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WSVN Set to Go Live With Complete Makeover

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WSVN Set to Go Live With Complete Makeover

This weekend WSVN started airing a new, and of course very dramatic promo, giving viewers a hint that “something big” is coming up.

That something of course is the refreshed Newsplex they’ve been working on for the past month or so. Along with the studio renovations, a new and very bold on-air look will debut as well, small parts of which are already rolled out throughout the newscasts.

Check out the promo below:

 

 

WSVN Reporter Adrianna Hopkins Heads to the Big Easy

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WSVN Reporter Adrianna Hopkins Heads to the Big Easy

WSVN reporter Adrianna Hopkins is trading South Florida for the Big Easy, and for a job promotion (and more sleep too!). Hopkins is joining WDSU, the local NBC affiliate in New Orleans, where she will co-anchor that station’s 5 pm and 10 pm newscasts.

Hopkins has been with WSVN for the past three years, having joined in January 2012 as Today in Florida reporter. She is the second reporter to leave WSVN recently with a nice career bump, Eugene Ramirez just left for WFLA in Tampa where he will co-anchor the weekday morning newscasts.

Eugene Ramirez Leaves WSVN for Tampa

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Eugene Ramirez Leaves WSVN for Tampa

Change is in the air at WSVN. Reporter and South Florida native Eugene Ramirez will once again wake up very, very early. After three years at WSVN Ramirez is changing stations, markets and his job description. He’s joining WFLA in Tampa to co-anchor their weekday morning newscast from 4:30 am to 7 am.

Eugene joined WSVN three years ago, after a short stint as Macy’s Media Relations Manager after leaving WSFL’s failed morning experiment South Florida Live which got shut down in 2010.

His first day at WFLA will be January 26.

And I almost bet a SFLTV reader $100 WSVN management will pick him for a Deco Drive co-host or reporter. Phew!

Brian Andrews Set to Leave WFOR

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Brian Andrews Set to Leave WFOR

Two years after rejoining WFOR, investigative reporter and anchor Brian Andrews is leaving the station when his contract expires at the end of January. “It’s been a pleasure to work along side the big names in the market and I wish them all the best. There are no hard feelings. Just time to move on.”

Station management has been working on reshuffling anchor teams for the better part of the last year or so, and Andrews tells us several months ago they told him that they would not have any other opportunities for him beyond his reporting position. For a period he also anchored CBS 4 News on weekends but during the talent shuffle a few months ago he got reassigned back to reporting and investigative stories.

“A lot of very talented people have passed through this station,” he said. “I believe God’s best for my career is still ahead. ”

Arguably one of the most recognizable television news reporters in South Florida (and some will tell you one of the best connected reporters too), Brian Andrews has been reporting the area’s news since the mid 1990s when he landed a reporting job at WSVN. In 2004 then WFOR news director Shannon High Bassalik poached him away from 7 News when she was tasked with improving the station’s news product. Andrews left several years later for Colombia where he helped launch RCN’s first-ever English language newscast before coming back to South Florida.

As to what’s next, Brian tell us there are exciting opportunities for him in and out of the TV news business, “but, until my commitment to CBS is over, I’m not in a position to talk about them.”

Newsplex Renovation Finally Begins

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Newsplex Renovation Finally Begins

After months of planning the real work on the WSVN newsplex has begun. The green screen behind the anchors has gone up and for the next month a pre-recorded video loop of the newsplex will mask what’s really going on behind the scenes. Actually they have been working off camera on the plex for a while. Those old signs 7 NEWSPLEX signs from the 90s were trashed a few months ago, along with the famous map of Cuba.

The full unveiling should be in about a month but from what tipsters tell SFLTV, barring any changes the last couple months, expect to see more large displays and stand up areas. We already mentioned previously that the TV wall will sadly go the way of the Cuba map too, and will be replaced by huge screens. And of course what is now the long, red strip on the second floor will become a wrap-around animated LED strip.

Expect to see a sharp new graphics package as well, elements of which have been cropping up the last couple of months or so.

To get a good idea on what the WSVN newsplex may look like check out this video of its sister station in Boston: