Tampa TV

Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota combine to make up Florida’s largest TV market, and it’s a tight one, squeezed even more in recent weeks as political spending surged ahead of tomorrow’s presidential primary. TV spending and unit pricing in the market are up single digits so far in 2012, with a number of categories increasing spending over last year, including auto, banking and finance, pharmaceuticals, insurance, telecom, retail and professional services.

If you’re a gamer, the appeal of immersing yourself in a virtual world might be obvious. The rest of us, though, still need convincing. The new systems represent “science fiction coming to reality,” said Gary Shapiro, head of the group that runs the annual CES gadget show in Las Vegas, which will showcase VR and related technologies in early January. What’s changed? Screen and graphics technologies have finally gotten good enough to provide a realistic and responsive VR experience.

Jeff Gurley has been promoted to VP-director of sales for the Dallas duopoly of KDFW (Fox) and KDFI (MNT), while Shawn Gossett is named to the same post at WTVT Tampa.