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KCST' date=' 1983: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_hkw27a00 (Ponderosa

One of my favorite pieces of production music!

 

KNXV' date=' 1996: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_cdw27a00 (Look, that set's a spaceship!)

I really like their "newsroom" shot with the anchors in the background:

 

knxv-1996-1a_zps6114bcc1.png

 

(Note that KNXV used ABC News L3s at the time. This was to remind viewers that KNXV was the new ABC affiliate in Phoenix. KPHO did the same with CBS News L3s for a while.)

 

KNXV was a really innovative station at the time, but became far more conventional by 1997. Here's an interesting -- but long -- article from that year explaining how the station had changed:

 

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-04-03/news/chit-happens/

 

And this is how KNXV's station manager assessed the news operations of the five English-language Phoenix stations in 1997:

 

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-04-03/news/the-market-is-ripe-for-the-taking/full/

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)

Here are a couple of YouTube oldies relevant to our discussion of mid-1990s Phoenix TV...

 

...two promos for KTVK's "Good Evening Arizona," the 90-minute evening newscast that launched after KTVK became an independent:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc-hPw_YRzQ

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXd27AFjWg

 

Note how heavily KTVK promoted its link with CNN at this time (presumably to compensate for the loss ABC News programming). Live reports from CNN correspondents were a common feature on KTVK's newscasts. In fact, KTVK was among the nation's top users of satellite air time in the 1990s.

 

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)

 

found another theme and this time it is from the archive: WIBW-TV had an program called "Take Five" back in the early 90's https://archive.org/details/tobacco_jmx27a00 I'm taking an suggestive guess that production music was involved at the time.

 

KPHO only had a 5min 10pm news when they became a CBS affiliate? When did they expand it to a full 35 minutes?

 

Either 1997 or 1998. More likely their 1998 relaunch which actually made them feel like a full news operation:

 

Phoenix also boasts what is believed to be television's briefest local newscast-eight minutes. KPHO-TV Meredith Broadcasting's CBS affiliate, at 10 p.m. serves up four minutes of news, followed by a two-minute commercial break and then one minute each for weather and sports. Then it's off to Seinfeld at 10:08.

The "Arizona 5-Minute News" still managed to place second in the ratings, however, once KNXV's challenge faded out.

WWBT's "The Scene Tonight" (from 1977!) with Charles Fishburne.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL5xGtJxzAw

 

I remember watching him on WTVR in the '90s and now he's on WCVE-FM.

 

 

Speaking of WCVE, here's a sign on from WCVE-TV (audio only) from 1972:

 

A weather report from 1984 from WXEX (now WRIC; their studios were in Petersburg at the time):

 

WHFV (defunct TV station in Fredericksburg, VA; was affiliated with NBC) sign-off from 1973, audio only:

 

WVIR (Charlottesville, VA) 1973 sign-off, audio only:

I stumbled upon an old demo reel for former KTVK anchor Liz Habib, who left the station in 2003 -- it gives you some idea of what KTVK looked like during the first decade of its existence as an independent station:

 

WVEC 11pm newscast from February 6, 1996... 18 years ago today:

 

And here's the 8 p.m. news from Antenne 2 in France on today's date 36 years ago:

 

 

(The set reminds me a bit of the one used by KABC at the time.)

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)

KTBC 5 & 10PM Talent Open (1989) -

WPLG Eyewitness News Nightbeat (8/14/98) -

WPLG Eyewitness News Nightbeat (3/25/96) -

WPLG Eyewitness News at 6PM (11/30/90) -

WCIX (WFOR) Action News at 11PM (4/28/95) -

WCIX (WFOR) Action News at 11PM (11/26/89) -

WTVJ Channel 4 News Nightcast (10/13/90) -

WTVJ Channel 4 News Nightcast (11/30/90) -

 

You'll find all full newscast and game show episodes on my YT site: http://www.youtube.com/user/1TexasTV/

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:

 

Hey Dontryl, I already PMed you about this, but: Would you please repost the KTBC 1983 intro that has the KDFW 1979 theme? KTBC's use of that theme still isn't listed on NMSA, and if we could have an audio sample again...

 

Hey Dontryl, I already PMed you about this, but: Would you please repost the KTBC 1983 intro that has the KDFW 1979 theme? KTBC's use of that theme still isn't listed on NMSA, and if we could have an audio sample again...

 

You people got your wish, and here it is. KTBC 10pm Open (1983).

 

You people got your wish, and here it is. KTBC 10pm Open (1983).

 

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 commenter on one of the WVTM clips on Sean McPhail's old account recalled KTVI using the theme. (Since that account was deleted, I can't verify.)

 

There is no pre-84 WSTM newscast footage online (save for a few clean "master" versions of individual reports), but there is a promo for Syracuse Bowls with the early-80s Times-Mirror logo design in evidence, so I'd bet they used the theme too.

 

Are KDFW 1979 and KHOU-WISH 1981 the only early examples of packages which were not only station-group-wide, but station-group-*exclusive*? (Network O&Os/affiliates don't count.)

 

Yes, but it originated on WFIL, which was not Gateway. "KDFW 1979" seems to have been exclusive to the Times-Mirror group, and "KHOU-WISH 1981" seems to have been exclusive to the Corinthian group.

 

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.)

 

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.)

 

WOWK had adopted a new theme by 1993, if not earlier.

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