WWUpdate

WBBM, Chicago, 10 p.m., 1979:

A 1982 CBS News report on the national news explosion of the early '80s:

On the subject of small TV stations, here's a look at a station described as "America's smallest and lowest-rated" -- including its three-person news department -- from about 40 years ago:

I don't know if this was the only reason, but at the time, the news divisions of NBC's five O&Os were under direct control of NBC News and their news directors were also NBC's bureau chiefs. (Reuven Frank talks about this in his biography.)

And speaking of towns barely able to support news operations, here's a special Cub Scout open from the now-defunct KNAZ in Flagstaff, Arizona: If the set looks vaguely familiar, it was a hand-me-down from sister station KPNX in Phoenix:

WMAQ, Chicago; 10 p.m., 1967 (We've seen brief clips of this newscast before, but I don't remember ever seeing the whole thing):

With Phoenix once again shattering daily temperature records, I thought I'd repost this -- and by the way, the meteorologist in the clip, Royal Norman, is still at KTVK:

KNXT's The Big News from 1972:

A year later, both Coleen Williams and the newsroom set were gone:

WLS news teases, promos, open, bumpers, etc. from 1994:

This just-uploaded clip contains a complete KNBC open from the Newservice era (at the 2:28 mark):

From Tucson, here's KGUN's 50th anniversary special, 2006:

Bob Wallace, a longtime WBBM personality, has died. For years, he was best known for his light-hearted feature reports, but here's a clip of him sitting in for Bill Kurtis in 1974: Here's WBBM's obit: https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/05/04/cbs2-bob-wallace-obit/

A couple of newly uploaded clips featuring my absolutely favorite era of CNN (in terms of music, graphics, set, and just overall look & feel):

Mark Giangreco's interview from earlier today:

KCBS, Los Angeles; 11 p.m., 1985:

For those who missed this one, the URL has changed:

WGN, Chicago; 9 p.m. (delayed), 1983. This was the last full year of the John Drury era at WGN. In 1984, Drury would rejoin WLS, where he would remain the 10 p.m. anchor until his retirement in 2002:

Another freshy uploaded WMAQ clip, this time the 10 p.m. news from 1982. The station was still using the NewsCenter 5 branding in the open -- but, as you can see here, it was already being phased out, with even the lower-thirds referring to Channel 5 News:

Interesting to see the late Ed Schultz (MSNBC, RT) in the open.

Another informative read about WMAQ's Springer/Marin/Magers fiasco: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-05-18-9705180136-story.html Following the turmoil of May 1997, WMAQ adopted a new name for its newscast in June -- NewsChannel 5. Clips from that era are rare on YT, but here's an almost complete (delayed) 10 p.m. newscast from 1998:

For the record, here's that newscast, with the introduction to Springer's commentary beginning at the 13:30 mark: Ron Magers would anchor his last newscast two weeks later. Here's more on the events from that May on the website set up many years ago by former WMAQ reporter Rich Samuels: https://richsamuels.com/nbcmm/era.html

By the way, here's the above newscast in its entirety:

That Vimeo channel is a great find. Among the uploads so far is another farewell by Carol Marin -- the final edition of her 10 p.m. WBBM newscast, an ill-fated experiment from 2000 intended to bring more in-depth, issue-focused reporting to commercial television. You'll find her concluding remarks at the 29:35 mark:

This was posted here many years ago, but since we're on the subject of Ron Magers' early Chicago career, it's perhaps worth revisiting... KTCA, the PBS station in the Twin Cities, aired a long, thoughtful report about Magers several months after he had moved from KSTP to WMAQ: