Florida News Center

(from TVNewsCheck.com) – Cox Media Group (CMG) announced Monday that it had closed on its purchase of four stations in two markets from Newport Television. The sale was part of some $1 billion in station sales announced in July by Newport, owned by Providence Equity Partners.

CMG has added to its portfolio Fox affiliate WAWS and the operations of CBS affiliate WTEV Jacksonville, Fla. (DMA 50), and Fox affiliate KOKI and MNT outlet KMYT Tulsa, Okla. (DMA 59).

CMG paid $235 million to Newport and assigned to Bayshore Television LLC, headed by veteran broadcaster Bruce Baker, the right to buy certain assets of WTEV, including the FCC license, for $18,011,058. CMG will provide services to WTEV, which Bayshore has acquired from High Plains Broadcasting, continuing a relationship in Jacksonville which had existed between Newport and High Plains…..Cont…..

(from MediaMoves.com) – Lorena Inclán spent her Thanksgiving holiday packing and moving from Orlando to Jacksonville, where she’s starting a new job at duopoly WTEV/WAWS, the CBS and FOX affiliates.

Wednesday is Lorena’s first day as a general assignment reporter for “Action News Jax.”

Lorena was most recently a multimedia journalist at WVEN-26, Noticias Univision Florida Central in Orlando, where she was hired a little more than a year ago. Her last day at Univision Orlando was Nov. 20th….Cont….

(edited from WTEV.com) - Lynnsey Gardner has joined Jacksonville duopoly WTEV/WAWS as weekday morning anchor. She anchors solo from 4:30 – 7am and then shares the desk with Mike Barz from 7-9am.

Gardner comes from WRDW-TV in Augusta, GA where she was anchor at the station for six years.

After moving all across the south her entire life, Lynnsey knows that Jacksonville is the perfect city for this southern girl to continue her career. Born in Texas and raised in Alabama, and mostly in Georgia, Lynnsey is a proud summa cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia….Cont….

(edited from TVNewsCheck.com) – Confirming a Wall Street Journal story yesterday, Newport Television today announced that it is selling 22 of its 27 full-power stations to three buyers — Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. and Cox Media Group — for a total of approximately $1 billion.

Providence Equity Partners, the private equity firm that owns Newport, announced last March it was looking to unload the station group. It bought the stations from Clear Channel Communications in 2007 for just over $1.1 billion

Cox Media Group comes out with four stations in two markets, including Jacksonville’s WTEV-TV and WAWS-TV, for an undisclosed price.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is getting six stations in five markets, including Mobile/Pensacola’s WPMI-TV and WJTC-TV, for $412.5 million….Cont….

Florida News Center readers in Jacksonville tell us that WTEV/WAWS morning anchor Tera Barz is getting a promotion. She has moved to the evening and late shifts, to anchor WTEV’s news at 5:30pm and WAWS’s news at 10pm.

Although Barz replaces lead anchor Paige Kelton at 5:30 and 10, Kelton will still anchor the newscasts at 5, 6 and 11pm.

So far there is no word on who will replace Barz on the AM show. Stay tuned for further information.

The new intros are already on the air. Check them out below…

Viewers watching severe weather coverage on Jacksonville’s WTEV/WAWS saw the dangers of driving on flooded streets, first hand. A car that was attempting to turn into the television station, missed the flooded drive way and drove into a drainage canal the runs along the side of the WTEV/WAWS studios. That canal had filled with enough water to completely submerge the car. The station sent a crew outside, just in time to catch the car sink live on the air. The driver was not injured was able to get out of the car.

Check out the video below!

(from WJXT.com) - In morning news, Channel 4 at 5 a.m. is No. 1 in the time period with a 3.1 household rating beating WTLV (2.4 HH rating). Channel 4 at 6 a.m. is up 30 percent year-to-year as the only station in the market with growth in the time period, and is No. 1 in household ratings in the 6-7a a.m. time period, garnering a 6.0 household rating and an 18 share (compared to WTLV 4.3 RTG/13 SHR and WTEV 1.2 RTG/4 SHR).

The Morning Show (7-9 a.m.), anchored by Staci Spanos, Bruce Hamilton and Richard Nunn, is No. 1 in the time period with a 6.1 HH rating and a 17 share beating out all other newscasts including the national broadcasts of NBC’s Today Show on WTLV (4.2 RTG/12 SHR) and ABC’s Good Morning America on WJXX (1.3 RTG/4 SHR). This marks the 11th straight month of wins in the 7-9 a.m. time period….Cont….

(edited from ActionNewsJax.com) – Jamie Smith has joined WTEV/WAWS from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he reported seven years for KYW-TV CBS 3. He also enjoyed career stints in Erie, Pennsylvania, Eureka, California and New York. Jamie’s love of journalism was born while growing up on Long Island. He credits his parents with teaching him how and why digging for answers is so important.

“I’ve always tried to utilize those lessons,” Jamie says, “to get answers for people in order to inform them and hopefully even enrich their lives.”

Jamie is an alumnus of American University in Washington, DC where he studied broadcast journalism and political science….Cont….

***NOTE – This story is from WJXT, praising its win in all but one local news time period. – NOTE***

(from WJXT.com) - In the morning, Channel 4 News at 5 a.m. is No. 1 is in the time period across all key demographics, beating the competition by triple digits. Channel 4 News at 6 a.m. is No. 1, garnering a 4.7 rating and 30 share in the 25 to 54 demographic, compared to WTLV’s 2.9 rating/19 share and WTEV’s 0.5 rating/3 share.  Among women 25-54, WJXT had a 5.1 rating and 32 share, compared to WTLV’s 3.2 rating/20 share and WTEV’s 0.7 rating/4 share.

The Morning Show (7-9am), anchored by Staci Spanos, Bruce Hamilton and Richard Nunn, is No. 1 in the time period, with a 3.3 rating and a 24 share among viewers 25-54.  That beats all other newscasts, including the national broadcasts of NBC’s Today Show on WTLV (2.5 rating/19 share) and ABC’s Good Morning America on WJXX (0.7 rating/5 share). The Morning Show is also No. 1 with women, with a 4.2 rating and a 27 share, compared to WTLV with a 3.1 rating/20 share and WTEV’s 0.8 rating/5 share….Cont….

(edited from RBR.com) – Providence Equity Partners formed Newport Television LLC and acquired radio giant Clear Channel’s television assets about four years ago for a bit more than $1B, and now it’s said to be exploring its options for the group (including Jacksonville’s WTEV/WAWS and Mobile’s WPMI/WJTV). Prominent among those options is selling it.

The group, guided by Sandy DiPasquale, consists of 56 stations in 20 markets. In the mix are affiliates of a full menu of national networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW, MyNetwork and Telemundo. The group operates numerous digital multicasts, and also has SSAs with various stations which are under separate ownership. The possible sale was noted in a Reuters report.

According to the group’s 2008 release describing its transaction with Clear Channel, it paid $1.012B for the group, including $260M in equity….Cont….