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KIRO introduces 'News Out of the Box,' 2/4/1993

C

crainbebo

Just over 27 years ago since they introduced this ill-fated concept. I was able to find the final noon newscast, albeit partial, on the old 24 Hour News desk, and Steve and Susan taking the viewers on a tour of the new facility. I can see WHY it didn't last long. The art designs, the radio station right next to TV, and the reporter assignment area just steps away from the cameras. Nerissa Williams and Brian Wood at the anchor desk, Nick Walker (later to TWC) w/ WX.

Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SFj6rY_bxE
Part 2 w/ the tour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crAB18xdOMY
 
Thanks for the links. 27 years ago I was a Senior at CWU and wasn't really tracking Seattle news and the whole out the box idea. I actually, found the commercials in Part 1 to be the best part. Lou Guzzo was another Seattle treasure I'd forgotten about.
 
crainbebo said:
Just over 27 years ago since they introduced this ill-fated concept. I was able to find the final noon newscast, albeit partial, on the old 24 Hour News desk, and Steve and Susan taking the viewers on a tour of the new facility. I can see WHY it didn't last long. The art designs, the radio station right next to TV, and the reporter assignment area just steps away from the cameras. Nerissa Williams and Brian Wood at the anchor desk, Nick Walker (later to TWC) w/ WX.

Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SFj6rY_bxE
Part 2 w/ the tour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crAB18xdOMY
Click to expand...

This was an interesting time in Seattle TV news. But my takeaway from the KIRO experiment is somewhat different. What they were doing actually became commonplace in TV news years later. The problem was it was clunky and awkward. It was a rather new idea. But today you see standing anchors, walking anchors as the norm. So they were actually ahead of their time. But perhaps too far ahead of their time to make it work in '93.

I will agree this whole thing failed. Ratings went down. The whole set was eventually torn down and they went back to a traditional news desk set with places for 3-4 anchors/reporters. Nice to see a much younger Steve and Susan Huthison trying to sell it however.
Thanks Crainbebo for the memories!
 
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DMK said:
27 years ago I was a Senior at CWU and wasn't really tracking Seattle news and the whole out the box idea
Click to expand...

Which is where I am at now. Ironic. 7 was carried on Ellensburg cable at that time but network stuff was blacked out. Spectrum quietly pulled them off a few years ago, but KOMO and KING still stay with part-time feeds.
I found the tape at an estate sale west of Cle Elum last October, and of course, this was not marked on the label. Which is what makes VHS collecting fun.
 
Its a great idea to have Television and Radio into one newsroom. Its a bad idea to have TV and radio anchors be uncomfortable and distracted. I see why it never worked.
 
itsRoly4266 said:
Its a great idea to have Television and Radio into one newsroom. Its a bad idea to have TV and radio anchors be uncomfortable and distracted. I see why it never worked.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. We have seen KOMO do a pretty decent job at it for the past decade or so. Simulcasting the TV news on radio (instead of the other way around) in addition to having reporters pulling double duty means a respectable news radio operation on a budget. They don't get the ratings of a WINS or KCBS, but they also don't have nearly the amount of overhead.

Those were dark times for KIRO TV. Not long after this, they'd swap CBS to 11 and get UPN in return. Luckily, Star Trek: Voyager did quite well in Seattle.
 
crainbebo said:
Just over 27 years ago since they introduced this ill-fated concept. I was able to find the final noon newscast, albeit partial, on the old 24 Hour News desk, and Steve and Susan taking the viewers on a tour of the new facility. I can see WHY it didn't last long. The art designs, the radio station right next to TV, and the reporter assignment area just steps away from the cameras. Nerissa Williams and Brian Wood at the anchor desk, Nick Walker (later to TWC) w/ WX.

Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SFj6rY_bxE
Part 2 w/ the tour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crAB18xdOMY
Click to expand...


The concept was good. It really was.

The execution was horrible. The logos, the music, the "look" of the set. Awful.

Just eight years after this, CNN Headline News debuted a beautiful, circular set with video walls, multiple anchor desks, and the space for the "cross the set" anchor shots that are so familiar today.

While CNN pulled the plug on "Headline News" as a concept, that was a spectacular set and showed how this concept could be executed properly.
 
Music from the Seattle Symphony was already a red flag. Massive orchestras aren't usually doing local news opens. Perhaps nationally, with CBS currently, but that doesn't belong on a Seattle newscast.
And the logo looked like a triangle instead of a 7. Probably confused a lot of viewers. They could have used this new set and kept the older CBS 7 logo with probably a little more success.
 
crainbebo said:
Music from the Seattle Symphony was already a red flag. Massive orchestras aren't usually doing local news opens. Perhaps nationally, with CBS currently, but that doesn't belong on a Seattle newscast.
And the logo looked like a triangle instead of a 7. Probably confused a lot of viewers. They could have used this new set and kept the older CBS 7 logo with probably a little more success.
Click to expand...

What was probably even more confusing to viewers was the loss of the CBS affiliation to KSTW short after. How these events were related is somewhat confusing as there were ownership changes and trading of affiliation occuring about this same time. Fortunately for KIRO, they got their affiliation back but it took them several years to rebound. However, unlike many other top20 markets, Seattle has basically had the same affiliates of the same stations for the past 50+ years despite this blip.
 
crainbebo said:
Music from the Seattle Symphony was already a red flag. Massive orchestras aren't usually doing local news opens. Perhaps nationally, with CBS currently, but that doesn't belong on a Seattle newscast.
And the logo looked like a triangle instead of a 7. Probably confused a lot of viewers. They could have used this new set and kept the older CBS 7 logo with probably a little more success.
Click to expand...

Well, it was a triangle. It represented the three KIROs at the time... Channel 7, AM 710, and 100.7 FM. Three 7s arranged to make a triangle. When they dropped the out of the box format they literally removed one side of the triangle and plopped it in a circle, creating their first circle 7 logo.
 
The circle (which was originally red/white) would be used for their NewsChannel 7 days post-Out of the Box, through UPN, and then the current 7 design came into effect when they got CBS back. Of course the logo's color has been modified recently, but it still has the same design as in 1997.
 
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