob Opsahl never left Orlando?
WFTV Eyewitness News anchorman Bob Ospahl opens up about his long career in Orlando in an interview with Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker. For example, has Opsahl ever considered leaving Channel 9 and Orlando for a job in a larger market? Said Opsahl, “Like most folks in TV news, I…
40 years ago today: Apollo 13 video
Central Florida has always paid special attention to the space program, which is to be expected considering all of the NASA workers within the region. This year marks the 40th anniversary of one of the space program’s “highlights” — the safe return of the Apollo 13 astronauts after an accident…
WKMG’s Steve Hyvonen makes MSNBC’s worst list
If you watch MSNBC, no doubt you’re familiar with Keith Obermann’s “Countdown” show. And one of its big features is the “Worst Person in the World” segment. Olbermann put WKMG-Channel 6 news director Steve Hyvonen on his list of “Worst Person in the World” for Local 6’s upcoming newsroom summit. Ouch….
No retirement plans yet for WFTV’s Bob Opsahl
There’s been a lot of speculation about vetran anchor Bob Opsahl’s future at WFTV. News director Bob Jordan has hinted at pending retirement for his star newsman, and that talk ramped up after new weekend anchor Josh Benson was hired. Well, what about Bob? He set the record straight on…