Former CBS4 lead anchor Maggie Rodriguez is expecting a baby! Here is her announcement on the CBS Early Show a few days ago:
Congrats to her from her former South Florida family.
Tag Archive for 'WFOR'
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WFOR
The question has been asked for months as of when WFOR will finally make the switch over to High Definition broadcasting. WFOR is currently the only English speaking station still broadcasting in SD in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market. So, when exactly will WFOR go HD? The moment may finally be coming. According to SFLTV.com insiders in CBS management, WFOR is expected to go HD come February right before the Super Bowl. According to our sources, a new graphics package is also expected to follow with the HD Transition. SFLTV will pass more information on as we actively receive it.
What are your thoughts on WFOR going HD? Do you think this can create a ratings boost for the station?
In May 2009 we told you CBS-owned WFOR had decided not to renew their helicopter rental agreement with Helicopters Inc. which expires at the end of 2009. We are now learning that as Chopper 4’s final days are coming to a close, Sky10 is being repainted sans logos because WFOR and WPLG have entered into a helicopter sharing agreement.
As of January 1, 2010, CBS affiliate WFOR and ABC affiliate WPLG are entering into a helicopter pool agreement where the two stations will share video and dispatching responsibilities of what was formerly WPLG’s helicopter Sky10. A memo sent to WFOR employees announcing the pool agreement says the helicopter is now owned by stations and encourages them to treat WPLG as a partner and not a competitor. Sky10’s current pilot and photographer crews, supplied by Helicopters Inc., will be the ones working with both TV stations. Sky10 itself is getting repainted to strip away the WPLG logos from it. We have no information on what’s next for Chopper 4’s crew.
According to the memo, the “new” pooled helicopter will be available to both WFOR and WPLG daily from 6am to 6pm, though WFOR at least still has an agreement with Metro Traffic to use video footage from their helicopter.
Details of the pool agreement are after the jump Continue reading ‘First on SFLTV: WFOR & WPLG Enter Chopper Sharing Agreement’
Tri-County Chase
I’d like to offer my kudos to WFOR and WSVN today. In case you missed today’s top story, there was a huge car chase spanning 3 counties, with excess speeds of 130 MPH. But you wouldn’t know that if you were watching WTVJ’s or WPLG’s afternoon soap operas. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the basic duty of local news station’s to keep the public informed, safe, and out of harms way? WSVN broke into regularly scheduled programing to do just that; as did WFOR. This pursuit wasn’t a short chase. It went on for nearly a half-an-hour, gaining national coverage on cable news stations, and other affiliates across the nation. Yet there was no mention of it on NBC6 or Local 10, both on-air and online. Local 10’s site, which claims to be “Just News,” didn’t have a mention of it until the chase was over. As for the joke called “NBCMiami.com,” nearly 30 minutes after the chase ended, there’s still no mention of it.
I would expect this from WTVJ, but I expected better from WPLG.
So what are your thoughts? Who’s right in this situation? Was WFOR and WSVN right for cutting into programing?… Or did WTVJ and WPLG do the right thing in not covering the story. Vote below.
Some of you had a problem with my post about WFOR teaming up with ‘60 Minutes’ for the Medicare investigation saying that it wasn’t a big deal because all WFOR did was CBS’ dirty work.
Yesterday Al Tompkins from PoynterOnline posted an email interview with WFOR reporter Stephen Stock about what they found during the investigation and also asked him how the WFOR team came to be involved with it.
At the Investigative Reporters and Editors convention in Baltimore last June, investigative producer Ira Rosen, who works at “60 Minutes,” asked if I would be interested. A few months earlier, Jay Weaver at The Miami Herald had just done a great series on Medicare fraud and I was eager to advance the story or shed further light on it.
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When “60 Minutes” came to town, we met with them and shared various ideas and resources. They shot their own interviews and B-roll, but asked us to commit resources to undercover visits to clinics, DMEs and providores.
