Classic Video Thread (pre-2008)

[scrabbleship 429]

Say no more, my friend:

 

After seeing this is from the same person who uploaded the snippet from February 2002, I could not hit the Subscribe button fast enough. That graphics change was a real downgrade and looks even worse with 15+ years of hindsight.

 

I'm compelled to mention the forgotten fact that the entire time Today was three hours that the 9:25/9:55 weather was prerecorded. This explains the signoff at the end of this update.

[bixpchiphead 105]

both WJBK & WXYZ would bring in many columnist from the paper on the airwaves, and yeah that strike seem like it went on forever.

In the midst of the strike, legendary WJR Radio morning man J P McCarthy died after a short aggressive illness, another Motown media legend, Free Press columnist Bob Talbert crossed the picket line to write the front page obit in the Freep, becoming a "scab" in the process. Talbert himself passed three or four years later.

[hmaxhanson 650]

Many of these opens we've seen in NewsActive3 or Compubit compilations, while there a few that are completly new!

Including this open from KMID:

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

Vintage News 8 San Diego

 

KSTP Tornado coverage pt.1

 

KSTP Tornado coverage pt.2

 

KTHV 1985 Newsbreak

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

WKBD 1999 Newscast

 

WKBD 1996 newsbreak

 

WWLP 1985 news intro

[Info Junkie 1286]

Many of these opens we've seen in NewsActive3 or Compubit compilations, while there a few that are completly new!

Including this open from KMID:

So KMTV’s 1993 Theme is really the KDFW 1990 Theme (or it really should be WKBD 1988?)

 

After seeing this is from the same person who uploaded the snippet from February 2002, I could not hit the Subscribe button fast enough. That graphics change was a real downgrade and looks even worse with 15+ years of hindsight.

 

I'm compelled to mention the forgotten fact that the entire time Today was three hours that the 9:25/9:55 weather was prerecorded. This explains the signoff at the end of this update.

I might add that at 2:47 in this video is a car commercial voiced by the guy associated with WWOR and KRIV. And he sounds like he’s going to pop a vein.

[Samantha 2895]

Did KTVO call up WDAM and have them do their open?

 

The WGEM open uses the WUAB/WICU syndicated graphics.

 

The compilation is killer! The long KCNC 5pm tease is excellent.

 

There's also one of just St. Louis and KC from him:

 

[ChesapeakeTV 311]

That 90s montage there is a pretty awesome one there! Lots of goodies.

 

The KQTV theme strikes me as being a Network track - and with a really good look for the market and time at that.

 

And holy crap, it's KTVO and WGEM anything!

[Samantha 2895]

That 90s montage there is a pretty awesome one there! Lots of goodies.

 

The KQTV theme strikes me as being a Network track - and with a really good look for the market and time at that.

 

And holy crap, it's KTVO and WGEM anything!

 

Yeah, that KQTV theme oozes Network. KTVO, KHQA and WGEM are extremely rare news-wise.

 

As to the KTVO/WDAM similarities, both were owned by Federal Broadcasting. Compare the KTVO open to what WDAM had in the end-of-80s to 1994/95 period. The "NEWS" logos are almost exactly the same. And the open animation and style are fairly similar, though WDAM's is more elaborate.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JnEufaZ-ek

 

[MEDIA=vimeo]244040736[/MEDIA] (17:28)

 

Also worth noting is the brief Rockies spring training shot, which shows a KOLD outfield ad that must be from 1993, or maybe a little earlier if it was up for the Indians when they were at Hi Corbett (oddly it must have stayed up in '94 even though CBS lost the World Series):

 

 

The KOLD logo from this period is extremely rare, and so too is footage of the station.

[hmaxhanson 650]

Here's another rare goodie, KAKE News 10 from October 2, 1995 anchored of course by Kansas TV legend Larry Hatteberg. The open and graphics are very ahead of its time (possibly a Vance package?), and makes Wichita look like a huge metropolitan city. And, Multimedia Broadcasting had a cable company?

 

[Samantha 2895]

Hey @Info Junkie you said you wanted more mid-90s KAKE because of those 2D graphics...

[T.L. Hughes 883]

And, Multimedia Broadcasting had a cable company?

 

Yes, after doing some research, here's a brief history of Multimedia Cablevision. The cable system began in 1979, when Multimedia Inc. purchased 35% of Wichita's Aircapital Cablevision from Kansas State Network Inc. (yes, that Kansas State Network, apparently), in a deal in which it also was given the option to acquire the remaining 65% at a later date. In 1980, it was granted the franchise rights to build a cable system in the Oak Lawn suburb of Chicago. It expanded into suburban areas of Oklahoma City and Tulsa during 1980 and 1981 (the cities themselves -- including some adjacent unincorporated communities like my hometown, the OKC suburb of Forest Park -- were served by Cox Cable and Tulsa Cable Television, respectively [the latter of which was eventually acquired by TCI, which transferred the Tulsa system to Cox in 2000]).

