Florida News Center

(from OrlandoSentinel.com) - Jacqueline London, one of the most recognizable anchors in this market, has left WKMG-Ch. 6 after nearly 14 years at the CBS affiliate.  Her final broadcast at the station was 6 p.m. Thursday.

WKMG General Manager Skip Valet released a statement this morning exclusively to the Orlando Sentinel: “After a lengthy discussion based on this tough economy, WKMG has decided it is not feasible to employ three anchors for our 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.  As part of this decision WKMG and Jacqueline London have decided to part company.”

In an interview with me, London said, “Station management has stressed to me that this decision has nothing to do with my performance and everything to do with the dollar amount of my current contract, particularly given the tough economic climate.”….Cont….

(also from the same story) - Valet also released a statement today that reporter Donald Forbes is no longer working at the station.

The statement reads: “I want to take this opportunity to thank Donald for his contributions to WKMG.  Donald covered NASA for us as part of our bureau in Brevard County and more recently he was part of our investigative team. Donald has many friends here, and we all wish him well.”

(from TampaBay.com) - The ads have run for a while now, touting CBS affiliate WTSP-Ch. 10 as featuring the Tampa market’s most accurate weather forecasts based on an analysis from an “independent company” which “researched every station in town.”

But the company which performed the analysis, Arizona-based WeatheRate, did not include area cable newschannel Bay News 9, which has made its “weather on the nines” forecasts a central part of its programming and brand.

The slight has left some folks at Bay News 9 questioning the accuracy of WTSP’s commercial and WeatheRate’s analyses

“Our research shows Bay News 9 is a preferred station (for viewers) during severe weather,” said Terry Dolan, general manager at the Bright House Networks-owned newschannel. “I’m not sure how you can say (WTSP) was the most accurate in the market, when we weren’t even included.”….Cont….

Our friends at NewsBlues.com report that WTVT meteorologist Andy Johnson was severely beaten outside of a Miami area gay nightclub. He was in Miami attending the 38th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society. The person who assaulted Johnson was arrested at the scene. Stay tuned for further updates.

(from News-Press.com) - The May television ratings period has come and gone and in its wake, one station is rejoicing while another wonders what the heck went wrong.

WBBH NBC2 had a dominating performance in the news ratings, while the numbers fell off a cliff for arch-rival WINK-TV. The numbers are so bizarre that some are crying foul.

NBC2 wins the morning news, WINK wins the noon, NBC2 wins 5, 5:30 and 6 p.m. WINK takes the 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Fox4 is strong at 10 p.m.

On the face of it, those numbers aren’t that remarkable. Sure, NBC2 winning the 5 and 5:30 p.m. news is a little unusual, considering WINK’s news has “The Oprah Winfrey Show” as a lead-in, but all in all, pretty typical.

Things get really strange only when you look at the “demo numbers,” meaning the demographics. These are the numbers that reflect viewers between the ages of 25 and 54. These are the viewers that advertisers target, so if you “win” the demos, you can sell commercial time for more than your competitors. It’s the true measure of who’s “winning” the news battle.

In the demos, NBC2 won or tied in every single newscast where they go head-to-head with WINK. While NBC2’s demo numbers were more or less steady or grew from a year ago, WINK’s fell sharply — down 35 percent at 5 p.m., 39 percent at 5:30 p.m., 32 percent at 6 p.m. and down a whopping 40 percent at 11 p.m….Cont….

On a slow news day, newsroom staff will look for anything to do the pass the time. Thanks to one of the people who help keep up the FNC Forum section of this website, we get to see first hand the fruits of a slow news day at Miami’s WPLG.

WPLG staffers have renamed some of the on air talent, using Internet Name Generators for different generes (example: porn star names, Star Wars names, Hip-hop names, fairy names…etc…). I was a little surprised that WPLG published some of these items, as they deal with adult subjects (ie: Jeff Weinsier – porno name) and mock religious groups (ie: John Guaraldi the Mormon Church). Yours truly HAS a sense of humor, but realizes that we live in an easily offended world.

