Florida News Center

(from TVSpy.com) – Adam Berg is the new weekend evening meteorologist at WTVJ, the NBC-owned station in Miami.

Until October, Berg was a meteorologist at The Weather Channel, where he worked for almost 14 years. He began his career as a forecaster and weather briefer for The Weather Network in Toronto.

“Adam’s solid background as a meteorologist will make him a great addition to the NBC 6 Weather team,” vice president of news Migdalia Figueroa said in a statement….Cont….

(from TVSpy.com) - WTVJ, the NBC-owned station in South Florida, is shuffling weekend and weekday anchors.

Beginning today, Jawan Strader (right #2) replaces Keith Jones (right #1) as co-anchor of the weekday morning newscast. Strader joined WTVJ in August after a decade at rival WFOR, where he was also the morning anchor. At WTVJ, Strader will join Pam Giganti at the anchor desk.

Jones will shift to weekends, where he will take Strader’s place anchoring the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts on Saturday and Sunday….Cont….

//hattip to NewsBlues.com

(from TVNewsCheck.com) – NBC-owned WTVJ Miami, (DMA 16) is teaming up with the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) to “enhance its local investigative reporting capabilities.” The new partnership between the nonprofit organization and Team 6 Investigators, the station’s new consumer and investigative unit, will include developing stories together, conducting research and investigations and sharing content.

“Since we launched the Team 6 Investigators unit last year, they have been busy enterprising stories and shining a spotlight on issues that affect South Florida,” said Manuel Martinez, WTVJ president-GM. “This new partnership with Florida Center for Investigative Reporting will complement our efforts and strengthen our ability to focus attention on more diverse investigations that are important to our viewers and the community we serve.”….Cont….

(from TVSpy.com – pic from SFLTV.com) – Justin Finch, a reporter for WTVJ, the NBC owned station in Miami, had an IFB malfunction that required a bit of medical attention.

“This was a definite worst nightmare come true,” Finch told TVSpy.  “After a live hit at 5:30, I pulled the IFB out of my ear, and only the corded part came out. The ear piece portion was still stuck inside my ear, and because it’s the flexible, plastic kind, it had managed to become lodged pretty deep. It could really only be seen with a flashlight. So, for more than an hour, I panicked about losing my hearing on the way back to the our offices in Miramar. ”

Urged on by his boss, Finch said he went to Miramar Fire Station 84 next door to WTVJ and, “the paramedics were able to use very small, thin tweezers to pull it out. That process was painless, and may have taken two minutes, and best of all, I can still hear!”….Cont….

(from TVSpy.com) – Meteorologist Shiri Spear is joining WFXT, the Fox O&O in Boston, on November 19.

Spear, a New England native, will be the meteorologist for the morning newscast. She comes from WTVJ, the NBC O&O in Miami.

“Shiri brings an abundance of knowledge and experience in forecasting New England weather,” WFXT vice president and news director Paul McGonagle said in a statement….Cont….

(edited from GossipExtra.com) - Former WTVJ-NBC 6 anchorman Joel Connable was found dead in Seattle — just days after tying the knot and leaving Miami to relaunch his TV news career.

Connable, 39, married his longtime girlfriend two weeks ago, and he was making his comeback to the big time at Seattle’s ABC affiliate KOMO after three years out of the news business.

Connable was fired from NBC 6 in 2009 for allegedly taking freebies – a no-no at the Broward County-based station. His wrongful termination lawsuit against the organization is still pending.

Foul play is not suspected in Connable’s death: He is believed to have suffered a diabetic seizure while at home sometime Tuesday….Cont….

//hattip to SFLTV.com

(from MediaLife.com) – As one of the largest cities in the swing state of Florida, Miami is seeing a huge amount of political advertising. It is sold out on TV and radio ahead of the Nov. 6 election.

Even after the election the market will remain strong throughout the remainder of 2012 and into next year as advertisers who have been shut out of the cluttered and expensive political landscape return to the market

“This amount of political has caused many advertisers to look at inventory post-election, so demand will continue to be strong afterwards as well,” says Caitlin Zellmann, broadcast buyer at Haworth Marketing + Media…..Cont….

(edited from SFLTV.com) - Former WTVJ anchor Joel Connable is joining Seattle’s KOMO-TV, as weekend anchor and weekday reporter. His first day on the air at KOMO will be November 1st

Connable has been out of the TV news business since 2009 when WTVJ dismissed him for allegedly violating company policy on free gifts. He and two WTVJ employees were to go on assignment to a hotel whose public relations manager offered to refund room charges. Connable is said to have declined the offer and then showed the email correspondence to WTVJ management who dismissed him and one of the two employees was laid off. Joel Connable filed a lawsuit against WTVJ and NBC shortly after his dismissal. That lawsuit is still ongoing three years later and NBC has made attempts to settle it. At the time, WTVJ was in the middle of heavy layoffs and insiders and outsiders speculate that the incident was used as an excuse to fire a high-salaried employee….Cont….

(edited from SFLTV.com) – The latest WTVJ NBC 6 hire is Courtney Fallon who will be the station’s new sports anchor and reporter. She comes from WLNE ABC 6 in Providence Rhode Island as a weekend sports anchor..

Courtney Fallon takes over for Kristina Pink who left WTVJ recently for a FOX Sports job in Los Angeles.  (more from SFLTV.com)

(from MiamiHerald.com) – WFOR’s Al Sunshine — yes, that’s his real name — came to South Florida in 1968 to study marine biology at the University of Miami.

But after selling photos to the campus newspaper, The Hurricane, and taking journalism courses, he decided to swap fish and manatees for film and media.

By 1972, he was on the air with WTVJ as a reporter/photographer who could shoot, write and read his own stories. Among his first assignments: the tumultuous political conventions at the Miami Beach Convention Center — the Democrats in July, Republicans in August.

Between the two, he and Deborah Liscomb, the 17-year-old freshman he met on the first day of his sophomore year, went to New York and got married.

Forty years, a slew of awards and a stint with CNN later, Sunshine is still on TV in South Florida, an extraordinary feat in a notoriously fickle industry that favors youth, glamour and fabulous hair….Cont….