For more than two weeks, Orlando CBS affiliate WKMG has been broadcasting newscasts in full high definition.
A reader wrote into Hal Boedeker’s Orlando Sentinel blog to mention the upgrade.
WKMG General Manager Skip Valet confirmed the change. It debuted Saturday, June 2.
Two stations in the South TV News area will soon be receiving an alternative to Nielsen for its ratings information.
Morris Network, Inc., has signed a deal with Rentrak Corp. to provide daily ratings that it says is more dependable than the diary method Nielsen’s used for years.
Pat Murphy (Courtesy: WPEC-TV)
For more than a decade, WPEC-TV’s Pat Murphy served as the station’s sports director.
Sometime this summer, he’s decided to end a 17-year career with the West Palm Beach CBS affiliate.
George Sells (Courtesy: WAFB-TV)
After 25 years at the helm of WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge, news anchor George Sells has decided to retire at the end of the month.
The Baton Rouge Morning Advocate reports Sells joined the CBS affiliate in 1988 as the evening news anchor.
Jennifer Ortega (Courtesy: Official Site)
West Palm Beach, Fla., native Jennifer Ortega has been hired by CBS affiliate WCBI-TV as the station’s newest reporter.
She fills the spot left open when former reporter Joe Barnes jumped markets and stared reporting for WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss.
Sabrina Hall (Courtesy: WREG-TV)
Sabrina Hall, former weekday anchor and reporter at Madison, Wis., station WKOW-TV, Â has accepted a reporting job at WREG-TV in Memphis, Tenn.
Hall started last month at the CBS affiliate.
Stephanie Susskind (Courtesy: WINK-TV)
Three reporters have been hired for CBS affiliate WINK-TV in the Ft. Myers-Naples market: Stephanie Susskind, Sarah Robarge and Kristen Skovira.
The News-Press reports Susskind has already started. She previously worked at WMAZ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Macon, Ga., and is a graduate of the University of Florida.
LIN Television
New Vision Television announced last week its plans to sell its local broadcast group of 13 stations in eight television markets nationwide to LIN Television Corp., also known as LIN Media.
The only one of those in the South TV News coverage area: CBS affiliate WIAT in Birmingham, Ala.
Mike Irwin (Courtesy: KFSM-TV)
In a time where local sports is considered a dying art in many television markets, Fort Smith, Ark., CBS affiliate KFSM-TV has fired sports reporter Mike Irwin and chosen not to renew sports director John Engleman’s contract.
ArkansasOnline.com reports Irwin had worked at the station for 37 years, while Engleman started in 2009.
Russ Geller (Courtesy: Twitter)
It’s usually not a vote of confidence when a job posting is listed for someone still working at a television station.
And while that happens at stations across the U.S. anyway because news directors need to fill that position before a reporter’s contract runs out, it usually doesn’t happen to the man in charge.
South TV News 