Marla’s out, and Martie’s in.
Bob Opsahl will have a new anchor partner in early April on WFTV-Channel 9. Marla Weech will step down from the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts to make way for former WFTV anchor Martie Salt, the station announced Thursday.
The change is a major shift for the Orlando market, where Opsahl and Weech have co-anchored the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts since 1989.
The pair was once so popular that the expression “Bob-and-Marla” sounded like one word. In recent years, however, the ABC affiliate lost its overwhelming ratings dominance. WFTV ran a distant third at 11 p.m. in the household ratings for the November sweeps.
The slide has been attributed to station turmoil, network weakness, increased competition and rapid turnover in the local audience. In recent years, the popular Weech seemed to have as many detractors as fans, a situation spotlighted in a Sentinel poll last year.
Weech will stay on to anchor the 10 p.m. newscast for WRDQ-Channel 27, which WFTV produces, and do special features for Channel 9 newscasts. Weech, who has been at WFTV since 1985, also will fill in as a substitute anchor on Channel 9.
“I’m going to do my best in my new assignments, and I’m going to move forward,” Weech said. “I’m excited about Martie coming back; we’re friends.”
WFTV General Manager Bill Hoffman said the station was not asking Weech to leave. “Our hope is she’ll work in another capacity and serve the people who think the world of her,” he said.
Longtime partner Opsahl was saddened. “I’m going to miss Marla for sure,” he said. “We’ve been working together a long time. It’s the end of an era.
“If she has to be replaced, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have sitting next to me than Martie Salt.”
WESH-Channel 2 anchor Wendy Chioji said she was shocked and sad for Weech. “She’s very nice and very kind, just a very sweet person,” she said. “The market kind of changed. In this business, it’s ‘What have you done for me lately?’ No one is under any delusion, including me, that a couple of bad research books and it could be any of us that is moved off shows or let go.”
WFTV bosses informed Weech of the change Wednesday afternoon. “She went out and did the news,” Hoffman said.
Weech took the news “with grace and dignity,” WFTV news director Bob Jordan said. “That’s the kind of person she is.”
Weech’s demotion almost guarantees that WFTV will take a ratings hit because she remains popular among many viewers. The Channel 9 Web site notes that Weech, a University of Central Florida graduate, has been frequently chosen Orlando’s favorite anchorwoman in magazine and newspaper polls.
Salt left the Orlando market in 1994 after 15 years. She worked for two years at WESH-Channel 2, then 13 at WFTV. For eight years, she has anchored at the ABC affiliate in Tampa, WFTS-Channel 28, where she is known as Martie Tucker, her married name. She will go by Martie Salt, however, when she returns to WFTV.
“Salt is what I was known as,” she said. “It’s a natural thing to go back. Both are my names.”
She called the WFTV anchor job a great opportunity that will suit her family’s needs. She and her stockbroker husband, Paul, have a 9-year-old son.
“This didn’t come together until last week,” she said. “Channel 9 proposed an offer. It was wonderful all the way around. It was a no-brainer.”
Hoffman called Salt a network-quality journalist who will complement the WFTV team. Jordan, who worked with Salt in Orlando and Tampa, praised her as a talent who will boost the station.
“Martie established herself in this market as a very popular news anchor,” he said. “That’s a track record that is considerable.”
Asked what that tenure would mean to the many new viewers in Central Florida, Jordan said, “Good talent is good talent. I have every reason to believe she will develop new fans for herself and for the station.”
He could be on to something. In an April 2001 story, Salt told the Sentinel: “I was amazed at the amount of crossover between Central Florida and the Tampa Bay area. I just got an e-mail from someone yesterday: ‘I used to watch you in Orlando. It’s great to see a familiar face.’ “
WFTV announced the anchor change during the February sweeps. Rumors had circulated since last summer that Salt might return because Jordan is a major fan. But Hoffman said the station started conversations with her when it learned she was not going to renew her contract, which ended in November. She resigned her position in Tampa Thursday morning and will remain on the air there several weeks.
Hoffman said the station does a lot of research on everything from graphics to talent to content. But he added that the Weech decision wasn’t based on such information.
“We were very fortunate that Martie, just down the road, had a company she was ready to say goodbye to,” he said. “We thought the addition could mean good things for the station.”
The move can be seen as another step in WFTV’s efforts to rebuild its team. In April, the main anchor team will be three-quarters new. Opsahl will be joined by Salt, new sportscaster Dan Hellie and chief meteorologist Tom Terry, who recently replaced Glenn Richards.
Salt said she hadn’t talked to Weech yet. “We are friends, and this will work because Marla is a genuinely nice person,” she said. “She is not vindictive. She is not revengeful. It will be just fine because I know Marla.”
In April, when news director Jordan joined the station, he said, “I do not come into this situation saying, ‘Look at this cast of characters, we have to back a bus up to the back door.’ That’s not the case. These are great people, absolutely great people. You can come back in six months and read that quote back to me. I do not foresee any significant, wholesale changes.”
Now 10 months after joining the station, he said the comment was right at the time.
“This is a competitive television market,” he said Thursday. “We’ll do whatever we think is smart to improve content, the presentation of news. We’ve already made stylistic changes. We don’t foresee any more changes of this magnitude. This is it.”
