WFTV host Craig Patrick has left the Orlando ABC-affiliate to join WTVT, the Fox O&O in Tampa.

“Craig has family in Tampa,” WFTV general manager Shawn Bartelt told the Orlando Sentinel. “His old station, WTVT, offered him a job to come back. It was a family motivated decision.”

Patrick’s last day with WFTV was Friday. He will be replaced on “Central Florida Spotlight,” the station’s weekly political affairs program, by morning anchor Greg Warmoth, who will fill in until a permanent replacement is named.

Meteorologist Sheena Parveen, who left WTVT in Tampa last month, is joining WCAU in Philadelphia, the station announced today.

Parveen will contribute weather reporting to newscasts at 11 a.m. and 4, 5 and 6 p.m. She will start at the NBC O&O later this month.

“Our viewers will quickly connect with the passion and energy she brings to weather reporting,” WCAU vice president of news Chris Blackman said in a statement.

Before joining WTVT, Parveen was a meteorologist and reporter at WCTV, the CBS-affiliate in Tallahassee.

WTVT is marking the anniversary of Pearl Harbor with a big find: this week, the Tampa Fox O&O has been airing “exclusive” film footage of the attacks that was recently uncovered by a local military history buff.

The grainy footage was shot by a Navy photographer assigned to the USS Arrgonne on December 7, 1941. A distant relative of the photographer recently responded to a newspaper ad placed by John Bolender, a Florida man who collects military memorabilia, and offered him the film.  According to Bolender, the film had spent years sitting around in a garage.

Bolender gave WTVT exclusive access to the footage, as well as dozens of photos from that infamous day. Video inside… Read more

Viewers watching WTVT‘s postgame coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday got a very intimate look at one of the team’s players.

The Fox O&O aired a locker room interview with the Bucs’s Donald Penn and, while the offensive tackle discussed a pivotal play at the end of the game, one of his teammates walked into the frame completely naked.  As Penn criticized the officiating in the fourth quarter, his teammate–visible only from the waist down–slowly put on a pair of boxer shorts, finally ending the accidental peep show. Read more

Sheena Parveen, the weekend morning meteorologist at Fox owned-and-operated WTVT in Tampa, is Philadelphia-bound.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, Parveen is leaving the station after two years to be a meteorologist at a station in Philadelphia. She plans to reveal more details later this week.

The Florida native was a meteorologist at WCTV, the CBS-affiliate in Tallahassee, prior to joining WTVT. Her last day with the station will be Sunday.

WTVT is searching for her replacement. In the interim, Andy Johnson will fill in.

In an effort to nullify the effects of yesterday’s local press push at the White House, campaign managers for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney have reached out to the same nine stations to schedule interviews, according to NBC News.

At least three of the stations — KUSA in Denver, WTVT in Tampa and KTRK in Houston — are scheduled to interview Romney today. Both Colorado and Florida are considered to be swing states in the 2012 election.

WTVT’s Denise White interviewed Romney on the noon newscast this afternoon; KUSA’s interview will air tomorrow morning.

>Update: Watch the interviews after the jump. Read more

Anchors from nine stations were in Washington, DC yesterday for a local press blitz that included interviews with President Obama and unprecedented access to the White House.

Most of the stations, which were largely located in swing states, billed the Presidential interview as an “exclusive.” Norfolk’s WAVY went one step further: anchors in the studio tossed to live shots with Tom Schaad by calling him “the only local anchor in the nation’s capital today.”

The biggest star for the visitors, however, wasn’t on the schedule: first dog Bo Obama trotted out to the South Lawn unannounced. “That’s the only time I saw things get really ugly with the reporters,” KGW‘s Tracy Barry (pictured) said. “They were practically pushing each other out of the way to get to the dog.”

Watch the reports filed from the White House, after the jump. Read more

The White House is welcoming nine anchors today for a local round of press that will include interviews with President Obama and comprehensive behind-the-scenes access to the White House.

In addition to their “brief” individual interviews with the President, the participating anchors will broadcast evening newscasts (during sweeps-month, as Politico’s Mike Allen points out) from the South Lawn of the White House, on special risers built for the occasion. The anchors will also have lunch with David Plouffe, interview a White House staffer from the station’s home market and get an on-camera tour of the building with a curator. Finally, they will ask one question each of Jay Carney at the daily press briefing.

The latest local push is significantly more involved than past interviews Obama has done on the local level, which have been limited to seven-minute sit-downs with the President on one predetermined topic. Read more

Kristin Wright, a general assignment reporter at Fox owned-and-operated WTVT in Tampa, has been promoted to weekend anchor.

Wright has been filling in as the station’s weekend anchor for the past two weeks, according to The Tampa Tribune. She replaces Nerissa Prest, who parted ways with WTVT in August.

Before joining WTVT in 2008, Wright was a general assignment reporter at WHTM in Harrisburg, PA. She has also worked as an anchor in WIVT-WBGH in Binghamton and WDIV in her native Detroit.

Nerissa Prest, an anchor at Fox owned-and-operated WTVT in Tampa-St. Petersburg, has parted ways with the station.

“We mutually parted ways,” Prest told the St. Petersburg Times.  “It was time for me to move on to the next chapter.” The station confirmed her departure, noting “an extensive search” is underway for her replacement.

Prest, who is bound by a confidentiality agreement about her employment contract, has been with WTVT since 2006. In 2009, she was moved from weekday mornings to weekend mornings, where she remained until her last broadcast on August 21. The Times reports that as of late last week, some staffers at WTVT were unaware of her departure. Read more