 

Gannett sold the cable division -- which, by that point, operated systems in Oklahoma, Kansas and North Carolina -- to Cox Communications in 1999, effectively giving the latter universal reach throughout Oklahoma's two largest cities. (Multimedia was almost forced to sell off its suburban Oklahoma City systems when it merged into the Gannett Company in 1995, because of Gannett's ownership of KOCO-TV at the time and FCC rules repealed in 2003 that banned common ownership of a cable system and a television station in the same market, though it was allowed to keep those systems under a waiver until Gannett swapped KOCO and WLWT to Hearst-Argyle Television in 1997.)

[Info Junkie 1286]

Here's another rare goodie, KAKE News 10 from October 2, 1995 anchored of course by Kansas TV legend Larry Hatteberg. The open and graphics are very ahead of its time (possibly a Vance package?), and makes Wichita look like a huge metropolitan city. And, Multimedia Broadcasting had a cable company?

 

WOOOWWWWW.... *mind blown*

 

Say hello to Minneapolis-St. Paul!

 

Btw if you’re wondering the first thing I do when I make news open compilations is go through ALL of NewsActive3’s compilations and take notes on where a specific station open is in there (ex: WBAL’s 1995 open pops up in Various Newscast Opens Part 21 at 6:25.) This can take up to several weeks.

[RetroCirq 148]

Sometimes it's good to pass it on, since one of our friends here posted up the vids, it's time to share the favor: A rare look at THE Ten O'Clock News (formerly The News at Ten) off WLVI-TV56 in Boston in 1995, Week 3 of the then-new WB network.

 

[TheRolyPoly 2395]

Sometimes it's good to pass it on, since one of our friends here posted up the vids, it's time to share the favor: A rare look at THE Ten O'Clock News (formerly The News at Ten) off WLVI-TV56 in Boston in 1995, Day 3 of the then-new WB network.

 

 

But it launched on January 11th, 1995 and this is early February?

[Samantha 2895]

The WLVI open is interesting. Very WGN-esque.

 

Here's its competitor, the WBZ 10pm for WSBK, from two nights prior:

 

[WWUpdate 1292]

The WLVI open is interesting. Very WGN-esque.

 

It's very similar to this WGN open in particular:

 

[Info Junkie 1286]

The WLVI open is interesting. Very WGN-esque.

 

Here's its competitor, the WBZ 10pm for WSBK, from two nights prior:

 

And what’s odd is that this open debuted during the Gannett era - in fact the waning days of the Gannett era, as you had posted in the Discovered composers & publishers of music themes thread:

 

“WLVI: Channel 56 is a last-minute entrant in the fall set-remodeling contest. Its "10 O'Clock News" gets a makeover Oct. 25 - which, not-so-coincidentally, is the same day WSBK-TV (Ch. 38) begins broadcasting a WBZ-produced 10 p.m. newscast.

 

Look for a new anchor desk, an expanded background with brighter colors and new computer-controlled lighting. The station will also modify its graphics design to match the set changes.”

 

This was from October 1993, and Gannett would sell the station the next month, finalizing the sale to Tribune in 1994.

 

This video also shows proof (17:37):

[WWUpdate 1292]

WLS, Chicago; 11:30 a.m., 1997:

 

[Samantha 2895]

More Eric King goodies.

 

WRBL in 1995 looked...pretty pedestrian:

 

 

Another KMID newscast from 1995, this time at 6pm:

 

 

WTVG's 13 Action News in 1997:

 

 

WFLA in February 1998:

 

[onthesea 292]

WLS, Chicago; 11:30 a.m., 1997:

 

I can't believe that the #1 station in one of the country's largest markets had a horrible news set! It was 1997, not 1978!

[WWUpdate 1292]

From Phoenix, a few KPNX teases and promos, 1995:

 

[WWUpdate 1292]

I can't believe that the #1 station in one of the country's largest markets had a horrible news set! It was 1997, not 1978!

 

WLS, a very conservative station, used that KABC-style setup for ages -- since 1984 (I believe). Only the backdrop and the shape of the desk changed slightly over all those years.

 

 

I like their early '80s set better:

 

[WWUpdate 1292]

In this 1984 clip, WLS is using a blue backdrop because of the election, so the similarity to the '90s look is even more apparent:

 

[TSSZNews 1051]

I can't believe that the #1 station in one of the country's largest markets had a horrible news set! It was 1997, not 1978!

 

It was, arguably, the ABC O&O's formula for success in the 90s: Copying WPVI.

 

I think only WTVG, WJRT, and WTVD were doing anything resembling a deviation at the time.

 

Even today, all the major O&Os have their video wall backdrops and what do they do? For most it's just a still image of the skyline.

 

If any of them could find a way to make the blue wall look attractive on a monitor bank today, they'd probably do it!