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My first new topic right here. I am talking about news sets of the 1990's and their designers and fabricators. First off is WEWS sets from 1995 and 1998. I don't know who made these sets but they did look good. The 1995 set had desks similar to ABC News 20/20. The 1998 set was a product of its time coming in months after the 1998 WEWS logo debuted. Here is WJW's set from 1996. It went through some changes but the original is the work in progress.

I am bumping this thread, because I want to mention something I came across. WVLT-TV in Knoxville, back in 2001, used what may be a knock-off of the Hearst-Argyle station graphics package. You can view the WVLT open at 37:09.

WBZ/Boston adopted the "Next Weather" brand beginning Monday as well.

Is it original? No. However, I'm not mad at it. It is different and unique. I get what they're trying to do. It'll be how they implement it and use the branding that we'll get an idea of it better.

WCCO did not go for "First Alert"... But say hello to "Next Weather"! https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2022/04/21/what-is-next-weather/

That's better numbers than Nexstar's NewsNation for sure.... Maybe they should run a Matlock marathon? It could easily double or possibly even triple their current numbers... And if they make it available on OTT...oh wait...

Good Morning America revamp (1999). About as homely and middle America as it could get!

WOIO's 12th Street Studio. This is something Good Morning America & The Today Show got to use in terms of Street Side Studios. WOIO still uses this 12th Street Studio for certain things like during the pandemic as a set to be used for social distancing.

Sinclair was absurdly blatant trying to “offload” WPIX to Cunningham and WGN-TV to a freaking car dealership not named Big Bill Hells. That’s the equivalent of trying to rob a bank holding a bowling ball with a glued-on string “fuse”. It was so outrageous that Ajit Pai couldn’t even defend it.

CBS Evening News (late 80s to about 1991). Love the black background, wish the color was used more in news these days.

This good old CBS News set.

KPRC tweaked its initial 1994/1995 set (the one that corresponded with the rebrand to News 2 Houston) multiple times before moving to the KPRC News Center, a working newsroom set based upon WSVN’s, in 1998. Even when they dumped the newsroom set and moved back to a more traditional one, it remained the newsroom with many of the fixtures still in place until the building was replaced and then demolished on the same lot about 5 years ago.

Set by Gil Jimenez

Well, I honestly liked the WSB set of the mid-1990s, because it's my favorite Georgia TV news set of the time.

And a similar one from Germany:

WNBC Approx 1981-93 Love this set, didn't realize it lasted so long. I wonder what prompted them to rebrand from News 4 NY to News Channel 4.

I've always enjoyed WTVQ's set from 1993-1997, then Media General took the landscape background out of it and replaced it with clouds. Then got a refresh in 2002 then went away in 2008. Not sure who did set, but I do recall seeing it at other stations.

It was even exported to Germany:

WINK also had one of these Express Spaceship sets. They used it until around 2003.

Christ sake we have truly come a long way lol. What the hell is this desk?

I want to thank you, Don Martin -- you've finally solved a huge frickin mystery neither me or @Samanthacould figure out -- the designer of the 90s "spaceship sets", so named because KNXV's Express set from when they began their news op in 1994 was dubbed the "spaceship" in the local press. Neither of us had been able to get any conclusive leads until you posted the name. I've attached pics of some of the spaceship sets Express did in the 90s (they also did at least one Canadian set, for Edmonton's CITV; other spaceshippy sets not seen here include KWGN. WIAT and WDAF). No, the Cleveland Television News sets definitely did have the highway bars. I'm wondering where WUAB's Express set was in the building; analyzing WOIO/WUAB footage of the time, I can't figure out if it was just off the newsroom where it couldn't be seen from the newsroom cameras, or if it was in a completely separate studio.

Today Show (1990-94): faux wood, ice cubed windows, landscape wallpaper window pane walls, ambersome vintage world maps, designated news desk area, and a grand piano. The mid 80s set was my favorite set but this was beautiful!

Good Morning America, Christmas 1993. Ornate decorations creating depth. These days all of this elegant detailing would be done on a video wall.

Always loved the opens during that time ... "The First Team!" -- Matt

WCBS "Channel 2 News" 1993: Appears to be a 2 set arrangement like WNBC. Top set: features the common multi monitor background of that time period. Great detailing with the Rather era CBS Evening News like world map. A black accent instead of blue on a different newscast. Bottom set has window pane like elements with crinkle cut fry shaped beams featuring a monitor on each "fold".

Well, after looking up some airchecks from WOIO and WUAB in the 90's....I guess my vision of what they had was sort of jumbled together. It seemed the banks of monitors that both WOIO and WUAB used on their respective sets resembled what I saw when the WDTN and WKYC sets were shown here. None of the "highway bars" like the other sets had. WOIO had their "newsroom" set all the way to "Action News" and WUAB had a separate set until the same era. This was the pre-Reserve Square set that WUAB had at their studios in Parma. I guess the image I had in my head was what WTTE used for their first newscasts. This was in 1996 so I don't know if WSYX was involved yet (about the time Sinclair bought River City and spun off WTTE to Glencairn).

Would have see a pic to say. Their current set is from BDI. The previous 3 were Park Place sets. These sets are by Gil Jimenez. They had a few tweaks and updates over the years.

WNBC "News Channel 4" (1995) had 2 sets: Set A: Live at 5: detailing with legal books, plants and a window blinds type blue glass, with a few statuettes. Set B: News Channel 4 at 6pm Most stations I see today have only 1 set

It was very homey... So much so, that back in the summer of '89, I took a nap on that couch on the left. The powers that be did not like that.

Bryant looks bored there. LOL -- Matt

WSVN Newsplex mid 1990s! Very CNN. It matched with their hard/tabloid news station format they were aiming for. Today (NBC) 1990. Gorgeous Manhattan apartment style set that was used from the mid 80s until Sep 1990. Love the window level view of the skyline, and the sunrise toned rainbow behind the anchors. The living room area was very detailed with various trinkets and pieces that make it look realistic as if it were going to be used for a soap or sitcom.

ABC News set from the late 1990s. I know that another backdrop of Cleveland mainly with The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was used on the other anchor desk photo 2. Another was a sunrise for Good Morning Cleveland.

Another EXPRESS GROUP set.

That was the last set before going to Lakeside IIRC. If WKYC hadn’t moved, I could’ve seen that set lasting until Gannett decided to go HD.

I never got to see 8’s in person but have seen 6’s old set when Jim Giles was alive and the Chief.

Tucked away in some cabinet at my parents house is a stack of 35mm film photos of me sitting on this set in 1997 when I was a 9 year old obsessed with TV weather. Got to hang with then-weekend met Jon Slater for the afternoon and 5pm news. Good memories.

The WKYC Set from 1993 and its 1999 refurbished version. The weather desk from the 1997 version and the 1999 refurbished version is currently used at the University of Akron in Kobe Hall for their Z-TV. Before that WVPX used it for PAX 23 News. The 1997 version had blue borders on the windows of the Cleveland Backdrop and the NBC logo on the front of the desk. The 1998 version darkened the walls to a red color.

The Express Group. Update by FX. The Express Group. Update by FX. Set by PDG. Now known as Jack Morton. Great set for its time.

Now I realize that was there election 2000 set with heavy modifications.

WDTN set from 1994-2005 updated in 2002. The weather center area was used till 2012.

I also liked KTUL’s set they had from 1994-1999.

I loved KOTV’s set that was used from 1994-2013. The only major changes they did to that set was moved the weather center to its own area, added the kitchen added a different interview set updated the backgrounds and got rid of all the gray to blue then to the brown.

The top 2 look like BDI designs. The last 4 ( 3 of WEWS and last of WJW ) are Pencil Logic sets. They did great work in the 90’s- KPIX, KWGN, WGN, KMGH, WJZ and many more. They were the first to use acrylic tops for anchor desks too.