Morning News at 4:30 a.m.?

[kenrayc]

In Fresno:

KSEE NBC 24 has "Early Today at 4AM, local news 4:30-7AM.
KFSN ABC 30 has America This morning at 4:30 then local 5-7AM.
KGPE CBS 47 has CBS morning news at 4:30 then local 5-7AM
KMPH FOX 26 has Great Day(local news) 5-10AM.

 

[justpassingthough]

KTLA in Los Angeles also runs morning news from 4:30am to 10am.

 

[intx]

KPRC (NBC), KHOU (CBS) and KTRK (ABC) in Houston are all now on the air at 4:30 with local news. KRIV (Fox) has expanded the other direction, going from 5 to 10 a.m.

 

[shackleford]

I don't watch it, but according to my listings, WRCB Chattanooga runs morning news from 4:30 to 7:00

 

[PTBoardOp94]

WXIN Indianapolis (Fox, Tribune) expanded late last year to a 4:30 to 10:00 am early newscast. They have a massive on-air staff to handle all those hours. Sounds like three main anchors, three field reporters, traffic and weather people.

 

[bg02445]

There's no 4:30 AM news in Boston or Providence:

Providence
WPRI (4 hours) - 5-7 AM, then 7-8 AM on WNAC, and 8-9 AM Rhode Show (live daily local talk show) on WNAC
WLNE (3 hours) - 5-7 AM, 7-8 AM on NewsChannel 5 (local newscast loop cable channel)
WJAR (2 hours) - 5-7 AM

Boston
WFXT (4 hours) - 4:55-9 AM
WBZ (2 hours) - 4:55-7 AM
WCVB (2 hours) - 4:55-7 AM
WHDH (2 hours) - 4:55-7 AM

 

[DToTheJ]

So all four major network stations in Boston all start their newscasts, not at 5... and not at 4:30... but as 4:55? As they would say up in Boston, that's "wicked stupid."

 

[nathannah]

So all four major network stations in Boston all start their newscasts, not at 5... and not at 4:30... but as 4:55? As they would say up in Boston, that's "wicked stupid."

It actually makes sense; the network morning newscasts are designed to have a break/outro at 4:54 to allow stations to start those few minutes earlier if they choose to, and have a non-essential fluff piece at the end that can easily be pasted over with the start of the local news. Same situation with WTMJ in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee just had the gauntlet laid down a month ago with WITI/Fox starting at 4:30am (surely saddening those six fans of Judge Alex), and lately whether there's been one or eleven inches of snow on the ground overnight the other stations start at 4am sometimes under the banner of 'latebreaking snow coverage', although nothing really happens in the 1-3" situation beyond the usual 'reporter stands out in the parking lot, says it's snowing, back to the studio' style of coverage before the show resumes the usual format for the extra hour.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

These "EarlyTodayMorningNewsThisMorning" half-hour network 'casts--
in terms of the original feed(s) to ET (I don't want to complicate it
by discussing splits to the other zones)--do they start at 4 AM ET
and are they fed again each half hour until 7 AM? Are they updated
or even done again live when needed in the subsequent airings?

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

These "EarlyTodayMorningNewsThisMorning" half-hour network 'casts--
in terms of the original feed(s) to ET (I don't want to complicate it
by discussing splits to the other zones)--do they start at 4 AM ET
and are they fed again each half hour until 7 AM? Are they updated
or even done again live when needed in the subsequent airings?

We (meaning KFBB-Great Falls) begin airing "America This Morning" at 4:30am (6:30a ET) and run it continuously until 7, except from 6:00 to 6:30 when we air "AgDay." It is pretty much taped once and re-fed through the morning until all time zones begin GMA. However, when ABC was still sending an SD feed to the mountain zones (which they recently dropped) occasionally you could see slight differences between what we were running and what ABC was feeding (a story would have extra video or begin a few seconds later, etc.

Interestingly, ABC does occasionally retape/refeed "World News Now" for the later zones. Shortly before Christmas, they ran a kicker story during the original feed (I believe it was the 1:30 half-hour) that failed to air correctly, so they cut back to the desk. During the subsequent refeed, it aired correctly.

 

[charlestondxman]

Here, all three local newscasts (NBC/ABC/CBS) start at 5am. The CBS affiliate runs an extra hour on the local Fox affiliate (WTAT), till 8am.

They have thought of expanding, but there is just not enough audience in this town for a 4:30am news. The airport doesn't even open up until past 5, and traffic doesn't really begin until 6 or 6:15.

It wasn't that long ago that the morning news didn't even start till 6, and it was a big deal to do it. Even as late as '95 or '96, one of the stations didn't begin until 6:30.

 

[Gregg]

The market mentioned above is Charleston, South Carolina. (The author forgot to say that.)

Actually, the whole idea of a network wake-up show from 7am to 9am, and local news before then, is all a quirk of early television and The Today Show. Originally most TV stations signed on around mid-morning because they really didn't have programming for the early hours, except for the NBC affiliate. NBC (and was it Pat Weaver, Sigourney's father?) saw the potential for early morning TV with a two-hour Today Show. NBC could sell commercials during those two hours when CBS and ABC (and Dumont) were dark.

NBC affiliates signed on just before 7am and their first news of the day was those five minute reports at 7:25 and 8:25 in the body of the Today Show. A few affiliates might do a few minutes of news, along with Sermonette and Community Calendar, at sign-on. After all, most TV outlets had live booth announcers and he'd just rip and read some AP headlines as part of the sing-on programming. Nobody thought to do a real newscast before Today began. Who'd be watching TV before 7am?

CBS started its network schedule with Captain Kangaroo, a children's show, at 8am. (Some affiliates ran Sunrise Semester, a series of college lectures, at 7:30am, but it was only a public service show and didn't contain commercials.) Gradually CBS tried to introduce an hour-long Today competitor at 7am but it took years to catch on. (And what an uproar was created when CBS moved Captain Kangaroo to Saturdays to make way for a 7-9am weekday morning newscast in the 80s.) ABC saw the revenue Today was bringing in and somewhere in the 70s introduced Good Morning America, also 7-9am. Till then ABC network didn't start broadcasting till around 11am, the last network to start programming.

I'm not sure which TV station in which market eventually saw the potential to run a pre-Today (or pre-GMA or pre-CBS News) morning newscast. By the 80s, some stations were doing a half-hour at 6:30, some were doing an hour at 6am, often just using the newscaster who had been doing the 5 minute updates at 7:25 and 8:25am, and maybe adding a meteorologist. I think it took till the 90s before 5 to 7am newscasts became fairly common or the third-place news station in a given market started its early morning local news.

Now it's standard in all by the very smallest markets to have the major affiliates do a 5 - 7am newscast, even affiliates who are far behind in news the rest of the day. Most Fox affiliates in the top 100 markets now also do a wake-up show, all local, from 5am to 9am.



Gregg
[email protected]

 

[formeraa]

Gregg, that's a great summary of the history of early morning newscasts. Oddly, despite a lot of emphasis on softer news, Today was considered a "serious" program (think CBS Sunday Morning). When ABC entered the morning news fray (with the precursor to GMA), they deliberately went fluffy with a lively news set (with bright colors and a "happy talk" format!!) and shook up the whole morning news arena.

In Seattle, KING-TV/5 started the first local early morning newscast at 6:30am with veteran newscaster Don Madsen. In fact, there's a YouTube video out there, where a young reporter named Aaron Brown files a report via telephone. Soon after, meteorologist Larry Schick was added to the newscast. This newscast was popular all around Western and Central Washington state as well as a significant number of viewers in British Columbia.

At the time, Don Madsen came in at 11:30pm and worked all night preparing a 30-minute morning newscast (those were the days)!! A few years later, KOMO-TV/4 stated a one-hour morning newscast starting at 6am with a very young Lori Matsukawa (now 10/11pm anchor at KING) and a young Tony Ventrella with an Afro (who would go on to Sports Director positions at KING and KIRO). Shortly after that, KIRO started their early morning news with anchros Solon Grey and Jan Charlton with the late Pete Gross on morning sports (synergy with KIRO radio).

 

[Laursebp26]

So Far i've Found That Kiro 7 Has Morning New At 4:30 a.m. In Seattle

 

[e-dawg]

Speaking of National morning show.  If CBS was the second network to produce a morning news program.  Why their morning show always tank in 3rd and last place in ratings?  Far behind from GMA. 

 

[formeraa]

Speaking of National morning show. If CBS was the second network to produce a morning news program. Why their morning show always tank in 3rd and last place in ratings? Far behind from GMA.

Here's a quick summary. CBS was always handicapped by the need to have Captain Kangaroo (a very popular Children's program on for at least 30-60 minutes in the early morning hours). In addition, through the 70's, CBS tried to program an early morning HARD news show. People generally didn't want to watch a hard newscast in the mornings.

Meanwhile, in the mid-70's, ABC started the decidedly fluffy and popular GMA and, of course, NBC had the ever-popular Today show. Meanwhile, CBS had Captain Kangaroo

In the early 80's, CBS really tried to break into the morning news show area with the "CBS Morning News" with a modern, glitzy Star Wars-type theme and set. They also tried expanding "CBS Sunday Morning" to weekdays with "CBS Morning with Charles Kuralt and later adding a young Diane Sawyer to the mix". The high brow approach didn't work, They tried "CBS Morning News" again and actually overtook the Today show for second place for a short period of time. They later tried the "CBS Morning Show", a comedy show in the morning.

Good grief, CBS has tried just about everything. Maybe they should have stuck with Captain Kangaroo!!

 

[KyDXIn]

Speaking of National morning show. If CBS was the second network to produce a morning news program. Why their morning show always tank in 3rd and last place in ratings? Far behind from GMA.

Good grief, CBS has tried just about everything. Maybe they should have stuck with Captain Kangaroo!!

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the "CBS Evening News with Mr. Green Jeans."

 

[oldiesfan6479]

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the "CBS Evening News with Mr. Green Jeans."

Will they have Mr. Moose as the wacky weatherman?
"Hey Mr. Green Fatigues, it's raining ping pong balls in Seattle!" ;D

BTW--didn't Cronkite work with a puppet when he hosted one incarnation
of the CBS morning show in the 1950s?

 

[Laursebp26]

Q13 In Seattle Has Their Local Weather News At 4:30 am And News From 4:55 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. And Then Theres Nothwest Cable News Owned By King 5 In Seattle

 

[formeraa]

Doesn't NWCN start at 4am? But I think that they only do an hour live and then repeat it endlessly. On the weekend mornings, it is always funny to see Meg Coyle on NWCN and KING 5 at the same time. Meg must have a twin sister!