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Working with “60 Minutes” was a challenge. They have their own culture and expectations and they don’t share easily. Their long, successful history doesn’t contain many cooperative projects with local TV news operations. However, they did enable us to meet FBI sources we wouldn’t have found without them. We met and were able to work with the FBI informant, which wouldn’t have happened without them. They opened doors and gave insight and ideas that enabled us to be successful. And we contributed by successfully getting undercover video of an office worker offering money both for a list and to a “patient” to use her Medicare number. “60 Minutes” chose not to use the video and framed the story otherwise, but we contributed nonetheless.
Check out the whole interview here
Several weeks ago someone on Twitter posted a picture showing WFOR being picketed by a small group of people. Last week while poking around the interwebs I found out WPLG got picked also. The small group of people, about a dozen or so, can be seen standing on the grass and sidewalk next to WPLG’s building holding sings saying “Media won’t ask so we will. Where’s the birth certificate”, holding signs that promote a popular right wing website etc…
Photo: Flickr@beleaveme
Olga Bichachi, a former reporter at WSVN and then at WPLG, appears to have been at the protest as well. In a video recorded at the protest, and posted on Youtube, Bichachi criticizes the media for covering trivial stories like house fires and shootings and for being run by “liberal people”.
“…the good citizens of the US are protesting the changes that are being made in our nation, in our liberties, in our schools and no one is listening to us… and we’re not going to stop trying to get this nation back on its right track until its on its right track”
“…the people who control the media are very liberal. There’s no doubt about it. I’m not making this up. These people are liberal. They’re following their own agenda”
The complete video of Bichachi’s statement after the jump
/photo credit: Beleaveme on Flickr/ Continue reading ‘Former WPLG & WSVN Reporter, Blasts Liberal Media’
The WFOR CBS4 I-Team has another whopper in the can and this one is went national last Sunday!
WFOR CBS4 teamed up with CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ to conduct a 4 month long joint investigation into Medicare fraud taking place in South Florida.
During the course of the investigation WFOR’s iTeam ended up uncovering billions of dollars siphoned out of Medicare by way of fraudulent clinics located in the Miami area.
The iTeam found out South Florida is pretty much the testing grounds for Medicare fraud methods that end up being used elsewhere in the country. They managed to sneak py cameras into 7 clinics alleged to be billing Medicare for services they aren’t providing and recorded staff offering to pay people who have valid Medicare numbers to complete fake paperwork for treatments and equipment they don’t need.
‘60 Minutes’ aired their investigation this past Sunday. This Sunday, November 1st WFOR will air a 30 minute special at 6:30pm for a more in-depth look into Medicare fraud.
Nielsen Logo
Apparently, the folks at WTVJ are under the impression that they’re winning in the ratings war… at least on weeknights at 11PM. According to multiple SFLTV.com tipsters, new WTVJ news director Lane Michaelson was allegedly boasting at the fact that (thanks to the new Jay Leno Show), their ratings are now number one at 11PM on weeknights.
Others claim that supposedly WPLG dropped to second place now that Charles Perez has left South Florida, and WSVN to number three (who’s 11PM ratings were never outstanding), and WFOR to dead last. The Jay Leno show made its debut to a strong audience of 18 million but on the second and subsequent nights ratings fell to below 8 million. And last week Leno’s ratings fell further to 5.7 million viewers.
…But before you get enraged by the apparent idiocy of the South Florida TV news viewers, a former WTVJ employee claims:
…The results are in, and after hundreds of votes, SFLTV.com readers think that WSVN (FOX-7) is the best run TV station in South Florida.
Winner: WSVN (FOX-7)
By a landslide, the winner is WSVN (FOX-7), with 51.9% of the votes . Coming in a not-so-close second, is WPLG (ABC-10)
, with 26.7% of the votes. WFOR (CBS-4) comes in at a rather lousy 11.5%, and from reading the comments, this is partially due to the lack of High Definition. Finally, WTVJ (NBC-6) comes in dead last (yet again) at 9.9% of the votes… and the reason for that? Well, you figure it out.
In terms of management, which of the following TV news stations do YOU think is run the overall best? Consider all factors, including management staff, professionalism, employee relations, etc.
POLL CLOSED
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