News dropping in Orlando
-- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/3/2000
WESH(TV) Orlando, Fla., will drop its 4:30 p.m. news this week in favor of another run of Judge Joe Brown to compete against Oprah and Rosie. In the fall, the station will be airing Judge Judy and decided to commit to the full hour of court-based programming before the May sweeps ratings period. The move will not lead to layoffs, according to General Manager Bill Bauman.
"This is simply a question of audience flow," he said. "We've had 14 programming changes in the past five years between 4 and 6 o'clock. I've spent most of my career in news, and I've learned that you can do too much news. We reached the point of critical mass. We did a very good 4:30 newscast; now we'll do four newscasts instead of five."
