WKMG is joining all other Orlando stations, except for one, in having local news at 4:00 p.m.

WKMG-TV 6 / Orlando – Daytona Beach – Melbourne (“Local 6”; soon-to-be “WKMG Channel 6”)

FIRST ON THE BLOG: Well well well… My secondary home market of Central Florida (Orlando – Daytona Beach – Melbourne and “secondary,” since I go there every single year, so I know a lot about that market as well.) is about to get more interesting. Just like the DFW Metroplex, Portland, OR and a few others out there, Central Florida is about to have three local newscasts at 4:00 p.m. The newest to join in, is WKMG.

Starting Monday September 7th, 2015, WKMG 6 will add an hour-long 4:00 p.m. weekday newscast, obviously titled Local 6 News at 4:00. The newscast will join all other English-language news stations (except WOFL 35 – FOX) with local newscasts at 4:00 p.m. According to FTVLive (a wonderful website, btw), the newscast is expected to be anchored by Julie Broughton, who will move off the Traffic reporting on the morning newscast (5:00-7:00 a.m.) to anchor the new hour-long newscast. WKMG 6’s long-time veteran and AMS and NWA/Sealed Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells is expected to be a part of the new broadcast as well, unless if the station puts in another meteorologist to do the 4:00 p.m. slot and possibly, other newscasts as well.

The hour-long newscast will compete with WESH 2 (NBC)’s WESH 2 News at 4:00 and #1-rated WFTV 9 (ABC)’s Channel 9 Eyewitness News at 4:00, while WOFL 35 (FOX) will remain to start at 5:00 p.m. The 4:00 p.m. newscast will replace Extra at 4:00 and The Insider at 4:30 p.m.

Also, this brings 6 years of reverse change, plus more, for WKMG 6. Back in 2009, WKMG 6 canceled their half-hour 4:00, 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts, while the 6:00 p.m. newscast became an hour under The 6:00 News. That lasted until January of 2011 when the hour was split into two half-hour newscasts at 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. In September of that same year, 5:00 p.m. half-hour news returned, with the 5:30 p.m. news returning in Summer of 2014. Now, with the addition of the hour-long 4:00 p.m. newscast, WKMG 6 would have the same early-evening newscast schedule as 2009, except more with two additional half-hours at 4:30 and 7:00 p.m.

I say more news is good news in Central Florida, especially for a usual #3-ranked station that sometimes does well at 11:00 p.m.

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