Samantha

Hummingbird, and out of Nashville, no less! Nice find! Their only other known news theme is that WEAR 1994 custom package. Should have known that a local company would have done the WSMV stuff. Well, they also apparently did some WJLA promos from the mid 80s: And a 1992 KCRA promo: And the mid-90s "Here's 2 St. Louis" campaign KTVI used when they went Fox: On the subject of WSMV, they commissioned JAM's Yours Truly—they're the credited commissioner on the JAM site, the image songs were originally written with Nashville references, and Nashville native John Young (instead of Charlie Van Dyke) voices the demo.

I wouldn't post an EBS message under normal circumstances, but this one's pretty chilling: it's from the LA riots of 1992, announcing expanded curfew boundaries. KCAL's presentation of the whole thing, over aerial shots of buildings on fire, is also peculiar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRCjbpAj_kM A WTHR newsbreak from 1994, still with the Hello package's 90s updates: WDIO/WIRT 10pm open, 1990, The Leading Edge. Complete with sponsorship tag right in the open!: WANE full 1987 newscast. Corinthian-era logo plus the WLOX 1990 theme, previously unknown for WANE: WLOS full 1987 newscast. With the music of locally-based VTS Productions, "Count On": The matching 6pm open also shows a Turn To ID with the then-new look. Interesting combo: A KDFI "Texas 27" news break from 1985: 10 minutes of WLEX news from 1985, no open but there is a short close: WHBQ 1979, Weekend Report: WEVU, a show called "Lunsford at Large" featuring John Lunsford of the Naples Daily News. The music is production music, "The Winning Instant" from Killer Tracks:

I know that—I was just pointing out that it had kinda gotten that way by the mid-80s. (The theme and the opens did not age well at all and stuck out like sore thumbs. In the mid-90s someone at Gateway came to their senses and began modernizing their stations' image.)

By the mid-80s, you could certainly say that of the Action News Theme persisting on the Gateway stations (WTAJ, WBNG, WOWK and WLYH) into the 90s. In fact WTAJ commissioned its own version of the theme.

Even the set is identical to WHTM! I wonder if KTVI, WSTM and WETM used this package (it's highly likely). According to the NMSA WSTM didn't use The News Image until 1984. Of course, WETM would be a much harder find.

A WBNG 1989 news break—a rare example of a Gateway station not using the Action News Theme. Instead, it's the WJSU 1985 1988 Theme, a known CBS affiliate package based around the campaign of "Television You Can Feel" and forever incorrectly dated in the NMSA:

My guess is that the second is WMYD, which would form a duopoly with WXYZ. No other Granite station is interesting enough to Scripps. (did not see NewsMaster's above post)

Once upon a time, a guy worked at WEAR and recorded some opens: (close only, This Week with David Brinkley; newscast still known as "Gulf Coast News 3") (WBRZ 1985 Theme!) (new cut of WBRZ '85, 3 in the Morning) (WBRZ 1985 Theme, really late) (new cut of the Hummingbird custom theme; station moved into new building)

Either 1997 or 1998. More likely their 1998 relaunch which actually made them feel like a full news operation: The "Arizona 5-Minute News" still managed to place second in the ratings, however, once KNXV's challenge faded out.

WCPO with Newschannel, 1987. Can't find this in Archive but that's where it's from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwi_y7VJw_E WFLA with Power News, early 90s: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_zlx27a00 KMOL in 1989 with Spirit: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_cox27a00 WHEC 1988 with PNP: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_erw27a00 (at 3:00 there's an open for another program using PNP, this tape is completely mislabeled)

I just learned a lot about KNXV. Now I feel sad that we have a problem getting any good footage from their early years. I would love to see the first newscast they produced.

That certainly explains a lot. WLNS, 1987 (haven't found in Archive yet): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5PoGkf-hHM (News 88) KCST, 1983: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_hkw27a00 (Ponderosa) KNXV, 1996: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_cdw27a00 (Look, that set's a spaceship!) WSBT and WNDU, c1986: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_gtw27a00 (Thematic Package for WSBT) KCNC First News, 1992: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_qry27a00 (Image IV Mk II) WTMJ 1987: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_tyw27a00 (Image Leader)

When I saw "WTSP" and "1988" (it's mis-dated, this is November 1989 judging by the story) I knew it was worth checking out. It's graphically similar to the and I suspect John Christopher Burns either was an inspiration or partially involved (this piece probably had a 3D animator do most of the work).

