GROWTH: MEDIA
Jews have been involved in all aspects of Orlando media: newspapers, magazines, TV and radio. They have covered local news and reported from afar. They have told our Jewish story. They have been morning DJ’s, afternoon talk hosts, newspaper editors and local magazine owners. Some have sold ads, others have covered Jewish communal life. Some may surprise you. But the stories they told have informed and enriched our lives.
Joe Brechner, here in the Channel 9 studio, brought ABC network TV to Orlando, c. 1958.
In 1958, Joseph and Marion Brechner moved to Orlando to found WLOF-TV, later renamed WFTV-Channel 9. Early on, WFTV produced a variety of local shows, featuring news, space education and children’s programming. Joe was one
of the first broadcasters in the country to offer on-air editorials, which WFTV aired three times daily. “The ultimate objective is to reflect an honest opinion, to express it fairly and thereby promote thought, interest, discussion and action by viewers and listeners, which is the basis of intelligent citizenship in a democracy.” [WFTV editorial policy, 1961]
Collection of the Historical Society of Central Florida, Inc.
Joe and Marion Brechner cover Vietnam, 1967.
World travelers, the Brechners eagerly packed their bags to bring Central Florida first-hand reporting on the ground during the war in Vietnam. At that time it was quite unusual for a local station to send anyone to cover international news, much less the station owners. True trailblazers, they introduced the first remote TV units to cover local events to give close-up coverage to Central Florida residents.
Collections of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, originated by Marcia Jo Zerivitz, LHD, Founding Executive Director
Stan Roberts in the Orlando Sentinel newsroom, c. 1968.
Roberts moved to Orlando at age six in 1939. He began at the Orlando Sentinel as a part-time reporter in the 1960s. By 1967, he was metro editor and from 1970–1977, managing editor, a most influential newspaper position. Current events, from civil rights to Watergate, were Robert’s passion. When his career took him to meetings at local venues where Jews were not permitted, he singlehandedly effected change and credits the management at the Orlando Sentinel with respecting diversity in the workplace. Other Jewish employees at the Orlando Sentinel have included sportswriter Jill Cousins, sportswriter Bill Buchalter and religion editor Mark Pinsky.
Orlando Sentinel
TV News Anchors May Surprise You! 1997.
Old-time celebrities often changed their Jewish surnames. In 1984, in Traverse City, MI, budding TV news anchor Leslie Gayle Friedman was urged to change hers. Thus, “Leslye Gale” began her TV career. Jobs followed in Colorado, then West Palm Beach. She landed in Orlando in 1992 at WKMG-Local 6 as weekend news anchor, then anchor of the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. “My dad (of blessed memory) really wanted me to keep my last name,” said Gale, who has worked since 2001 at Magic 107.7-FM in Orlando. “Looking back, I probably should have worn my Jewish last name proudly and stuck with Friedman!”
Leslye Gale
Inaugural issue of the Heritage Central Florida Jewish News, 1976.
Gene Starn founded the Jewish weekly on August 27, 1976, and was publisher/ editor for six years. It came into being because Starn felt Central Florida Jewry needed to know what was going on in the Jewish world, both here at home and worldwide. The Heritage serves as a Jewish bulletin board to help unify the community. The newspaper informs about life cycle and Jewish organizational events, Jewish history, religion, politics, social welfare, the arts and even aboutfoods.
Thelma Slaiman Alexander
Jeffrey Gaeser, editor and publisher of the Heritage Florida Jewish News, 1996.
With borrowed money and a little advertising experience, 27-year-old Jeff Gaeser bought the newspaper in 1982. He dropped “Central” from the masthead. Originally free, but barely afloat, Gaeser started charging a nominal fee. He began printing legal notices and modernized the printing process, ultimately saving the newspaper. Among career highlights for Gaeser and the Heritage were being on the front lines at the KKK rally in Maitland, opening of the Holy Land Experience and watching the Jewish community grow. Heritage Florida Jewish News is the winner of 41 press awards.
Heritage Florida Jewish News
Heritage Human Service Award recipients, 1986-2016.
