WWUpdate

Interesting! Bill Close is perhaps best known outside Phoenix for being held hostage on the air in 1982:

Below is another interesting clip from earlier in 1978 -- "ABC Evening News" before the launch of "World News Tonight," but after Roone Arledge had taken over ABC News. Barbara Matusow describes that transition period in her 1983 book The Evening Stars: The Making of the Network News Anchor: "[Arledge's] most immediate problem was what to do the incompatible team of Barbara Walters and Harry Reasoner. Arledge's initial move was to buy time by making format changes designed to minimize their impact on the Evening News while he was working on a replacement formula. "Two-shots" were eliminated, meaning that Walters and Reasoner were not shown together on the screen, and something called a "whip-around" was introduced -- correspondents handing off their reports directly to each other instead of going back to the anchor for introductions. Subanchors began to appear: Frank Reynolds was featured prominently in Washington, as was Peter Jennings from various European capitals." In other words, the final reincarnation of the "ABC Evening News" already looked a bit like "World News Tonight," which launched a few months later. (As the following clip for two years earlier illustrates, "ABC Evening News" before Arledge was very different: )

This is an old YouTube video, but I don't remember seeing it here: several clips of the legendary Phoenix chopper pilot Jerry Foster in action on KTVK in the mid-'90s (Foster first became famous as KPNX's pilot). And here's a clip of KSAZ from the same YouTube channel and the same general time period (presumably after the affiliation switch, but before KSAZ adopted the characteristic Fox branding):

Staying in Phoenix, here's a relatively long clip of a 1993 (ABC-era) KTVK newscast anchored by Patti Kirkpatrick and Cameron Harper (as seen on C-SPAN): http://c-spanvideo.org/program/ArizonaSena

I found another clip of KTVK from the ABC era -- at least I haven't seen it before --; a behind-the-scenes look at KTVK's broadcasts from Chicago during the 1993 NBA Finals, when the Suns and the Bulls went head-to-head and KTVK's newscasts originated from the Windy City: http://vimeo.com/75368900

I've seen that logo in some Phoenix edition TV Guides from 1980 or 1981. I think they dropped the KIII-style circle 3 logo when then ditched Total News and adopted the Eyewitness News branding. Speaking of NMSA, it lists The News Image as KTVK's 1981 theme. Are any clips from that period available online? I don't remember seeing any in NewsActive3's compilations, for instance.

Wow! That's really a great find! (Clips of KTVK from the station's ABC era are pretty rare. I didn't even know that KTVK used the WNT theme.)

From 1992, here's a single-day montage of First Thing in the Morning, a zany morning show that aired on WMAQ in Chicago in the early 1990s, anchored by Bob Sirott and Allison Rosati: Bob Sirott later moved to WFLD, where he anchored an equally zany morning show -- called Fox Thing in the Morning.

BTW, can anyone identify the Spanish-language station using the MCTYW theme and the Telenoticas de Accion brand at the 9:22 mark in the clip above? Thanks in advance.

YouTube user Sebastian Albaran has uploaded several compilations of 1980s news opens from around the world: Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WMg84wHrjM Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCqBpdxL3Sw Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5sDAlvJ_tY Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjSUKN8G1Ow Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3DMZjrNhKQ

WBBM, Chicago; 6PM news with Bill Kurtis and Mort Crim, 1978:

Two more WLS clips... A promo from 1993: And the weekend 10PM news from 1981:

WLS, Chicago, 5PM, 1993:

WLS, Chicago, 10PM, 1983 (seen before, but as a short, low quality clip): WLS, Chicago, 10PM, 1990:

From Chicago, a compilation of WGN opens from the 1970s onward: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqN1Jia-KBc

On today's date 19 years ago, American Eagle Flight 4184 crashed while making its approach to Chicago's O'Hare Airport. I was in Chicago at the time and remember watching WBBM's coverage of the accident:

This isn't really a news open, but I love it. It's the title sequence for Whicker's World, a U.K. series featuring globe-trotting reports/travelogues by journalist Alan Whicker. This one is from his 1980 California episode: According to a YT comment, the spectacular final shot isn't even a montage!

In 1986, a camera crew was shooting behind-the-scenes footage in the CNN newsroom when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. Here's some of that footage:

WBBM, Chicago, weekend news, 1978: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4:

A compilation of CNN International news opens, 1993-1994: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocnb1M5AWZM

WBBM, Chicago, 6PM, 1985:

From Phoenix, KTVK's Good Morning Arizona hosted by Jodi Applegate, open, December 1995, about a year after the former ABC affiliate became an independent:

WBBM, Chicago, 5PM news, 1990: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6hRfxv92k[/media]

Here's a 1978 edition of ABC's World News Tonight (the captioned version, as seen on PBS station WTTW) -- pre-revolutionary unrest in Iran is the lead story:

WLS, Chicago, 6PM Sunday news open, 1980: