Samantha

He might have been incredibly frugal but his stations were decent. Buddy Bostick, who founded KWTX-TV, died Wednesday at the age of 98. Here's the piece of advice he left us in 1985 on the topic of news music... "Buy the music... Buy it just like you buy your cameras and like you buy your transmitters. When you buy it, you own it and you use it until it is no good and you can throw it away."

Dicey quality, but WTOV in 1981 with the solo from Billy Joel's Angry Young Man for the open! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ceNR48IUA

WICD bumper...is this NewScore? From 1987:

No open here, but WJTC? In 1985? With a newscast? I had to share this. There's also some WEAR in here. The topic: the closure of a local radio station. And if you like Rockford, check out WIFR in 1998: If neither of those float your boat...WSAZ promos from the end of the 70s with Part of Your Life! Or KFMB in 1989? (Featuring a full close of the Silvertree theme and an editorial!) Or WOWL from the same year?

The open to the WSIU "SIU Night Report" in 1990, and then in 1991: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=1dHV5R-xuQ4;t=20

WKBN 1990!

It's unmistakably him — the tapes are in just as interesting quality, there's the second of something else spliced on the end... Here are some samples...

Now that I've gotten Joplin out of the way, let's go to where America's day begins for what is by far the oldest news open we've ever had from Guam! (It's in the NMSA, but I've never seen it before.) Here's a double feature: WWBT 1984 with WLIG 1986 and WWBT 1986 with WPXI 1981:

[quote name='ChesapeakeTV']This is Tuesday[I]E[/I], not Tuesday[I]3[/I]...but still, yet another thing to throw into the Joplin blender... At this point this feels like a topic for a @Raymie article...[/QUOTE] Not [I]more[/I] Joplin... I'm putting this open closer to 1982, when we know Williams came to KOAM. (Wikipedia has him there 1981-82, [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myqkChJXtII']Dowe Quick says he arrived at KOAM in 1982[/URL]...) Additionally in August 1982, Larry Wheeler left KOAM to work at WLOS. It does not match the open that was used with the Network Music EWN theme [URL='http://jmp.sh/Tq3m48P'](here's how that looked)[/URL]. I always pegged that around 1982-83, potentially closer to KOAM's 1982 switch in networks. Knowing what we know now, that could very well have been part of an open set that debuted with the network switch. "NEWSEVEN" was the name used in the late 70s so this makes sense. Those opens have to come before the Action 7 News era (Get to Know Us) which lasted from 1984 to 1986. For more information, I have kept updated my [URL='https://www.facebook.com/john.baccala/videos/2072332325617/']Correcting Joplin[/URL] thread.

By the fall of 1993, KREM had finally ditched the Palmer package: And this 1993 WBAL open is an unholy matchup of some KPRC-esque things, the CBS news graphics of the period etc... No presentation, but how did this WCBI logo survive into the 90s??? And KENS in 1998:

WWOR, 23 years ago today:

Wowza! That was actually approved and went to air.

KAPP in 1990:

Arizona Republic, June 30, 1984... Unfortunately, there is no KPHO from this era to provide an audio sample of this theme. EDIT: I believe it is this. This open was long in the tooth by this time, I suspect: April 30, 1993... That explains some things, including the 1992 open... It also confirms something I've always suspected. News Station did not debut until spring '93. "Real Life, Real News" was used from about 1990. October 27, 1996... (Impact News debuted in the fall of 96)

Right, but this is within the span of a year. Here's another KERO bump from the period: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=ic29_I2R1Sk;t=69

I dunno on that one. KGET picked it up the next year. That might be an oddity.

WIVB 1987: The last segment of a WKBN newscast from 1989:

Some small crumbs of KTSP in 1993/94 (definitely Pinnacle era):

Here's a doozy of a lede...

That's a much more consistent logo with the rest of the KING/Tegna look. Meanwhile, Azteca's moving up in Charlotte and Sacramento and already did so in Boston. It's on the prowl as it tries to get out of the ratings basement.

That KCOP open with the tease actually might be one of the slickest news opens of the 90s.

Well that would explain some of it.

Well that was cheesy...and unusual. Was the station in that much risk of losing their network?

WOLF is breaking from the arrangement and placed ads in various publications in October advertising positions for a news operation.

KREM in 1993 - from an unseen set of opens, too: