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Local Television Anniversary Specials

K

KnoxvilleTVFan

Guest
Earlier Friday night, WBKO 13 (formerly WLTV) in Bowling Green, KY aired their 50th anniversary special and you can go to http://www.wbko.com/ and view the anniversary special. Don't forget to check out part two, because it has some rare clips as well as some news opens.

This makes me wonder if any local television stations did include news opens during their anniversary special.
 
None of the TV stations in the designated market area of Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida had special anniversary programs around their 50th anniversaries (WALA-TV in 2003, WEAR-TV in 2004, and WKRG-TV in 2005). Even though WKRG-TV had interviews with former employees during their local 9:00 AM newscasts at the time (they no longer schedule newscasts for 9:00 AM), there was never a special program dedicated entirely to the history of the station.
 
In San Francisco, KTVU(actually in Oakland) did a 30th anniversary special in 1988, hosted by comedian and local native Ronnie Schell(best known as Duke from 'Gomer Pyle', and as a TV and radio commercial actor). It was a two-hour show, with plenty of flashbacks to the station's local programming, such as 'Roller Derby', numerous kids' shows (search for 'Charley and Humphrey', 'Bits and Pieces' or 'Captain Cosmic' on YouTube), a nighttime variety show hosted by legendary KSFO disc jockey Don Sherwood, and, of course, KTVU's 'Ten O'Clock News', which claims to have been the first newscast in that time slot anywhere outside the Midwest. The station had an ad campaign for its 50th anniversary, but confined most of that observance to its web site.

KGO marked 40 years on the air in 1989, with a two-hour special of its own, featuring, among othrs, Jack Lalanne, whose first TV show was on channel 7, before he went national. The station also invited a number of its previous news anchors for a retrospective that filled the last half hour of the 6 o'clock newscast on May 5, the actual anniversary date. Roger Grimsby, KGO's anchor in the mid-60s, made an appearence, just days after his final newscast for WABC in New York. His sucessor,Van Amburg, however, did not appear, or even send a congratulatory message, still bitter over being fired in '86.

Don't recall KRON or KPIX doing anything for their anniversaries, though channel 5 occasionally mentioned their early days with new retrospectives, especially when longtime anchor Dave McElhatton retired in 2000.
 
In Raleigh-Durham, WTVD/Durham, the area's longest running TV operation did a nice 30 minute special for their 30th aniversary in 1984, but the 50th was marked with a mention on the newscast and an invitation for viewers to post remembrances on their website. The '84 special is on Youtube.

At WRAL-TV in Raleigh, they did a 30-minute program for the station's 40th anniversary in 1996, but it was a bit light on station history and focused more on stories they'd covered since 1956, though there were some nice interviews with some of the former personalities and station management, such as Jesse Helms, who was general manager there and station editorialist in the 1960s before going on to become our state's longest-serving U.S. Senator, J.D. Lewis, a pioneering black disc jockey who hosted an R&B dance show on TV 5, and the legendary Charlie Gaddy, who anchored there from the '60s until 1994. Their 50th in 2006 was marked mostly--if not entirely-- online. I think the retrospective is still there.

Statewide public broadcaster UNC-TV, which began and is based in the market, had a nice historical program for their 40th anniversary in 1995 with lots of rare video from the early days of what began as WUNC-TV 4 in Chapel Hill. In 2005, the network didn;t any programs of which I am aware, but marked it with IDs and an online retrospective.

None of the historic (as in analog channel number) UHF in the area have marked their landmark anniversaries. The oldest, Durham-licensed WRDC-TV 28, is 45 years old, with the others 31 (WLFL, WUVC) years old or less.
 
WPMI-TV in Mobile, Alabama broadcast a newscast segment about the history of the station in 2001 before the 20th anniversary of its first broadcast in 2002. The segment included mention of some of the station's acquired programming while independent of network programming, the time the station was affiliated with the FOX Broadcasting Company, and the first local morning program produced by the station ("The FOX 15 Breakfast Club", which was broadcast on Saturday mornings and hosted by local folks who were between 13 and 19 years of age).

There was no special anniversary program on the actual anniversary of the station in 2002 (March 12th). I did not see or hear anything related to the 30th anniversary of the station this year.
 
WHAM (WOKR) 13 in Rochester is celebrating their 50th anniversary. They have been doing little pieces on their newscasts. I don't know if they are actually going to do a special program. As a former employee, I would watch. WKTV in Utica celebrated their 60th last year. I know they did a lot on their webpage but I don't know what they did on the air. A lot of history there.
 
Several Los Angeles TV stations have had anniversary specials over the years.

KTLA - 5 has had the most, having them in 5 year intervals until the 30th anniversary in 1977, then in ten year spans until the 50th in 1997.

Videos of their news coverage over the years is always one of the highlights of their anniversary specials. The news helicopter (Telecopter) was invented at KTLA.

Among the alumni of KTLA are Tom Snyder, Dick Enberg, Mike Wallace, Clete Roberts, and Keith Olbermann.

KCOP - 13 had a pretty good 50th anniversary special in 1988. Among many others, Betty White used to be a local personality on the station.

KCBS - 2 had quite frankly, a very mediocre 50th anniversary special in 1988. They brought a lot of names back, including video of a young Johnny Carson hosting a show called "Carson's Cellar", but the program was mainly a very long plug for their upcoming new fall schedule. The special was uniformly panned throughout local media. Not one of KCBS' finest moments.

Oddly enough, the 40th special on KTLA was much superior to the 50th. I know. I taped both of them, and still have them.

Both the 40th and 50th specials of KTLA are available on YouTube.
 
Quite a few Canadian television stations have aired 50th anniversary specials. One of the longest was from CFPL in London, which aired a two-hour documentary by a now-deceased local filmmaker. The entire thing is on Youtube, and includes a news open from 1979. It is one of the most complete histories of local television I've seen, and except for the late 90s material, it's more of an outsider's view of the station's history rather than self-promotion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLmNOsAeRb4&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLB9E9D43AF0A5D4D7 (the playlist link goes to Part 4 for some reason, but all parts are available from the same user)

Most, but not all of CTV's O&Os have programmed specials at their 50th anniversaries; most notably CFQC and CKCK in Saskatchewan and CKCO Kitchener (all in 2004), and CJOH in Ottawa (2011). Global BC also aired a 50th anniversary special in late 2010. Other stations featured anniversary vignettes during their newscasts, including CFTO Toronto (2011) and CHEX Peterborough (2005).

CBC's O&Os have generally avoided anniversary programming, instead focusing on the anniversary of CBC Television itself - which will be 60 years old in September.
 
CORRECTIONS!!!


Both KCBS and KCOP's anniversary specials in 1988 were their 40th, not 50th observances.

I guess I had 50 on the brain.
 
RicoGregg said:
CORRECTIONS!!!


Both KCBS and KCOP's anniversary specials in 1988 were their 40th, not 50th observances.

I guess I had 50 on the brain.
Click to expand...

I was gonna say...neither station existed in 1938, and both had different call letters in their early years: KCBS was KNXT until 1988, and KCOP began life as KLAC-TV, with the aforementioned Betty White as a personality.
 
Cleveland:
WKYC-TV 3 did 35th (1983) and 50th (1998) anniversary shows-The 35th was a half-hour and the 50th was a full hour..The complete 35th and parts of the 50th are on YouTube..

WEWS-TV 5 did a 35th (1982) as a public party at a venue in downtown Cleveland..They also did a 50th anniversary show(1997) along with devoting an entire episode of Morning Exchange (2 hours)to the station's birthday. with former employees as guests..I believe they also had a 30th anniversary special in 1977..The 35th and 50th are both on YouTube..

WJW-TV 8 did a 30th anniversary special in 1979. This is also on YouTube..

all three stations acknowledged their 60th anniversary, but only with news stories rehashing clips from earlier specials, or doing brief promo ads..
 
Dallas-Fort Worth:
KDFW/4 did a 50th anniversary 1-hour show in 1999. I don't remember a whole lot from the special, but I think mostly it was a couple of then/now's of their building, a few anchor and reporter interviews, and major stories covered--including of course, the JFK assassination. One glaring missing piece was no mention or pix of Judy Jordan, their first woman anchor (and the DFW market's also)--maybe she didn't want to be included (?) No updated special in 2009; they barely even acknowledged their age in a few station IDs.

KXAS/5 by far did the most for their 50th anniversary. It was a 2-hour special in 1998. Lots of interviews with station personnel past and present, and news they've covered. The 60th in 2008 was basically a re-package of the 50th, and I think only an hour long.

WFAA/8 did an hour special for their 50th in 1999. I don't remember much from this one either, but the big thing to me, was, similar to KDFW/4, an unmentioned past anchor. Tracy Rowlett anchored and reported for the station for 25 of the 50 years, but yet was not shown or talked about. His departure from the station was a bit ugly (and probably unnecessarily so) and the station is still spiteful about it to the present. To my knowledge, nothing has been done anniversary-wise since at Ch.8, although they did a nice end-of-analog special that included a classic sign-off from the early 1970s.

KTVT/11 acknowledged their 40th in 1995 but I don't remember if there was a full special; if there was it was no longer than 30 minutes. They haven't done any to my knowledge since. Milestones might have been mentioned on newscasts, but I think the reason no anniversary specials have been done more recently is because the station went on the air Sept. 11, 1955, and they may not want to acknowledge something with a date more connotative as a nationally-known attack and tragedy.

KERA/13 was the most recent to celebrate it's 50th. Some of the content is still on their website. Over the past year to year-and-a-half, different shows/pictures/etc were shown online, but I'm not sure if there was an actual aired special. One clip of interest was an opening and first few minutes of Newsroom, a nightly news show anchored by a younger Jim Lehrer (prior to his going national and pairing with Robert MacNeil). The clip was in black & white; I didn't realize (or I'd forgotten) that Ch.13 didn't have the $$$ to go color until enough donations came their way in the early 1970s.

Tyler/Longview:
KLTV/7 probably did some kind of 50th anniversary special in 2004 but I'm not sure; an article was posted at their website with pictures and a couple of interviews with past and present station talent.

KETK/56 acknowledged early anniversaries during newscasts but I don't know if they did a special back in March for their 25th anniversary.

Amarillo:
All the long-running major stations in the market have passed their 50th anniversary marks (KAMR/4 and KFDA/10 in 1953; KVII/7 in 1957), but it's unknown to me whether any of them celebrated their occasions in any way.
 
easttxtv said:
KTVT/11 acknowledged their 40th in 1995 but I don't remember if there was a full special; if there was it was no longer than 30 minutes. They haven't done any to my knowledge since. Milestones might have been mentioned on newscasts, but I think the reason no anniversary specials have been done more recently is because the station went on the air Sept. 11, 1955, and they may not want to acknowledge something with a date more connotative as a nationally-known attack and tragedy.
Click to expand...

That would be sad if true. It's like not celebrating your birthday or wedding anniversary on that date just because of news reporters, news presenters, and other folks constantly referring to the attacks that occurred in 2001 simply by the calendar date. Tragedy has occurred on every date of the calendar and the eleventh day of September is no different from the rest of those dates.
 
Here in Rochester NY, there is indeed a 50th anniversary special coming later this fall on WHAM-TV (ex-WOKR) 13, or so I've been promised.

I'm pretty sure you have to go back to 1999 to find anything else that was done locally with TV history. That was the year WROC-TV 8 turned 50, and they didn't do a special but did launch what turned into a continuing series, "News 8 Then" (playing off their "News 8 Now" slogan), looking back at stories from their news archives. Before WROC did that, the local cable news channel, R News, did a special ("Out of the Box: 50 Years of Rochester TV") looking back at the histories of all the stations in town. I know this because I wrote, produced and hosted it. ;D

WOKR did a 25th anniversary special in 1987, and WXXI-TV 21 did a 20th anniversary special in 1986. (WXXI did a 40th anniversary celebration in 2006, but no long-form special.) I don't recall any specials here from WHEC-TV 10 (founded 1953) or WUHF-TV 31 (founded 1980).

Around the region, I know of a 50th anniversary special from WSTM in Syracuse (2000) and a 35th from WKBW in Buffalo (1993).

In my Boston days, WBZ-TV and WCVB were pretty reliable about doing anniversary specials every five years - I know WBZ did specials for its 25th, 30th, 35th, 40th and 45th (I used the occasion of WBZ-TV's 45th in 1993 to produce and co-host a two-hour special on WBZ radio's history over on the AM side!), and WCVB did "5 at 20" in 1992 and "5 at 25" in 1997. I'm pretty sure WCVB kept going in 2002 (30) and 2007 (35). WNEV/WHDH-TV (Channel 7) didn't do as much, but there was a nice special in 1993 looking back on the station's history under previous owner David Mugar as he prepared to hand the station over to new owner Sunbeam.
 
I doubt if there were any newspeople involved, but the most unique
anniversary celebration I've ever heard of was WBTV Charlotte's 25th
in 1974. Every night for a week they pre-empted parts of their lineup
for episodes of shows from the '50s and '60s. It led to their long-running
Friday-night nostalgia show "Those Were The Years."

WAGA's 30th in 1979 was going along smoothly (they even found a Scottie
who resembled the station's longtime mascot, Waga the dog) until the subject
of the kids' show "Mr. Pix" came up. Mr. Pix, you see, was Dave Michaels, by
1979 co-anchor on "11 Alive Newsroom" on WXIA, and the station just had to
get in the fact that Ch. 11's anchor was once a kids'-show host. Ch. 5 took
some flap for that one. (I wonder if either WLWT or WCPO would bring up the
subject of WKRC's longtime anchor Nick Clooney (George's dad) having once
emceed a game show, "The Money Maze.")

I cannot believe, after reading about the DFW anniversary shows, that both
Judy Jordan and Tracy Rowlett were excluded. WFAA's newscast really took
off when Rowlett and Iola Johnson were paired as anchors (with a boost from
the newly-number-one ABC's primetime lineup) in 1976. Although I was a fan
of WFAA and not KDFW, I do think Judy Jordan did just fine, and the fact that
she was a pioneering female anchor in that market was worth something. Shame
on both stations.
 
bpatrick said:
I cannot believe, after reading about the DFW anniversary shows, that both
Judy Jordan and Tracy Rowlett were excluded. WFAA's newscast really took
off when Rowlett and Iola Johnson were paired as anchors (with a boost from
the newly-number-one ABC's primetime lineup) in 1976. Although I was a fan
of WFAA and not KDFW, I do think Judy Jordan did just fine, and the fact that
she was a pioneering female anchor in that market was worth something. Shame
on both stations.
Click to expand...

If you look up the Ch.8 end-of-analog special on YouTube, they show Iola among the clips, but not Tracy. Not only that, but I've read more than once on Dallas Observer's website that in WFAA's lobby, among the framed pix of anchors and station well-knowns past and present, there is not one with Tracy Rowlett's picture at all. Not one.

I'm still kinda scratching my head years later about the Judy Jordan thing. I can't believe that Ch.4 wouldn't want to include her in the special. My best guess would be that she didn't want to be included, maybe, as far as an interview or whatever, but I don't remember even a still picture image of her on-screen during the special. Although, I don't remember hearing whether her eventual departure from the station was amicable or not (I've never heard anything ugly regarding her leaving vs. what happened to Tracy over at Ch.8 ).

Another thing I forgot, IINM, none of the DFW 50th anniversary specials got saved on YouTube.
 
As for Pittsburgh:

Some of gthe better anniversary programs were produced by WTAE (ABC-4). I remember that they celebrated their 25th nn in 1983 with a weekend of old shows and commercials on the weekend near Christmas, even though their actual anniversary was in September. I have copies of their 30th anniversary on video tape from 1988 and their 40th from 1998. The 30th was a live 90 minute special that was one of the better ones I have ever seen. Lots of old clips from shows like "Hank Stohl & Friends," "Romper Room," "Adventuretime," etc. along with what goes on behind the scenes of a TV station. The 40th and 50th anniversary specials were 1 hour retrospectives that just glossed over the shows and what seemed to be lots of old stock interviews. As it seemed to be the case, the quality of the specials diminshed in much the same way as their news product has.

KDKA (CBS-2) had a 60th anniversary show that was a 2 hour special in 1999, and it had a lot of interviews with some of the people who helped put the station on the air. Some of the folks featured included Josie Carey and Hank Stohl, who aren't living now. There was lots of old clips and commercials, but it didn't really overwhelm in a way that a station as prestigious and as large as KDKA is seemed to be viewed in Pittsburgh and throughout the industry.

One interesting special that KDKA produced was a retrospective in honor of Bill Burns' 30 years with the station in 1983. It was basically Burns talking to the viewers and narrating clips about some of the big stories that he covered from 1953 when he started the news department there to that time. One vivid memory I have from that show is that the tapes from the moment that he announced the news that President Kennedy had been shot were shown. A friend who works there told me years ago that they have the tapes from November 22, 1963 at the station with the coverage. (It was during "The Mike Douglas Show.") I would love to have a copy of that special or watch it again.

One of the more lackluster specials, in my opinion was the 50th anniversary special for WIIC/WPXI (NBC-11) in 2007. there wasn't much to it. Some clips of old shows with the focus being on "Chiller Theater" and "Studio Wrestling." The special was really a pat on the back for trying to be the alternative station to Channels 2 and 4 in town, and was trumpeting their move from one location to another in town. It seemed to be put together poorly becuase they ran the montage that NBC put together for the network's 75th anniversary in 2002. To put it in the style of David Letterman it was a "time killer." It was hokey at the end because it had a scene of "Chilly" Billy Cardille (who was on the air from Day 1) turn down the lights in the main studio signifying the end of that broadcast facility.
 
I wanted to mention, as far as the 2-hour Morning Exchange show during WEWS-TV's 50th anniversary (December 17, 1997), that the entire show is also on YouTube. (Had to post it in 13 parts because of the then-10 minute limit on YouTube Posts)
 
KHQ is the only station that I know of in the Spokane market that has done anniversary specials. They did one for their fiftieth ten years ago. I'm hoping it ends up on YouTube sometime soon.

KHQ turns 60 in December, followed by KXLY in February, 2013 and KREM in October, 2014. It'd be nice if the three stations were to produce specials for the occasions, but I'm not holding my breath.

Also celebrating a milestone anniversary this year is KAYU, Spokane's first UHF station, which will turn 30 in October.
 
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