Florida News Center

(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….

(from TampaBay.com) - Bright House Networks’ local cable newschannel Bay News 9 has won a national Edward R. Murrow Award as best website among large market TV stations, beating rivals in Florida and across the nation.

Among all the local news operations across the country honored with Murrows this year, Bay News 9 was the only Florida outlet. NBC News earned the most among the biggest outlets, with five awards.

The Radio and Television Digital News Association announced the Murrow winners today, honoring 59 news organizations with 89 awards. This year, the award honored audio and video created solely for online outlets for the first time, recognizing the increasing impact online news efforts have on the world’s overall news mix….Cont….

(photo/story from TampaBay.com) – Even while she was leading newscasts at Bay News 9, Leigh Moody was developing a track record as a self-described “crazy cat lady.”

But four months after being fired from Bright House Networks’ 24-hour cable newschannel, Moody has turned her extracurricular passion into a new job — as a social media consultant for the SPCA Tampa Bay, the local branch of the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

While at Bay News 9, Moody kept an unnamed blog where she talked a lot about her five cats, along with Twitter and Facebook pages (she eventually shuttered a personal Twitter page in favor of using the company’s official platforms). All the social media work she did at the newschannel developed skills allowing her to supervise the SPCA’s three Facebook pages and her relaunched blog, now called Leigh Moody’s Animal Blog.

(from BayNews9.com) - Bright House Networks today announced that it will carry Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins games in Spanish in the Tampa and Orlando markets, starting with Tuesday’s Rays home opener against Baltimore.

Fox Sports Networks will produce the games in Spanish and transmit the programming to local Bright House Networks systems.

The games will be carried on Bay News 9 en espanol in Tampa and News 13 en espanol in Central Florida.

“Bright House Networks is excited to add Major League Baseball to our award-winning Spanish language news channels. There’s nothing like getting your news, weather, and baseball all in one place,” said Elliott Wiser, Corporate VP, Local Programming…Cont…

(from TampaBay.com) – Click here for the story…

This afternoon, I noticed that Bill Murphy was anchoring in place of Al Ruechel on Bay News 9’s midday loop. Murphy joined the 24hr cable news station in July, to start a series for BN9 and Bright House on Demand called “Murphy’s Hot Spots.”