Info Junkie

This’ll make all of you guys’ days...

Yep, I (barely) remember those opens when my family watched WNYT back in 2003. I was a little 2-year-old who had an obsession with John Gray (I don’t know why but I was little kid so y’know...) He left that station at the end of the year, 8 months before WNYT debuted a much more beautiful-looking graphics package. And if WRGB’s package WAS Sinclair’s original concept, then I would feel really ashamed if I owned a Sinclair station that would be adopting those. Thank god for the “curves”! Now let’s have a look at WIAT’s mess of a new look (I hope this soon gets pushed aside for the Nexstar CBS package):

WNYT obliterated their 1997 graphics in 2002 by cheaply adding Arial fonts and blue-purple gradients in their L3’s and opens. There isn’t an open during that era shown at all but I found some snippets on the internet archives. This comparison shows the downgrade. Sticking with Albany, rival WRGB did a similar thing with their “Impact” graphics after going HD — their 2014 package made the Sinclair graphics look better! And Raymie’s already talked about WTEN’s attempt to “modernize” their then-6 year old package on this thread a few years ago...

https://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?threads/the-worst-news-opens-of-all-time.3543/page-13#post-194916

Never seen this WKRG open before (November 1992)...

Got any video of it so I can post in the Worst Graphics Thread?

I’m back with more Albany stuff! Never knew Mr. WGN himself did promo work for WNYT... Plus this 1991 report is currently the ONLY surviving footage of their “News 13” era on YouTube after the 1988 house fire video got taken down (and speaking of WGN, Randy Salerno!!!) Whoever has that audio clip of their 1988-1991 open better get that uploaded — that would definitely make my day. If only there was another ewjxn, except that channel would upload vintage Albany clips instead of Phoenix... *sigh*...

A WTVH open with “Production Music: Industrial Power” appears at the beginning

And then was replaced by Jesse Johnson. The other guy, John McKnight, was in the midst of two Atlanta stints - he recently came from WSB-TV and left to upstart WGNX’s 10:00 newscast, and was replaced by WSTM’s Tom Miller. Sheesh, Channel 36 had a huge habit of poaching talent from many other markets... And speaking of John McKnight, this WSB weekend tease from 1985 shows both the old “2” logo, as well as their current one being phased in:

A WTEN interview from idk when (definitely pre-2005, according to research Ryan Nobles was there from 2003 to 2005). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7OQqUpodMs And Beau Weaver tells us what’s coming up next on WGN News at Nine (at least he doesn’t do this at the beginning of the newscast like KDVR!!!)

In memory of the late John Coleman, dean of Chicago weather, and founder of The Weather Channel.

Some WTMJ snippets pop up in this commercial break with an unidentified theme.

A WNYT interview from 1993: Going on the 1993 opens Jim posted back in December, the top story in Albany on April 30, 1993 was a stand-off in Fort Ann, NY, by a guy named Patrick Penders. I say this because, the criminal himself was related to my dad. Penders later died in 2010.

Another thing (if it hasn’t been posted), Chicago weather veteran Jerry Taft has retired.

TO GET BACK ON TOPIC, it looks like Asa Stackel will be possibly the new co-anchor on WNYT’s morning newscast, replacing Phil Bayly. Also it appears Jason Gough has also left, as I was on their “First Warning Weather” app today and saw that he was removed.

As for the May 1986 commercials, that’s a young Doug Paul voicing the Volkswagen commercial at 0:42 (I believe it’s him.) Also WBAL later became one of the first stations to use “Great News” a few months later in 1986, definitely by October: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dBiZy04SkU Also, going back to KSTP, here’s them from 2003:

A look at KSTP’s weekend news in 1990. Includes Stan Turner and a young Scott Chapin (as in his first years VO’ing WSVN young).

Want more? How about some Wichita in 1997 - a (poorly-filmed) KWCH open pops up at 4:59:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N42qFhUlCZY Has anyone ever found WNAC’s 1981 “News 7” open at the very end of this video? Now you have.

Speaking of WNYT, here are some WTOG commercials taken from around the time that the station was in the process of being sold to Viacom, and Hubbard was acquiring WNYT and WHEC in return. All I can say is, Scott Chapin and PSA’s galore!

The squares, yes. Those two stations used them too. As for the flying screens, I believe they were made by EGAD. WNYT debuted them in 1994 when they added a 5 pm newscast and they were the first graphics package with their current “News Channel 13” logo.

Those WHBF opens were uploaded by Ken Gullette, That was two days before I started kindergarten!! Also those graphics were the second time CBS 6 snatched images from WBBM - the short-lived “News In Focus” Package was taken from their “Works For You” era, which itself was already gone by the time WRGB adopted it. The 2000 graphics used during the Enforcer days were also taken from WBBM’s sister station WBZ. Albany TV seems to take graphics and imaging from larger-market stations (WTEN using the 1990 KCBS open and then using the WJBK/WMTW/WDRB open for 11 years, along with the aforementioned WRGB images) and WNYT using KMOV’s “Flying TV screens” Package as well as the “Squares” Package (which may have started at WDSU??)

Back on an Albany tangent, here’s a look at CBS 6 News from the mid 2000s. Don’t know when this was but it had to be early 2006 as Greg Floyd is now at the anchor desk. He replaced Joe Pags around December 2005. Also when did CBS 6 drop Charlie Van Dyke?

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/search/simple/tags:"pl_wnyt_60" This site has LOTS of WNYT goodies, including their “We Know What Matters” era, the problem is... the owner of all the videos has denied permission to play on said website.

(To Mr. NMSA) knock knock... Btw did he ever do any other station besides Runza and the four stations listed?