another birthday girl today
#sfltv MT @WPBF25News Happy Birthday @wpbf_felicia! check out these 20 facts abt her http://t.co/GD1KbKZwjB
— sfltv (@sfltv) February 6, 2014
WPBF
WPEC News Director Shown the Door
Four years after coming to WPEC, and after a not so hot November ratings book, news director Cathy Younkin has been shown the door
Yonkin is part of the old guard at WPEC. The station’s former owner Freedom Communications, brought her in from WWMT in Grand Rapids after former ND Dave Christopher left after only two years on the job. Under her watch WPEC has remained lagging in the ratings though. Freedom’s bankruptcy and its lack of investment in WPEC along with the departure of high-profile anchor Curt Fonger, and a resurgent WPBF did not help the CBS affiliate.
In the November 2013 sweeps only WPEC’s noon newscast placed second, with tenth of a rating point behind WPTV. In all other time slots the station lagged behind the once perennial third place WPBF 25 who have really stepped up their game in the last couple of years with a much sleeker newscast that moves faster, and borrows some of its cues from WSVN, along with anchor teams that have a good on-air chemistry together.
Local Sweeps Ratings
November sweeps, along with the hype and crazy stories is thankfully over. Until February when TV stations have to do it all over again. FTVLive dropped the 25-54 demo ratings for the Miami market for November sweeps. They might be a little difficult to decipher by those not in the biz but I think the numbers on the right are the actual rating points? Not sure what the smaller numbers mean.
No surprises. WSVN leads at 6AM closely followed by WTVJ, leaving WPLG and WFOR behind. WPLG finished first at 11pm finishing first but oddly they are not number one at 6pm which if I remember correctly used to be the time slot where they always gained viewers, and finished first.
And then the Palm Beach ratings, showing WPBF’s marked improvement from a once third place station. It’s jarring to see just how dominating WPTV is. For example, the station starts with a 5.4 household rating at 5pm, and by 6pm they’re at 9.2 which is more than double WPBF and WPEC combined! WPTV leads in every single time slot. At noon WPEC comes close though, just tenth of a point separating the two.
2013 Suncoast Emmy Award Nominations Are Out
The nominees for The 37th Annual Suncoast Emmy Awards are out and there are thirty-nine pages worth of entries to read trough, but if you prefer to keep score of the overall nominations I broke them down by station below.
Three South Florida stations swept up most of the nominations. America Teve has 29, followed by WSCV with 24, and WPTV with 20 nominations – the most of any English-language station.
Miami Stations
WPBT – 6
WLRN – 1
WFOR – 13
WTVJ – 10
WSVN – 4
WPLG – 11
WBFS – 1
WLTV – 6
WSCV – 24
WSBS – 2
America TEVE – 29
Sun Sports – 3
Palm Beach Stations
WPTV – 20
WPEC – 2
WPBF – 0
WFLX – 0
In all, if you count cable network Sun Sports which is based in Broward, South Florida stations swept up 132 nominations in total.
The awards will be presented at a gala that will take place at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood on November 23rd.
And if you want to peruse the nominee list here it is
Website Reveals Home Addresses of Local News Reporters
A website called DeadBeatLink has published the home address, phone numbers (some are redacted) and full dates of birth of local news reporters and anchors from Palm Beach County. So far the information posted seems to be on WPEC, Palm Beach Post, and Palm Beach Daily News staffers but the site’s owner says they will be “listing a new news organization every week”.
On a page titled “Why the Reporter List“, the site’s owner says journalists are targeted because they “ignore select political figures in Palm Beach and Broward County, turning their heads while their agencies run rampant with corruption” and because they “cover up things in their own industry; if a member of the media commits rape, they are dismissed quietly and it is ignored by the rest of the media, deemed not worthy of news”
If you have been a part of an unflattering story, look for the reporter here, knock at their door and tell them that you don’t appreciate it. Call them on the phone. Don’t worry – it’s a free country and just like they can come knock on your doors with cameras and lights, you can do the same.
The site’s owner(s) also released a video featuring the infamous Guy Fawkes face (though whether there’s any association with the group Anonymous is unknown) and a statement read in a digitally altered voice. The person says WPTV isn’t on the list for now because of investigative reporter Katie LaGrone who features government spending and consumer issues in her reports.
True, there needs to be a conversation on why local news is such utter bullshit, but revealing people’s home addresses (freely available on the internet by the way) isn’t the way to go about it. Safety issues aside, those in front of the camera aren’t even in charge of what stories get covered. Anchors certainly are in no position to decide, and even reporters for the most part are told where to go and what to do.
