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Let’s not forget that Oprah was on most bigger market ABC affiliates starting in the mid-1980s, and that audience then kept the tv on the same channel.

For years upon years upon years, YouTube has had clips of Richard Dawson's last episode of Family Feud from 1985, though the quality was never great, and it wasn't the full final episode. Clips and moments here and there, but not the episode in full... until now. Buzzr uploaded it days ago. This included his heartfelt final speech towards the end of the episode. Original Air Date: June 14th, 1985 on ABC. Upload Date: November 5th, 2025 by Buzzr.

I agree with a lot of what has already been said. I'll add this: Dan Rather talked about it a bit in his Emmy Television Academy interview a few years ago. One little nugget I found interesting is when he talks about Nielsen changing its method of recording ratings in the 1980s to a diary system, which harmed CBS in a way. He rambles quite a bit in the interview, but it's a very interesting watch if you ever have the time. https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/dan-rather?chapter=14&clip=5106&full=true#full-interview Toward the ~7:00 mark in that clip, he also talks about a confluence of other issues facing CBS beginning in the 1980s. ABC had finally become a strong competitor at that point, and there was a lot more pressure for network news divisions to become profitable rather than remain loss leaders. CNN proved that television news could become a product on its own rather than just a costly public service. Also, the period of Laurence Tisch as CEO of CBS was pretty brutal with a lot of cost cutting and huge layoffs. I think all of that, plus the 1994/1995 affiliation realignment and loss of the NFL really hurt CBS. Once you're at the bottom of the pack, it's really had to affect change internally. A more recent and overlooked (in my opinion) example of CBS fumbling things is CBSN. CBS beat everybody to the punch in doing streaming news more than a decade ago, but they completely squandered their lead in that space. NBC and ABC have far more compelling and comprehensive streaming products now. I think Fox's Live Now even gets more eyeballs than CBSN (or whatever it's called now) at a fraction of the production cost.

I believe that after Cronkite left and Rather took over, that was the beginning of their woes. The transition period was alright and ratings were stable but around the beginning of the 80s was when the cracks started to show not only for CBS News but for CBS as a whole. CBS in the 80s and 90s was a whirlwind of mismanagement and terrible business decisions. CBS became both too big to fail and too complacent, making decisions that not only affected the CBS network but the company as a whole. They started to sell off a large amount of assets to other companies in a futile attempt to drive up cash flow, it kept them stable throughout the 80s but the 90s would see significant declines for CBS as a whole. Despite CBS having some stable programming like Dallas and 60 Minutes for example, CBS could not keep up with ABC and NBC which combined had more stability and better programming throughout all their divisions. The most notable example of CBS' decline has to be the year of 1995 when CBS lost stations that defected to FOX. It was the climax of a buildup that not only involved some stations defecting from CBS but also the loss of value that a CBS affiliation once gave a station. FOX as a whole took advantage by not only getting NFC rights for the NFL but by cutting a deal with New World which while involving some ABC and NBC stations, hit CBS the hardest. Most of the new CBS stations were UHF stations which to this day are still struggling to get a foothold in their respective markets, while some stations were VHF, very few of said stations were upgrades when compared to their previous stations; especially KYW which despite the lower channel number didn't have the prestige or notability that WCAU has/had. And not much needs to be mentioned about the disastrous and misguided 1995 season. While CBS has been more stable in terms of entertainment and sports programming, their news division has fallen from stability to constant disarray. Their attempts to compete in the morning show space dominated by Today and GMA has always been mostly lackluster but the loss of Rather and inability to replace Rather is still seen as a sore spot for CBS. CBS has gone through several iterations of formats and hosts for programs not named 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning. The list of previous hosts for the CBS Evening News is longer than NBC and ABC's respective Evening news programs combined. In addition, no host since Rather has been able to provide stability for the CBS Evening News. While Scott Pelly's version of the CBS Evening News was the best since Rather, the ratings and monetary performance of said program pales in comparison to the Rather era where despite being 3rd, advertisers were able to rely on it for it's consistency and familiarity. CBS News brass has no faith in the show to give the host a chance to establish their tenue and because of that, nobody really sees the CBS Evening News as legitimate competition. And if the CBS Evening News isn't reliable than why watch CBS Mornings as well? The only bright spot is 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning and that is telling of itself. I honestly don't think we're getting another Cronkite or Rather and I feel like the glory days past, present and future of CBS News are long gone. They'll be lucky if they make it to see the 2030s and that's me being optimistic.

Here's hoping AccuWeather gets a new look for those gfx. They are lacking so much. -- Matt

Retransmission Consent most likely. Satellite coverage, less OTA coverage in the digital era and zip code accuracy for digital delivery of OTT contents make for hard lines that differentiate between DMAs and viewing areas.

I always figured this stupid model (signing on six-seven LPTVs to take on the big station in town and grab all the RTC while pissing off viewers used to big city stations) would bomb, and I've sadly been proven right. It can only work in markets like Victoria and Lima because there's nothing real to replace. Once you mess with an actual adjacent market (here, and Lafayette, Indiana), it never goes well at all.

Exactly. I hope his son with the heart defect is okay.

I don't know the answer for WSVN, but I worked at a station in the Mountain time zone which would deal with this. 9pm news was pre-taped earlier in the evening for the secondary channel. As soon as football ended on the main channel the news went live with a shrink-to-fit show until the top of the hour when the live 10pm news started.

One of my favorite Reddit posts lately while following this week’s elections…

Looks like it was sometime between Sept 19 and Sept 26.

This company is PIX11's godfather, so that's another kettle of fish, especially since the brother in issue lost.

Luckily for him, no one watches NewsNation, so it doesn't really matter.

Yeah, that's definitely true, and it certainly beats going with a domain like WeAreIndyDOTCom or something that reeks of the Nexstar of old.

The mic flags recently have been FOX59/CBS4 with the state of Indiana between both. They already use the same reporters at both stations and sometimes the same anchors and meteorologists as need be. Even after getting CBS, FOX59 still has better name recognition than WTTV.

This must've happened recently, but WXIN and WTTV now share the same website. FOX59.com is the main domain, as cbs4indy.com redirects to FOX59.com

John Dickerson announced his “Report’s Notebook” essays won a Walter Cronkite Award. His essays would be prefect for PBS (if it wasn’t for the cuts there also).

Feels like a knockoff of WPIX.

I just learned about this one and this one has shocked me and saddened me. WFOR's entertainment and food guru extraordinaire, Lisa Petrillo, was among the layoffs. She was there for 25 years, since 2000. But alas, out the door she went. This cryptic post has me thinking she's not done in local TV in some way so I'll keep an eye on it. But this one is a shocker as she's been on local TV for as long as I've nearly been alive and was really one of WFOR's shining stars (no pun intended considering what she covered). https://www.instagram.com/p/DQfQi1xjpZ2/?img_index=1&igsh=MWRhYXRyNmljdm44ag==

St. Joseph doesn't have enough economic potential for two TV newsrooms. KQTV stood alone in the market for decades before NPG's TV venture.

As someone who watched him for years at WCBS (and may be biased), I certainly hope he gets a chance to stay. Ideally, I don't think they should give him any co-anchor. I think Maurice overall is perfect fit for the Evening News, and just as talented and can compete against David and Tom. I also liked John Dickerson but agreed he should have been FTN host and not bumped around to different positions/timeslots, and I don't think he was the best fit for the Evening news.

The early days of cable TV...WTCG/Atlanta. Promos and station IDs from 1979, just prior to becoming WTBS: