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Affiliates not airing ABC EVENING NEWS during the late 1960s/early 1970s

S

spencerkarter85

Some ABC affiliates didn't air ABC EVENING NEWS with the late greats Howard K. Smith and Frank Reynolds (later replaced by the late Harry Reasoner in December 7, 1970). Here's a list of the affiliates I know didn't air ABC NEWS in the late 1960s/early 1970s:

WQXI-TV (now NBC affiliate WXIA-TV), Atlanta, Georgia
WGHP-TV (now FOX affiliate), Greensboro, North Carolina
WBRC-TV (now FOX affiliate), Birmingham, Alabama
WEWS-TV, Cleveland, Ohio
KTRK-TV (now ABC O&O), Houston, Texas
WLOS-TV, Asheville, North Carolina
WNAC-TV (now WHDH-TV, NBC), Boston, Massachusetts
KTVX-TV, Salt Lake City, Utah

Do you have some other affiliates not airing ABC News during the late 1960s/early 1970s?
 
I might add that WBRC and WJRT Flint, MI were the last
two affiliates to begin airing the "ABC Evening News"; both
picked it up on Aug. 7, 1972.
 
spencerkarter85 said:
Some ABC affiliates didn't air ABC EVENING NEWS with the late greats Howard K. Smith and Frank Reynolds (later replaced by the late Harry Reasoner in December 7, 1970).
Click to expand...
...part of the reason for most of these affiliates to hold out until Reynolds was replaced by Reasoner was that then-Vice-President Spiro Agnew had made the politically-moderate Reynolds one of the personal targets of his "liberal media" rant campaign. Reynolds eventually replaced both Reasoner and Smith -- neither of whom (AFIAK) were Agnew targets -- after Agnew's own thuggery caught up with him and he resigned in resounding disgrace...
 
True. Quite a few of these stations had carried Peter
Jennings (the first time), but dropped the broadcast
when station owners found Reynolds too liberal for their
taste.

Interestingly, Howard K. Smith, who usually defended the
Nixon administration, was the first network anchor to call
for Nixon's resignation; it even made the newspapers.
 
I think possibly the very last ABC affil to clear the evening newscast was WSIL-TV in Harrisburg, Illinois. It was not until about 1978 that it finally cleared the program. For many years, the station carried children's shows between 5:30 and 6:30 Central Time. The local news aired at 6:30, I believe.

WSIL was, back then, far behind in the ratings behind competitors KFVS (CBS) in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and WPSD (NBC) in Paducah, Kentucky. Management there probably just decided ABC News wasn't worth ceding airtime, when more money could be made on the kiddie show. Politics might have played a part in the decision, but I suspect just the plain bottom line was the real reason for blocking the evening newscast.
 
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