Samantha

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:

CBS is trying to make something of its morning show and is clearly getting somewhere in that effort. Obtaining clearance from holdout affiliates who have had local programs in that hour for an eternity is probably a priority for the network.

You could make a case that KPHO's 6:30 newscast has been its flagship for the past decade, which includes most of the good ratings history for the station. In any event, they didn't face any competition until KNXV extended its 6pm news to an hour — a fairly recent development.

Cluster centralization makes sense, as much as we abhor it a bit around here. I know the Ackerley stations were rather connected at one point.

There are two more KMGH reels on that account... (I would date the one posted to 1980 BTW. That is definitely a new news theme, and I'm fairly sure that's a young Roger Thompson VO too.) One has Bill O'Reilly! (This is the oldest of the three.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=mg9VaLAiXUc;t=68 As to the VO, I do believe that's Thompson. Get this quote from a Q&A done with Beau Weaver, who would at one point also be the voice of KMGH... The first paragraph strongly indicates Thompson was a VO and this was in the early 80s. I've added a few brackets to clarify.

It's the end of local news production in Toledo, where Sinclair has decided to shift the actual production of its WNWO newscasts to South Bend and occasion some layoffs in the process. The reporters, meteorologists and apparently the actual news set will remain in Toledo, but the entire backend operations will move to WSBT.

Various KMID promos, in fact, featuring weatherman J. Gordon Lunn...

I definitely recognized the WBNS pack when I saw this. Didn't know about WPMT.