Classic Video Thread (pre-2008)

[WWUpdate 1290]

This is an old YouTube video, but I don't remember seeing it here: several clips of the legendary Phoenix chopper pilot Jerry Foster in action on KTVK in the mid-'90s (Foster first became famous as KPNX's pilot).

 

 

And here's a clip of KSAZ from the same YouTube channel and the same general time period (presumably after the affiliation switch, but before KSAZ adopted the characteristic Fox branding):

 

[Samantha 2878]

That's probably 1995. It's got the very short lived "10 News" branding that was used after the station became a Fox outlet.

 

———

 

Found thanks to an NMSA tip:

 

KECH 1986 newscast (The News Image). The station later became KWVT, then KHSP and KBSP with home shopping, then KPXG:

[10Viewer 319]

WNAC-Ch. 7 (Boston) 1979 news open (at 1:41):

 

 

Weird clip. It was recorded in black and white. Also, the news theme (not in the NMSA) sounds like a disco track.

[WAVY 10 Fan 232]

From the Fuzzy Memories site (full of various clips primarily from the Chicago area); here are some clips from the local coverage of the 1975 funeral of...Chicago mobster Sam Giancana (all of them in black and white)

 

WBBM: http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/#videoclip-4517

 

WMAQ: http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/#videoclip-4516

 

WLS: http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/#videoclip-4515

[Samantha 2878]

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

 

[justin2kx 229]

 

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

 

 

Located it, Raymie....It's indeed from Network Music.

CD: NM112

Label: World News and Current Affairs [industrial]

Track: Symbols (Goals)

[24994J 5276]

ABC News gets credit for this one. Here's the opening to the very first edition of 'World News Tonight' from 1978. It features Frank Reynolds, Max Robinson, Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters and Howard K. Smith...

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151985497989818&stream_ref=1

[Samantha 2878]

 

Located it, Raymie....It's indeed from Network Music.

CD: NM112

Label: World News and Current Affairs [industrial]

Track: Symbols (Goals)

 

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.

[WWUpdate 1290]

 

ABC News gets credit for this one. Here's the opening to the very first edition of 'World News Tonight' from 1978. It features Frank Reynolds, Max Robinson, Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters and Howard K. Smith...

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151985497989818&stream_ref=1

 

Below is another interesting clip from earlier in 1978 -- "ABC Evening News" before the launch of "World News Tonight," but after Roone Arledge had taken over ABC News. Barbara Matusow describes that transition period in her 1983 book The Evening Stars: The Making of the Network News Anchor:

 

"[Arledge's] most immediate problem was what to do the incompatible team of Barbara Walters and Harry Reasoner. Arledge's initial move was to buy time by making format changes designed to minimize their impact on the Evening News while he was working on a replacement formula. "Two-shots" were eliminated, meaning that Walters and Reasoner were not shown together on the screen, and something called a "whip-around" was introduced -- correspondents handing off their reports directly to each other instead of going back to the anchor for introductions. Subanchors began to appear: Frank Reynolds was featured prominently in Washington, as was Peter Jennings from various European capitals."

 

In other words, the final reincarnation of the "ABC Evening News" already looked a bit like "World News Tonight," which launched a few months later.

 

 

(As the following clip for two years earlier illustrates, "ABC Evening News" before Arledge was very different:

)

[compubit 670]

Located it, Raymie....It's indeed from Network Music.

CD: NM112

Label: World News and Current Affairs [industrial]

Track: Symbols (Goals)

CISA is Lethbridge, Alberta used the theme in the mid 90s and I never found out where it was from. It's one that is in my "favourites" list from Canada! (2&7 C-I-S-A, Turn to us!)

 

Thanks!

J

[Samantha 2878]

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":

 

[WWUpdate 1290]

Interesting!