Below are some notable examples of renamed anchors c/o WPLG.com.  Click here for the full list!

JEFF WEINSIER (left) – “If Jeff ever decides to move into the Adult Film business, he’ll be given the name REGINALD BLUE”

JOHN GUARALDI (right) – “If John ever needed a Mormon name it would be JENOHN GARALENE”

WILL MANSO (left) – “Picture Will as a Smurf . He won’t be feeling blue with a name like “CUDDLY SMURF.”

BEN KENNEDY (right) – “Do you know about Ben’s darkside? His goth name would be BLUDY OBSES.”

On last nights 5pm newscast, anchor Linda Hurtado announced that fellow lead anchor Wendy Ryan is six months pregnant. Read on and watch video below…

(from WFTS.com) – If you’re a mom-to-be who can’t wait to know, there’s a new inexpensive test on the market that claims it can tell you the sex of your baby as early as 8 weeks- earlier than most sonograms at your doctor’s office but does it work? I recruited some friends of mine to test it out.

You may recognize one of them. Wendy Ryan has been keeping a little secret — she’s six month’s pregnant with her first child.

Most of you who watch Wendy anchor the news at 6 and 11 probably haven’t seen this side of her: the bubbly, vivacious, fun – getting giddy over the idea of having a boy or girl….Cont….

(from OrlandoSentinel.com) - Although he has a major role in the headline-making Casey Anthony case, Judge Belvin Perry revealed today that he doesn’t watch TV news. 

He isn’t alone. During May, Central Florida’s four 6 o’clock weeknight newscasts were seen in an average 17 percent of the market’s homes. Even more startling: The broadcasts reached only 5.3 percent of the 25-to-54 age group, the one most sought by advertisers.

At 11 weeknights in May, the newscasts averaged 16 percent of households, yet drew only 7.2 percent of the 25-to-54 age group.

Those numbers may be meager, but local TV executives champion their business with several explanations, including changing technology, new methods of measuring viewership and even the weather.

WFTV-Channel 9 General Manager Shawn Bartelt says figures for earlier newscasts need to be added to the 6 p.m. numbers to give a more accurate picture, because viewers don’t watch news nonstop.

“You just can’t look at 6 o’clock, because people tuned at 5, 5:30,” she said. “Some people were watching the 4 p.m. news.”….Cont….

(from TVNewsCheck.com) - Sunbeam’s Fox affiliate WSVN Miami (DMA 17), is adding two weekend newscasts this summer. Beginning July 11, it will debut a 30-minute newscast on Saturday and Sunday at 6:30 p.m., following its current 7 News at 6 P.M.

With this expansion, WSVN will be producing more than 58 hours of live news and local programming each week.

The weekend edition of 7 News at 6:30 P.M. will be anchored by Reed Cowan and Robbin Simmons.    (full story)

(from TampaBay.com) – Former WTSP-Ch. 10 anchor Jennifer Howe says she was not drunk when police arrested her last Tuesday on disorderly intoxication charges, disputing the allegations that she may have vandalized her neighbors property.

Howe, 44, said she was sitting on her front porch June 15 when two police officers approached her, accused her of being drunk and disorderly and accused her of vandalizing her neighbor’s home. The former newswoman said police refused to perform a Breathalyzer test that she requested to prove she wasn’t drunk.

The incident report filed by the St. Petersburg Police said that Howe attempted to walk away from officers while they were trying to question her about plants uprooted at a neighbor’s house, yelling curse words and unintelligible statements with slurred speech….Cont….

Our friends at NewsBlues.com report that WCTV news director Mike Smith has been promoted to general manager at Gray Televison sister station, WTVY (Dothan, AL). Smith has been with the Tallahassee station for the past twenty years. So far there’s no word on who will replace Smith as News Director at WCTV. Stay tuned…