Reporter Barrett sticks with WFTV
Recent items from my blog at orlandosentinel.com/tvguy:
Good news for WFTVChannel 9 viewers: Veteran reporter Steve Barrett is here to stay.
Barrett logged nearly 13 years at the ABC affiliate before departing in March 2016 to relocate to Minneapolis for love.
Yet he estimated he had returned to WFTV to help out four times since leaving. Neither reporter nor station could let go. Now he has a three-year contract with WFTV.
More good news: He’s still in love.
“My longtime girlfriend hopes to join me permanently here later this year, although we’ll probably keep a summer place up in the Twin Cities for regular visits,” Barrett said. “One of the reasons I left for Minneapolis was to be close to my father who underwent heart surgery and see him more often and help out. He’s now doing well post surgery.”
WFTV asked Barrett to cover Hurricane Irma, then he and the station started discussions about his return.
“Steve is one of the best live reporters in the industry. He takes viewers into scenes and makes them feel as if they were there,” said Matt Parcell, WFTV’s news director.
“I really missed Central Florida,” Barrett said. “I have a son at UCF and a daughter at USF — both studying journalism.”
Barrett said he loved interacting with Central Floridians and the excitement of breaking news. “I plan to stay in the field as a hard-news reporter,” he said. (He also likes hard rock and plays David Lee Roth in a Van Halen tribute band.)
‘Amazing Race’
Kayla Fitzgerald will always have Iceland.
The contestant from Clermont started the 30th season of “The Amazing Race,” but her team was out first in Wednesday’s premiere on CBS. Fitzgerald’s teammate Dessie Mitcheson of Apollo, Pa., was the last person to reach the finish in an incredibly close foot race.
The premiere started in Washington Square Park in New York City, then moved to Iceland. Fitzgerald, 26, a model living in Los Angeles, estimated she had watched “The Amazing Race” since she was 10.
She is studying marketing and social media at UCLA. She could go into public relations — she promoted her time on the show persuasively.
“The experience was definitely something that was unforgettable. I got to travel with my best friend,” she said before the premiere.
WFTV at Disney
For the 25th annual Walt Disney World Marathon, WFTV-Channel 9 will broadcast its Sunday morning news live from the race.
Anchors Nancy Alvarez, Racquel Asa and Jaime Holmes will host the fourhour telecast, starting at 5 a.m. They and meteorologist Brian Shields will be based at the finish line at Epcot.
The 26.2-mile course goes through all four Walt Disney World Resort theme parks and ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The exclusive telecast, which is being done in collaboration with Disney Sports, will offer multiple camera locations along the course.
WFTV will report on race preparations, the charitable donations and “perfects,” people who have never missed a race.