Florida News Center

(from WJHG.com) – Richard Nixon was Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year.” “Dirty Dozen” was number one at the box office. And a young news anchor splashed on the scene at NewsChannel Seven.

43 years later Joe Moore has decided to trade in the suit and tie for shorts and a t-shirt.

As we say “Happy Retirement” to Joe, we look back on the last four decades of changes–not only in the news business but Joe himself.

If anyone knows what’s going on around town, it’s Joe Moore. Each afternoon and evening you can catch him sharing that knowledge with tens of thousands of people who tune into NewsChannel Seven for the days’ events. Something he’s done for 43 years….Cont….

(from WJHG.com) – Donna Bell is leaving the morning show to take on her new role as News Director.

Donna Bell joined WJHG 20 years ago, and has spent 13 years on NewsChannel 7 Today.

But she won’t be going far! Donna will continue to anchor Newschannel 7 at Noon, and will be overseeing the station’s news product.

(from NewsHerald.com) – Bay County’s first CBS affiliate since the 1960s will be “flipping the switch” Monday, company officials said.

The new station, WECP, will be available over the air — that is, using rabbit ears — on channel 18 at mid-morning. Viewers will need to rescan their TVs to pick up the signal, said Curt Molander, general manager for WJHG, the sister station of WECP and WTVY in Dothan, Ala., which has served as the Panama City market’s CBS affiliate since the early 1960s.

The WECP studios will be located on Front Beach Road with WJHG. Both stations, along with WTVY, are owned by Atlanta-based Gray Television.

WECP’s broadcast towers will be located in Youngstown, so the addition will not affect viewers’ reception of CBS, Molander said. CBS is the “network of record” for Southeastern Conference football and will carry March Madness and the Super Bowl….Cont….

Our friends at NewsBlues.com report that Jamie Burch will be the new News Director at Panama City’s WJHG. Burch comes from WKRG in Mobile, where he was an executive producer.

Burch replaces Gavin Maliska, who left WJHG this past June to become News Director at WGXA-TV in Macon, GA. Burch will now be the third News Director for WJHG in just a few years. Stay tuned for any further changes.

Last week, Florida News Center reported that Gray Television had licensed a new television station, finally bringing a CBS affiliate to the Panama City market. The new station, WECP-LD (a low powered/range station) will be contained in the Panama City studios of Gray owned WJHG-TV. Along with studio space, WECP will share tower and transmitter space with WJHG, creating Panama City’s first duopoly.

While this sounds like a boon for Gray, WJHG and Panama City, WECP comes with a plethora of issues. Sources in the panhandle tell Florida News Center that the weak powered WECP signal, will be a drain on its sister, WJHG. Since the two stations will both share the same transmitter and power, estimates demonstrate that WECP will degrade the WJHG signal by almost 49%.

Of course most viewers in this day and age do not use the actual television signals anymore, opting for cable or satellite instead. However, sources point out that Comcast (the primary cable provider for Panama City) does not have fiber optic links to its local affiliates. Comcast retransmits its local affiliates by receiving the over-the-air signal and then using that to feed to its customers. So, the question is; will the 49% signal degradation by WECP, then effect the Comcast signal as well?

Stay tuned to Florida News Center for any developing changes.