Vanessa Welch - TVSpy

Jorge Estevez Leaving WFOR to Return to WFTV

Andrew Gauthier — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:22:29 +0000

Jorge Estevez is leaving Miami and going back to Orlando.

Estevez, who has worked as a reporter for Miami’s WFOR since 2006, is departing the CBS station to return to WFTV, the Orlando station where he worked prior to moving to South Florida.

“We are thrilled to be able to bring Jorge back to Central Florida,” WFTV-WRDQ vice president and general manager Shawn Bartelt said, announcing the move. “I am sure that our viewers who remember Jorge will share our excitement when he is back on our air this summer.” continued…

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WFTV’s Vanessa Welch and WESH’s Jason Brewer Are Having a Baby

Merrill Knox — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:59:15 +0000

WFTV anchor Vanessa Welch and her husband, WESH meteorologist Jason Brewer, are having a baby boy.

Welch and Brewer moved to Orlando in 2007, when she joined the ABC affiliate and he joined the NBC affiliate. “We’ve never felt more at home,” Brewer told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s been a real adventure with both of us in the same business. [WFTV] has been good to her, and WESH has been good to me. It has become home. We weren’t getting any younger. It was now or never.”

Welch and Brewer met in 2000 at KOSA, the CBS affiliate in Odessa, TX. They have been married for seven years. The baby, their first child, is due November 24.

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Barbara West, Best Known for Aggressive Biden Interview, Leaving Orlando’s WFTV

Andrew Gauthier — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 14:31:13 +0000

After 24 years, reporter-anchor Barbara West is leaving Orlando’s WFTV. Her final day will be next Wednesday when she’ll sign off from the ABC-affiliate’s noon newscast, which she has anchored for nearly two decades.

West, 62, has seen her role with the station reduced over the past year. In September, WFTV replaced her at the 5:30 p.m. newscast with Vanessa Welch, who joined the station in 2007.

WFTV news director Bob Jordan tells the Sun Sentinel that the move is a mutual decision. “I’ve worked with a lot of anchors around the country,” Jordan said. “She’s one of the best.”

West received national attention in 2008 when she had a surprisingly pointed exchange with then-Senator Joe Biden during the 2008 presidential campaign. In an interview with Biden via satellite, West pressed him on then-Senator Barack Obama’s connection to ACORN and then aggressively questioned him about Obama’s liberal platform. Underscoring her point with a quote from Karl Marx, West asked, “How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?”

“Are you joking? Is this a joke?” Biden asked. West replied, simply, “No.”
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