Florida News Center

(edited from TVNewsCheck.com) – Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Monday that it has closed on its acquisition of the Freedom Communications broadcast assets (including West Palm Beach’s WPEC-TV) for $385 million.

Sinclair had been operating the Freedom stations since Dec. 1, 2011, under a local marketing agreement, while it awaited FCC approval….Cont…

Just a day later, construction began on a new set for West Palm Beach’s WPEC. The station uploaded a photo to its Facebook page of the current set being dismantled. Now that Sinclair has picked up WPEC, the company now has a duopoly in the West Palm market, with WTVX CW 33. Rumor has it that the two stations will eventually be combined and will share a news room. Stay tuned…

//hattip to SFLTV.com

(from News-Press.com) - WBBH NBC2 reporter Joshua Repp announced that he is headed home — leaving Southwest Florida for a job at WPEC-TV, the CBS station in West Palm Beach. Repp spent part of his childhood on Florida’s east coast, graduating from high school in Boca Raton. It’s a surprisingly short tenure for Repp. He only started at NBC2 last June.

(from TVSpy.com) – Michael Pumo has been named general manager of WPEC, the CBS-affiliate in West Palm Beach, Sinclair Broadcasting announced today.

Pumo is the vice president of broadcast sales for Freedom Communications, which currently owns WPEC. The West Palm Beach station, as well as the remainder of Freedom TV’s stations, are in the process of being acquired by Sinclair.

“WPEC has much to offer, and I look forward to re-introducing the station to the community and to our viewers,” Pumo said in a statement….Cont….

(from CBS12.com) – Freedom Communications Inc. in Irvine, Calif. has agreed to sell its television division to Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. in a $385 million deal that will leave the company and its newspapers free of debt, Freedom announced today.

The sale of Freedom’s eight television stations is expected to close in four to six months subject to Freedom shareholder, Federal Communications Commission and antitrust approval.

Mitchell Stern, Freedom’s CEO, said the television sale will eliminate the company’s debt so management can concentrate on the 100 daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and other specialty publications….Cont….

(edited from SFLTV.com) – Longtime WPEC weekend anchor and reporter Tara Cardoso has left the CBS affiliate. Cardoso said her goodbyes last night without saying what’s next for her but on  on twitter she responded to viewers saying she wanted to spend more time with her two little girls.

A Florida native and a University of Miami alum Tara Cardoso joined WPEC in 2001 as a general assignment reporter before being promoted to anchor and I-team reporter. - (edited from SFLTV.com)

(from PalmBeachPost.com) – Television newsman Curt Fonger is leaving WPEC-Channel 12 in West Palm Beach after 22 years.

Fonger’s last broadcast at News 12 will be Wednesday, Robert Emmers, a spokesman for station owner Freedom Communications, said today.

Emmers said he could not comment on the reason for Fonger’s departure, except to say his contract was not renewed.

Fonger could not be reached comment this evening, and calls to the Fairfield Drive station this evening were referred to Emmers.

A native of Michigan, Fonger, 60, came to News 12 in 1989 after TV broadcasting stints in Fort Pierce, Mobile, Ala., and Grand Rapids, Mich….Cont….

(from CBS12.com) – Former WPEC CBS 12 anchor Alan Gerstel, has written a remarkable book about his relentless search for his biological parents.

Alan was adopted as a newborn into a loving, Jewish family. But he had many unanswered questions about his adoption and was always tormented by feelings of rejection: Who were his birth parents? Why didn’t they want him? And where did he get his outgoing personality, musical talent and love of theatre?….Cont….

Our friends at SFLTV.com report that WPEC reporter Gary Widom will have an extended stay at the West Palm Beach station. The station has renewed his contract for another two years. He joined the station in 2010 from Miami’s WTVJ.

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WPBF meteorologist Kate Wentzel has left the station. She joined WPBF, four years ago.  So far, there is no word on why she is leaving the station. Click here to watch her farewell to viewers.

And finally, Sandra Shaw joins WPBF, replacing the departing Wentzel (above) as noon meteorologist. She comes from WPBF Hearst sister station, WBAL in Baltimore. She will officially sign on April 11th.

(from Page2Live.com) – In the 26 years that former traffic reporter Paul Cavenaugh called the rush-hour play-by-play on TV and radio, helicopters he rode above traffic mayhem crashed not just once, but twice.

He walked away from the wreckage but was laid off after his second crash in 2008. He then lost his condo to foreclosure. His car was repossessed. Temporary unemployment cash kept him fed.

Then came his “Only in America” moment!

Last summer, Cavenaugh, 57, received a big, fat settlement check for his last chopper crash and used some of it to buy a new home: a classic 58-foot Hatteras yacht!

He named it Pizzazz!….Cont….

(from Page2Live.com) – One of the top managers at the troubled WPEC-Channel 12 was arrested Sunday night for allegedly acting like a drunk stripper in a Delray Beach restaurant.

Randi Goldklank, 42, who was hired by the CBS affiliate as advertising executive two years ago after another booze-fueled scandal in Boston, ended up in the clink after being charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrested. She was released early Monday on her own recognizance.

Station bosses wouldn’t talk about Goldklank’s employee status Wednesday but the station’s California-based spokesman, Bob Emmers, said she “no longer works for the company.”

Goldklank, meanwhile, couldn’t be contacted.

According to the Delray Beach Police’s report, the manager of the hip Atlantic Avenue eatery The Office called 911 to report an “a white female in the restaurant, intoxicated and doing inappropriate acts.”….Cont….