Florida News Center

(from WFLA.com) – Just four days after WFLA-TV announced the addition of meteorologist Bryan Bennett, the WFLA-TV Storm Team is expanding again.

Thursday, news director Don North announced that Julie Phillips will be joining the Storm Team, starting June 10th.

Phillips is currently the morning meteorologist at KTXS in Abilene, Texas, where she has worked for three years.

She is a graduate of the University of Miami, where she majored in meteorology and broadcast journalism….Cont….

(from WFLA.com) -You will soon see a new face on News Channel 8.

Bryan Bennett has been hired to fill the weekend morning meteorologist position vacated by Megan Hatton. Bryan most recently was the Executive Weather Producer and Chief Meteorologist at WCBS TV in New York. He also managed weather graphics content for fourteen CBS owned and operated stations. Bryan was also a weather producer for WSB-TV in Atlanta for 5 years.

Bryan has a degree in Science, Earth and Atmospheric Science from Georgia Tech.

Bryan’s first day on the air will be Saturday, May 25, at 9 a.m. and Noon. (from WFLA.com)

(from TBO.com) – Joe Mannion, an award-winning newsman who started as a reporter with WFLA News Channel 8 in the mid-1960s and became news director of the station in 1979, died Sunday night after a long illness. He was 78.

“Five years ago, he was diagnosed with renal cancer,” said his 40-year-old son, John, who lives in Safety Harbor. “He carried on from there, but he was ailing.”

Mannion still managed to golf a few days a week at the Dunedin Country Club. He was an avid fan of the Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and followed Notre Dame closely, his son said….Cont….

(from TampaBay.com) – Weekend morning meteorologist Megan Hatton will leave her job at Tampa NBC affialite WFLA-Ch. 8 in three weeks, departing the same month fellow forecaster Brooks Garner is also to leave the station.

And like Garner, Hatton is also headed for Houston, Texas. But she is leaving town to join her husband, who works as a newscast director at KTRK-TV, the ABC affiliate owned and operated by the network.

Hatton has no job lined up in Houston. She told fans on Twitter Tuesday her last day is April 3 at WFLA, where she began her first on air meteorology job in 2007….Cont….

WFLA meteorologist Brooks Garner announced on Facebook today that he will be leaving the Tampa station. Garner will join the weather department at Houston’s KHOU-TV.

Garner joined WFLA in March of 2010 from Columbia, SC’s WIS-TV. He joined the station to replace Leigh Spann, who moved to the weekday morning shift.

So far there is no word on who will fill the void left by Garner. Our eyes and ears here at Florida News Center are wide open – CONTACT US! Stay tuned for further information.

(from TampaBay.com) – Once upon a time, local NBC station WFLA-Ch. 8 and Fox affiliate WTVT-Ch. 13 duked it out for supremacy in local TV ratings, with the Fox-owned station slowly growing more dominant as NBC’s ratings woes multiplied.

But February’s “sweeps” ratings period confirmed a transition which hit home in November, as ABC affiliate WFTS-Ch. 28 has risen to compete with WTVT among key viewers aged 25 to 54, winning early evening and late night news time periods.

Last month, Fox 13 ruled the mornings, with the advantage tipping to ABC Action News in early evening and at 11 p.m. Fox also won at 4 p.m. and in prime time, due to the strength of Judge Judy and American Idol….Cont….

(from MediaLifeMagazine.com) - As a large market in a swing state, Tampa’s media economy enjoyed a strong 2012 boosted heavily by political ad spending. First-quarter spending was especially strong last year because of the early Florida primary.

And so, like many other cities with strong election spending last year, this post-election year has started more slowly for Tampa.

Still, buyers say spending will begin to pick up in March and last through at least early summer. Media people hoping to get their clients on the air during those months should move quickly.

Demand and pricing on Tampa TV are down slightly so far in 2013, which was expected….Cont….

(edited from TVSpy.com) – Former “Extra” correspondent, Jerry Penacoli has been named co-host of “Daytime,” WFLA‘s nationally syndicated show.

“I am very pleased to announce the addition of Jerry Penacoli to ‘Daytime,’ ” WFLA president and general manager Brad Moses said in a statement. “Our long standing relationship with ‘Extra’ and his frequent visits to guest host made him a staff and viewer favorite.”….Cont….

(from TampaBay.com) – Bright House Networks customers got a welcome New Year’s present Monday, as the company announced a last-minute deal with Media General to keep the Virginia-based media chain’s TV stations on its system, including Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA-Ch. 8.

But the deal, reportedly reached an hour before the midnight deadline on New Year’s Eve, follows the pattern of several recent conflicts between cable and satellite companies and broadcasters. (considering that Bright House has more than a million households in its system in the Tampa Bay area, NBC’s affiliate disappearing from the system would have hurt everyone from NBC Universal to viewers without access to other systems or a broadcast antenna….Cont….

TV viewers are once again subjected to retransmission fights between a local station (and its owner) and a television provider. This time Tampa’s WFLA-TV (Media General) and BrightHouse Networks cable are in negotiations for a new signal transmission agreement. If WFLA and Bright House do not come to an agreement before January 1, 2013, the station will be pulled from local cable line-ups.

Of course this grand standing is nothing new to television and is usually always resolved from signals are pulled. However, WFLA is not taking any chances and has been encouraging its viewers to switch to other providers, via segments in every newscast, crawls on the top and bottom of national simulcasts and via a special website (www.DONTDROPWFLA.com). Stay tuned….