-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Eyewitness News name being retired
- Thread starter brettfern
- Start date
Figured it was only a matter of time. They retired it before, only to revive it, but that seems highly unlikely to repeat. (The News Tonight, anyone?)
It’s not like CBS will be missing anything. They own the trademark to Eyewitness News—Westinghouse registered it in 1970—and Disney pays Paramount Global a fee to use the name on several of the ABC O&Os.
(h/t Weeters from TVNewsTalk for finding this)
The music will also change, and it’s for the best. “Enforcer” has no identity as a musical package and it’s based off of a medley CBS implemented on their stations 50 years ago but has no meaning for the station group in the present day.
(h/t Weeters from TVNewsTalk for finding this)
“Eyewitness News” formally debuted in May 1961 in Cleveland, Ohio, when Westinghouse owned channel 3 there (as the filing shows, that KYW first used the name in the months prior). When they got back the licenses to channel 3 and AM 1060 in Philadelphia in 1965, the EWN name went with them.
The music will also change, and it’s for the best. “Enforcer” has no identity as a musical package and it’s based off of a medley CBS implemented on their stations 50 years ago but has no meaning for the station group in the present day.
It’s easily recognizable to me, and my hunch is to others as well. Does a new generic piece have more value? Doubtful.
Paramount is in the process of renaming all newscasts as CBS News "Name City Here"
So far San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit have removed channel numbers and empasize the streaming feed name from CBS News app.
In Los Angeles their newscasts are known as KCAL News on CBS Los Angeles.
Here is Detroits WWJ-TV newscasts.
Last edited:
KGO-TV was one of the ABC Owned stations that never used the "Eyewitness News" name due to Group W owning the naming rights to that name in San Francisco for KPIX even though KGO-TV modeled it's newscasts after WABC-TV/ KABC-TV when the news director at the time got VanAmburg and Jerry Jensen to take over Roger Grimsby's San Francisco Anchor spot for News Scene.
KABC-TV is also one of these stations that kept the Eyewitness News name too.
Meh. The graphics are quite nice and sleek, but meh on the presentation. 
If it works though, great for them and more power to them.
If it works though, great for them and more power to them.Outside of New York City, where the brand has name recognition, EWN is as dated, clichéd, tired and unimpressive a brand name as one can get. Outside of Philadelphia, “Action News” is no better.
Actually having the network-owned stations align with the network in terms of branding and presentation isn’t generic. It’s been done in a whole host of other countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and Australia… and happened half-heartedly in the late 2000s with The CW, MyNet and those “MyFox” portals. It honestly should have happened stateside 20 years ago before channel numbers passed into irrelevance with the DTV switchover.
Eyewitness News still has good name recognition in Philly, but so be it. The decision is made, and what will be will be.
I like the Action News brand. In New York, WPIX (11) used the Action News brand during the 1970s and the early 1980s. One night in the late 1990s, I stayed in a hotel in Philadelphia. I turned on the TV and randomly tuned to WPVI-TV (6) at 11 o'clock. The newscast began with the Action News theme that I hadn't heard in years. I was like, "Wow! I missed this!"
Last edited:
In Boston, former Westinghouse-owned WBZ-TV dropped the Eyewitness News name years ago.
In Detroit, WJBK-TV 2's Eyewitness use led ABC O&O WXYZ-TV to name its newscast Action News.
Eyewitness News is just a brand to distinguish themselves from the other news brands in town. It wasn't intended to have meaning. or be permanently fresh. It's just a slicker brand for what would otherwise have been 'KYW TV News.'
This post read like a page from a textbook at the "More FM College of Renaming things for no Reason."
Going back to my days in Noo Yawk Sity (69-73) WABC (known then as "Happy News") initiated this baloney. And what will replace what most people called "Eyewitless News". I think 7 took it's format direct from Laugh In.
Apparently this is a corporate thing. KYW's local site is based on the CBSNews platform. So if you go to the local website, the home page says CBS News Philadelphia:
www.cbsnews.com
But if you look at the navigation bar at the top, it still says Eyewitness News. So they're obviously in a transition.
Philadelphia breaking news from KYW-TV - CBS Philadelphia
Get the latest news and headlines from KYW-TV CBS Philadelphia.
www.cbsnews.com
But if you look at the navigation bar at the top, it still says Eyewitness News. So they're obviously in a transition.
Meh. Eyewitness News never had as epic of an intro sequence as "News Update":
To say nothing of Saturday Night Live. Gilda Radner's Roseanne Roseannadanna character was inspired by WABC-TV's Rose Ann Scamardella.
- Status