SFLTV

Sinclair Acquires WSFL-TV Parent Company

Sinclair Broadcasting announced today their bid to acquire Tribune Media’s stations, among which is WSFL. Sinclair offered $6.6 billion which breaks down to $3.9 billion in value and $2.7 billion in debt. Analysts expect FOX’s Rupert Murdoch and Blackstone to make a counter offer for Tribune relatively soon. Some speculate the joint venture could end up keeping the Tribune FOX affiliates and…

WSFL-TV Could be on the Verge of Joining Rupert Murdoch’s Empire

Those Tribune Media acquisition rumors just got a whole lot juicier! A report by the Financial Times today has Rupert Murdoch and his 21st Century Fox teaming up with private equity powerhouse Blackstone for a joint bid on Tribune Media’s broadcast stations. Should the acquisition come to pass WSFL would become part of FOX Television Stations. And that can be (somewhat?) bad news for WSVN.…

WXEL Sells Broadcasting License in FCC Auction

After more than a year the FCC’s broadcast incentive auction has ended. The auction’s purpose was to clear spectrum currently used by TV stations for wireless internet use. I won’t bore you with the confusing details but as it stands right now, any station owner had one of three choices – do nothing, get some money and accept a new TV channel selected by the FCC, or get the most money by giving…

Former WSVN Meteorologist Found Dead in Maine

Tom Johnston, former WSVN meteorologist, was found dead last night in Maine after being reported missing on Monday when he failed to return from a Portland, Maine event. Police reportedly found his body last night. Johnston worked for a couple years at WSVN from 2003 until 2005. Most recently he had been the chief meteorologist at WCSH the NBC station in Portland, Maine since 2014. Last night…

Sheli Muniz Takes Over WTVJ Morning News for Pam Giganti

Sheli Muniz is the new face NBC 6 Today in South Florida viewers will be waking up to very soon. She comes to South Florida from WKMG in Orlando where she anchored and reported for three years at the CBS affiliate. Muniz isn’t a total stranger to South Florida, she was briefly an assignment editor at WPEC five years ago before starting her career as anchor/reporter at WUFT in Gainesville…

Pam Giganti Retires from WTVJ

She’s not of retirement age yet but WTVJ morning anchor Pam Giganti appears to be moving on and out of the news business, at least as far as WTVJ is concerned. Giganti is retiring from the station with her last day on-air being just a couple weeks away! “Pam is a veteran newswoman who has been an integral part of the NBC 6 family for 14 years and who has made countless contributions along the…

2015 Suncoast Emmy Awards

The 39th annual Suncoast Emmy Awards are being held tonight at the Westin Beach Resort & Spa in Fort Lauderdale where nominees in 55 categories will vie for the golden statuette. In total, South Florida TV and media production companies grabbed 153 nominations with WSCV leading with 29 nominations, followed by Sun Sports with 24. And unlike previous years, the Palm Beach market has some…

WPLG: Those fake twitter followers were ‘an experiment’

About two weeks after SFLTV discovered and documented in detail WPLG’s sudden and explosive growth in Twitter followers, last night during the 11pm newscast the station aired a story titled ‘Paying to be popular’,  telling viewers they were in fact buying Twitter followers for @WPLGLocal10 but it was just a test. For their on air story. They basically told viewers everyone’s buying, or implied…

Did WPLG buy a bunch of Twitter followers This Week?

  Social media is big, and with old media embracing it we’ve seen local media in particular pump their social media follower count like it’s the new ratings standard. We’ve had iPad giveaways, vacation getaway giveaways, viewers of the day, even car giveaway entries in exchange for a like or a follow on Twitter and Facebook. But one can also outright buy followers if they knew where to look. Some…

Ron Beasley, Former WTVJ Reporter, Passes Away

Ron Beasley, former WTVJ reporter and long-time South Florida journalist, passed away on October 4th according to Miami’s Community Newspapers. Beasley, a veteran journalist from print and television, started his career as a copy boy at the Miami Herald in 1964, he would go on to join WTVJ as the station’s government reporter in 1967, the year he graded from the University of Miami, and would go…

Ciao, Ciao! Irika Sargent Leaving WFOR

Those promos of Irika Sargent the last few months on WFOR? Pretend like they didn’t happen. The WFOR CBS4 News anchor is barely a year into her job and is already on her way out in what is easily the shortest anchor stint in the history of South Florida TV news. Fellow CBS-owned WBBM Chicago just announced Sargent is joining as weekday evening anchor a month from now on October 19. A native of…

Video: Roxanne Stein, John Favole Say Goodbye to WPTV Morning Show

In a somewhat strange turn of events WPTV has decided to shake up its morning news team by moving longtime anchors Roxanne Stein and John Favole to WFLX. Stein and Favole have anchored Newschannel 5’s morning newscast for the past 21 years making them the area’s longest running anchor team and have, even recently, held up well against the competition, sometimes doubling the ratings of their…

WPBT, WXEL Announce Merger Agreement

WPBT and WXEL announced today they have agreed to merge after more than a year of negotiations and planning. The two PBS stations, which are independently owned will create a single public broadcasting entity and brand called South Florida PBS. The merger between the two stations would allow the elimination of duplicate programming and would cover a rather huge viewing area – from Key West all…

WPLG’s Ross Palombo Heads For San Francisco

Add Ross Palombo to the list of on-air staff leaving the Miami market. The former WPGL Local 10 news investigative reporter landed a weekend anchoring gig at KTVU, the FOX affiliate in San Francisco recently. In addition to that he’ll also serve as a political and investigative reporter for the weekday newscasts. Palombo had been with WPLG Local 10 for five years having joined back in 2010. The…

WFOR Goes Outside for Rhiannon Ally Replacement

WFOR announced today Rudabeh Shahbazi will be joining CBS 4 News This Morning as co-anchor, replacing Rhiannon Ally who left recently. Shahbazi was most recently a multimedia journalist and fill-in anchor at KABC in Los Angeles. A quick search on Shahbazi turned up a few interesting tidbits about her. She has a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkley Graduate School of…

CBS4 Morning anchor Rhiannon Ally Signs Off

On the heels of husband Mike Marza leaving WSVN, now it’s WFOR CBS4 News morning anchor Rhiannon Ally’s turn. Ally signed off Channel 4 yesterday morning. Her husband, Mike Marza moved on earlier from WSVN, and already co-anchors the main newscasts at Kansas City’s NBC affiliate KSHB where he interned, reported, and anchored several years ago. Both he and Rhiannon are area natives, Ally told CBS4…

Public Memorial For Kelley Mitchell on Tuesday at Miami Theater Center

For those of you who would like to pay their respects to Kelley Mitchell there will be a public memorial service at 10 am on May 19th at The Miami Theater Center (formerly The PlayGround Theater) at 806 NE Second Ave. in Miami Shores.

And yes this is the theater founded by the daughter of WSVN owner Ed Ansin, Stephanie Ansin. Kelley’s husband Kirk Wade is the chief photojournalist at WSVN , so…