So much for keeping the audience that was glued to Orlando TV news stations during the Casey Anthony trial. In the just completed September ratings period, most of the O-Town stations saw year-over-year declines in household and demo numbers for nearly every newscast. One of the few bright spots was…
Tag: WFTV-9
Recent RogerSimmons.com Orlando TV News reports involving WFTV-Channel 9, the ABC affiliate for Central Florida. The station calls its newscasts Eyewitness News. Channel 9’s original call letters were WLOF (We Love Orlando Florida).
While No. 1 in our hearts, Orlando is still No. 19 with Nielsen
Some quick takes on Orlando TV news before the holiday weekend … The Nielsen market rankings for the 2011-2012 TV season have been released, and Orlando remained No. 19 in the nation. Nielsen estimated the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne market grew from 1,453,120 TV homes in 2010 to 1,465,460 this year. We continue…
Orlando TV news history chronicled in new galleries
Bob Jordan never looked so young. Same with Danny Treanor. And remember Dave Walker from CNN’s early days? Before he went to cable, he was on the anchor desk at WESH-Channel 2, reporting “Newscope” each evening. Those are just a few of the many images you can view in three…
Hurricane Irene: Orlando TV’s connection
A couple of notes from a weekend of TV news dominated by Hurricane Irene… HLN spent Saturday showing coverage from affiliate stations along the East Coast, including Norfolk’s WAVY-NBC 10. On the desk there was former WESH 2 anchor Tom Schaad — a veteran of Orlando’s hurricane-filled season of 2004….
Blast from the past: Channel 9 news ad from 1969
Blast from the Past focuses today on WFTV-Channel 9 and ABC. This ad is from February 1969, promoting the ratings-challenged news on ABC and Channel 9. Frank Reynolds was the anchor of the “ABC Evening News.” Ray Reuster — who would later have a long career with the Daytona Beach…
Blast from the past: WDBO-6 ad from 1975
Blast from the Past continues with a bit of history in this classic advertisment. The date was June 14, 1973. You would think having an embattled President Richard Nixon in town give the commencement address at UCF (then known as Florida Technological University) would be the top story on Orlando TV,…
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…
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: ‘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…