Since 1986, the Heritage Florida Jewish News has presented an annual award to an individual who has made a major, voluntary contribution of their talent, time, energy and effort to the Central Florida community. Once nominations are received, a select committee chooses the annual winner.
1986–1987 … Al Siskind
1987–1988 … Ira Monroe
1989 …………. Zelig Wise
1990 …………. Jerome Bornstein
1991 …………. Leon Sobel
1992 …………. Joseph Wittenstein
1993 …………. Betty Monroe
1994 …………. Hy Lake
1995 …………. No award was given
1996 …………. Tess Wise
1997 …………. Abe Wise
1998 …………. George Wolly
1999 ………….Wolf Kahn
2000 …………. David Pearlman
2001 …………. Joe Hara
2002 …………. Dick Appelbaum
2003 …………. Claire Mercer
2004 …………. Bob Yarmuth
2005 …………. Alan Ginsburg
2006 …………. Rabbi Rudolph Adler
2007 …………. Robert Petree
2008 …………. Burt Chasnov
2009 …………. H.B. “Hank” Goldberg
2010 …………. Stuart Farb
2011 ………….. Howard Lefkowitz
2012 …………. Zena Sulkes
2013 …………. Nina Oppenheim
2014 …………. Loren London
2015 …………. Berny Raff
2016 …………. Susan Bierman
Alan Rock moves from Bozo to radio, c. 2014.
Alan Rock hosted Miami’s first jazz radio show in the 1950s–1960s, but Orlando first fell in love with him as Bozo the Clown. Rock began playing Bozo in Miami in 1966 and continued his role at WFTV-Channel 9 in Orlando in 1971. He worked at numerous Orlando radio stations over the last 46 years, doing jazz, soft rock and top-40 shows on many radio stations. He joined WUCF-FM/89.9 in 2002, hosting Morning Jazz. And, since 1973, another radio personality Alan Spector, has been on the scene at WKIS-AM 740, WHOO-AM 990, BJ105/Mix 105.1, COOL 105.9, 96.5 WHTQ and WFLAAM- FM.
Alan Rock
The Kramers make Lake Mary Life
magazine a family affair, 2016. With jobs as English teacher, graphic designer and “coupon queen” after her 1987 move to Lake Mary, Sheila Kramer surprised herself by becoming a magazine publisher. In 2003, the first issue of Lake Mary Life was 24 pages. Now, with husband Michael as managing editor and daughter Samantha Taylor as community director, each issue fills almost 150 pages. They also produce magazines for Oviedo/ Winter Springs and Altamonte/Wekiva Springs and a new quarterly Jewish Lifestyle publication in partnership with the Roth Family JCC.
Michael and Sheila Kramer
Orlando radio’s Jewish mother is Moira from The Phillips Phile, 1995.
Moira has been a presence on Orlando radio since 1983, as a news reporter, anchor and news director. She used her real name, Lynn Levine [Dictor] until 1994, when Moira was born as a Jewish sidekick and news maven on The Phillips Phile on WTKS/Real Radio 104.1-FM. She intersperses her news and on-air banter with Jewish stories, holidays and Yiddish expressions, even creating a daily radio game “Ask A Jew.” “When I first started as Moira, many of our listeners had never had any interaction with a Jewish person. Now, I’m proud to say those people use Yiddish, in context!”
WTKS
Orlando radio loves Scott McKenzie, c. 2013.
How does a Jewish kid become Scott McKenzie? It happened to Scott Friedman at WTHZ-Z103 in Tallahassee, where his bosses said the Deep South was no place for a disc jockey named Friedman. He found “McKenzie” in the phone book, thought it sounded friendly and, besides, it had a “Z” in it to go with the radio station’s name Z103. From 1991–2015, McKenzie owned Orlando’s morning drive on Mix 105.1-FM. Despite his name change, his widow Fran says, “If you were paying attention, you would’ve noticed that Scott wasn’t working on the Jewish holidays.” When McKenzie died in 2015, the entire community mourned.
Fran Friedman