Me too. The Nightdesk open has Doug Bell with a mic flag featuring a Times New Roman "42", which was what the station and probably what was on hand when WBMG tried its hand at news in 1987. Seattle news opens from 1996, KSTW included!: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_qyv27a00 That sample is further validation of something that makes this special: we have materials from stations that might not be covered (like KSTW as a CBS affiliate, WBMG, WPTF or WGPR) in a more traditional collection. Most of these are high-dial, low-rated UHF outlets with news operations. The original archive's intent to capture any and all news stories about tobacco, regardless of station and reputation, is something critical for its value as one of the country's best sets of news opens. In addition, its timespan — the 1980s and 1990s — opens up many possibilities for news open finds. Here are some of the things we've learned from the Internet Archive: The WFTV 1988 theme has an image campaign/sung jingle, "People You Can Count On" WTVJ used Tuesday16 into 1988 Finds of brand new news themes galore

It might also be 4:30 only. It's not at all like the Silvertree theme ("KFMB 1992").

The Internet Archive is going crazy with new stuff: WBMG, 1989: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_iox27a00 WCIX, 1992: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_mry27a00 WHTM, 1986: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_arw27a00 (KDFW 1979 Theme) WGPR, 1986: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_ohx27a00 WTKR, 1989: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_gox27a00 KEYT, 1992: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_wqy27a00 The WGPR theme is new and ultra rare. Apparently they had a program named "NewScope". Note the WHTM open. This is interesting because each of the three stations that used this theme were owned by Times-Mirror.

The FCC held a meeting earlier this month with public interest groups and cable companies about possible limitations to SSAs.

Yes, I have. WGHP had one of the slickest looks in the country up until Fox put the clamp on the traditionalism of its New World stations. A reel from Miami, 1988. There's a semi-major find: apparently WTVJ had a program called "Newswatch" (that is not a misprint!), and even after Tuesday16 (Reel Radio for WCCO-AM) was phased out from the newscasts it persisted there. Listen at 18:40 for the Tuesday16 signature: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_lmp91f00 In fact, here's the program from 1985, with a different set and host. Yes, this is WTVJ and not WTVG as the title seems to be trying to indicate: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_epp91f00 Also, a full 1994 (ignore the title) WXII newscast with a long open AND long close from the Otis Conner WROC theme, plus about 30 minutes of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_ydy99d00 And KPNX's Arizona Today from 1989: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_rnp91f00 And WTSP with THE ONE FOR ALL (!!), and I know some of you from Tampa Bay have wanted to see this for a long time: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_xnp91f00 There's plenty more, including new themes/theme entries for WFSB, KTVH, KXLF, KKTV, and WFMY.

That's an incredible image for a station. TVbD graphics, one of the best music packages ever composed, and a really unconventional approach. Given the user and the station this is probably from the Internet Archive. Understandably for the focus of a tobacco repository the Piedmont Triad is one of the more extensive markets available.

WLAC's sample sounds different from all the others... And now that you point out the link to NBC... It's a different theme! For WLAC to use that theme would be like KSNF KTVJ using the NBC Newspulse theme in the 70s. When they were a CBS affiliate. That's the worst theme entry I've ever seen in the NMSA because it flies in the face of everything. (Though KOAM, which was an NBC affiliate, probably did use it.)

Listen closely: The News Image at the beginning, in the tease for the story! They probably debuted that in 1981 (at least) or 1982 (in my opinion). The News Image was out by 1984 when KTVK adopted Turn To. Which in turn was out by 1986/87 when KTVK became NewsChannel 3. I think the clip title here is an example of people still calling it that (though KTVK last actually used it in 2002/2003). Also, those Phoenix print ads are something else. I see some of them have the same KTVK 3 logo that was in the billboard, too.

Here's another one, unfortunately not as well framed but in color, from the same era. "A Very Special Season" is here on KTVK:

Not quite a video, but still a real treat of a photo. A 1967 scene of downtown Phoenix, with the Valley National Bank building (known as the Professional Building, it's a historic building but it's vacant now) and a KOOL-TV billboard for "The Big News with Bill Close":

Thanks. Didn't think it'd have a CD number that high. I know Network's music by its sound, especially the sort of stuff that stations actually used.

WKEF 1992 open with another different theme. Network Music production track, can't figure out which one: