With Sonni Abatta’s arrival as the new evening anchor for WOFL, you might have been wondering what will happen to Amy Kaufeldt. Fear not, Amy fans. Napoli Management says the station has re-upped Kaufeldt, and she will be heading back to mornings — where she started at Fox 35 before…
WKMG’s Tom Sorrells and ‘the most important story I’ve ever done’
WKMG is living up to its “Local” 6 moniker Wednesday night, taking an hour of prime time to focus on something that impacts Central Floridians nearly every day: Lightning. “Lightning Strikes,” which airs at 8 p.m., is a program that looks how we cope with living in one of the world’s lightning…
New reporter for WFTV; departure for Fox 35
Some comings and goings in O-Town TV news: Emily Turner is joining WFTV-Channel 9 as a general assignment reporter, beginning in September. Turner is currently at WPMI-NBC 15 in Mobile. She’s originally from Jacksonville, and she attended the University of Florida. WOFL morning traffic reporter and weather guy Cris Martinez is leaving Fox…
WESH anchors keep rolling in Celebrity Smackdown game
The WESH duo of Jim Payne and Martha Sugalski dispatched WKMG’s main anchors to move into the third round of OrlandoSentinel.com’s Celebrity Smackdown game. Also advancing to face the Channel 2 Cinderellas — the anchors of WFTV’s top-rated Daybreak show, Greg Warmoth and Vanessa Echols. Earlier, Payne and Sugalski upset…
Whoa! Something’s changed about RogerSimmons.com
If you’re a regular visitor to RogerSimmons.com, you may notice things are a little different. In a good news-bad news situation, traffic to RogerSimmons.com has been great — so great that the site was putting too much of a load on my Web host. I was told I needed to…
One small step for man, one giant ratings leap for Channel 9
WFTV’s Monday night special, recalling the Apollo moon landing 40 years ago, proved very popluar. According to WFTV news director Bob Jordan, the space special drew a 3.7 rating and 14 share in the coveted 25-54 demo. “That’s more than ANY newscast Tuesday on WESH, WKMG or WOFL. Kudos to…
WESH duo move on; Can Mainolfi knock off Terry?
WESH’s Jim Payne and Martha Sugalski knocked off top-rated WFTV anchors Bob Opsahl and Martie Salt. Not in the Nielsens, but in the first round of the Orlando Sentinel’s Celebrity Smackdown game. Payne and Sugalski scored a first-round upset over the Channel 9 duo in voting on OrlandoSentinel.com. Payne and…
Man suspected of shooting officer confesses to WFTV
You probably saw or read coverage about the massive manhunt in Brevard County for Christopher Eddy. He was accused of shooting a wildlife officer. The prosecutor’s job in the case got a lot easier after Eddy confessed … on camera to WFTV-Channel 9. “Why did I shoot the person? Because I…
Orlando Police ask WFTV for correction
The Orlando Police Department is taking WFTV-Channel 9 to task for a mistake it says aired on Eyewitness News on Friday. Police spokeswoman Sgt. Barb Jones sent an email to all Orlando media on Monday morning requesting WFTV correct the mistake. Here’s the text of Jones’ rather extraordinary email: “The…
Remembering legendary journalist Walter Cronkite and his Central Florida ties
Walter Cronkite passed away Friday night. I never met him — and although he never knew it, he had a big impact on my life. Growing up as a kid in Miami, our TV was tuned every weeknight to Walter and the CBS Evening News. Seeing him report on big stories from all…