 

Bill Close is perhaps best known outside Phoenix for being held hostage on the air in 1982:

 

[Samantha 2878]

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

 

[WWUpdate 1290]

Here are some print ads for Phoenix TV news operations from roughly the same period. (These are taken from current eBay auctions, but I also have quite a few -- mostly later ones, from the late '70s and '80s -- in my own collection of old Phoenix-edition TV Guides. Unfortunately, they are a few thousand miles away, so they'll have to wait until April):

 

 

 

 

[WWUpdate 1290]

The following clip -- of KTVK from 1982 -- contains neither an open nor a close, but I thought it might still be interesting since KTVK material from the early '80s is so rare:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RzcvwbNrVo

 

The title of the clip mentions "NewsChannel 3," but this was, of course, the station's "Eyewitness News" era, as is obvious from the video itself. Also note that KTVK was apparently transitioning between two "circle 3" logos at the time, having just introduced the version still in use by the station (albeit in a slightly modified form).

 

(Compare the OTS graphics with the anchor's lapel pin and the reporter's mic flag, which still have the version seen in the 1980 clip posted here a few weeks ago.)

[Samantha 2878]

 

The following clip -- of KTVK from 1982 -- contains neither an open nor a close, but I thought it might still be interesting since KTVK material from the early '80s is so rare:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RzcvwbNrVo

 

The title of the clip mentions "NewsChannel 3," but this was, of course, the station's "Eyewitness News" era, as is obvious from the video itself. Also note that KTVK was apparently transitioning between two "circle 3" logos at the time, having just introduced the version still in use by the station (albeit in a slightly modified form).

 

(Compare the OTS graphics with the anchor's lapel pin and the reporter's mic flag, which still have the version seen in the 1980 clip posted here a few weeks ago.)

 

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.

[WWUpdate 1290]

 

Listen closely: The News Image at the beginning, in the tease for the story!

 

Nice catch! When I listened to it, I didn't even hear there was a music bed under the tease.

[10Viewer 319]

WFLA 1977 news open:

 

[jerseyfla 196]

Wow that clip has been on YT for 4 years now! How the heck did we miss it? Interesting find, now someone needs to submit that open to NMSA now that we know that they used the WTLV 1972 theme.

[10Viewer 319]

Yeah, It was a real fluke finding it. I'm thinking the "WTLV 1972" theme was only used on the mid-day news as I'm quite sure that they were using "Part of Your Life" at the time. The other possibilty is that the "WTLV" theme was a holdover and maybe had been used for many years.

[TServo2049 81]

I can definitely believe that WFLA would have had "WTLV 1972" lying around for a long time, because it seems to have had some connection to NBC.

 

Aside from WLAC and WJKS (if the NMSA dates are correct, and they were indeed using it as early as 1978), all other stations NMSA currently lists were NBC affiliates at the time they were using it. And those beeps at the beginning of the WFLA clip (as well as the KFDX and WCSH opens on NMSA) were also heard on NBC Radio's top-of-the-hour news for years.

[10Viewer 319]

Someone on YouTube who worked at an NBC affiliate in the 1970s said that the "WTLV" theme was a part of the afternoon NBC affiliate update that came over the network feed.

[Samantha 2878]

 

I can definitely believe that WFLA would have had "WTLV 1972" lying around for a long time, because it seems to have had some connection to NBC.

 

Aside from WLAC and WJKS (if the NMSA dates are correct, and they were indeed using it as early as 1978), all other stations NMSA currently lists were NBC affiliates at the time they were using it. And those beeps at the beginning of the WFLA clip (as well as the KFDX and WCSH opens on NMSA) were also heard on NBC Radio's top-of-the-hour news for years.

 

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.)

[TServo2049 81]

Nope, it's the same theme. Listen to the ending stab in the WFLA clip, it matches the ending of the WLAC open.

 

I'm not sure what the original unedited piece sounded like, but I think the WLAC clip is the ending. (I can tell that the edit WTLV and WFLA used was one bit looped over and over...)

 

I know, it doesn't make any sense because WLAC was a CBS affiliate. But we don't know the actual origin of the music. It could have been a pre-existing piece that NBC affiliates took to in particular (a la Cool Hand Luke and ABC affiliates). Not sure we'll ever know the answer...

[jerseyfla 196]

I'm thinking that WFLA used the WTLV theme for a couple of years before then because the clip of the news vehicles said "Channel Eight News" with the NBC snake logo but no number logo. WFLA introduced that 8 logo around 1975 and it matches the text NBC used in the early-mid 70s up until they introduced the red and blue N logo in 1976 (KPNX's logo did as well) I don't know when WFLA changed their branding to NewsWatch 8, I'm guessing 1975 as well.