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Once-Pathetic Local TV Stations That Have Become Great

J

Joseph_Gallant

After the thread about the decline of once-great TV stations, how about a thread on the opposite: Once-pathetic (horrible, terrible, et. al.) TV stations that became outstanding, truly serving their viewers.

My nomination for this list is WMUR-9 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Once as pathetic as any network-affiliate station (they were probably the last network affiliate in the entire country to get live color cameras in 1973; they were still shooting newsfilm in black-and-white as late as 1977).

During this early era, their one "saving grace" was "Uncle" Gus Bernier, who was both an afternoon children's show host and the weeknight weather anchor. His kids' show is fondly remembered by New Hampshire (along with northern Massachusetts and western Maine) residents of a certain age.

But in 1981, Imes purchased the station, poured lots of money into it, and WMUR became a station that New Hampshireites could be proud of. Their news coverage since 1981 has been very good, sometimes outstanding.

Any other nominations??
 
There's also KMSP in the Twin Cities -- they've been known as the worst major-network affiliate in a major market. Their fortunes began to turn around in 1979 during the affiliation switch, which saw ABC move to KSTP and NBC move from KSTP to indy WTCN, leaving KMSP indy. As a result, KMSP became one of the region's most-watched stations, especially after inheriting the regional cable superstation role that WTCN had.
 
KABC, the West Coast ABC flagship, had been in a dead solid third behind KNXT (now KCBS) and KNBC from day one. But then sometime in the '70s, KNXT committed an error: They gave Los Angeles' #1 anchor Jerry Dunphy the pink slip after so many years.

KABC took up on that golden opportunity to lure Dunphy the very next day; the following year, they would be #1...and they've held on to that ranking ever since (though Dunphy would later go on to KCAL, back to KCBS, and then back to KCAL where he remained until his death in 2002)!
 
Going back further in time, WABC-TV in New York was a low-rent station compared to the other network O&Os back in the 1950s and early 60s. It was in the late 60s that it began to invest the profits from ABC's prime time programming (which had become a hit with young adult viewers) and start building local news programming. That's when Eyewitness News emerged, whwn Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel took over the anchor desk, when Geraldo Rivera (remember him as a genuine journalist?) started his ground-breaking investigative reporting, and the ratings came channel 7's way. In the coming decade and a half they also began creating entertainment programming for a local audience which eventually was taken national, with the hiring of people like Regis Philbin.

They've never really looked back. Eyewitness News still leads a competitive market, and Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan are examples of how the station still develops talent on the entertainment side that leaves not just a local but a national footprint. I don't work for ABC or any other division of the Mouse but I respect what they do.
 
Upstate New York is full of "worst-to-first" stories. Here in Rochester, WOKR 13 was the last V on the air in 1962 and remained dead last in the ratings for its first decade and a half. Then ABC caught fire in the late 1970s, perennial front-runner WROC-TV 8 was hobbled by a strike, and WOKR quickly began to rise in the ratings. With Don Alhart at the anchor desk for all those years since (he'll mark 50 years at channel 13 in 2016!), 13 (now WHAM-TV) became a market institution and has been comfortably in first place for a long time now.

In Buffalo, WGR-TV/WGRZ-TV 2 was one of those perennial dogs, but about a decade ago it began to heavily invest in improving its news product and edged its way into first. That rise was aided by the abrupt decline of the former top dog in the market, WKBW-TV 7, which had pulled its own worst-to-first rise with ABC and the star on-air team of "Irv, Rick and Tom" in the 1970s.

Over in Syracuse, WNYS-TV 9 (later WIXT/WSYR-TV) also started out as the third-place ABC dog of the market but invested heavily in local news when ABC started its 1970s rise and never looked back. It was also aided by the collapse of a one-time market giant, CBS affiliate WTVH, which succumbed to the same Granite corporate neglect that killed WKBW.

And in Boston, the joke used to be that if you were hiding from the law, the best place to do it was at the anchor desk on channel 7 (WNAC-TV/WNEV/WHDH-TV), since nobody would ever see you there. That changed big-time in the 1990s when Sunbeam bought 7 and Miami-ized it. "Great" still might not be the right word, but "top-rated" often is. :)

Maybe next we need the "Big 3 affiliates that have always been dogs" thread? Somehow, I have to think WTEV/WLNE in New Bedford/Providence will be the first entry there...
 
KCPQ 13 Tacoma. At first, it was KTVW in the 1960s and had a horrible signal, and everything was in B&W. In 1974, KTVW applied for bankruptcy and it left the air. Then KCPQ came on with PBS programming, before turning into a very good independent station in 1980. Now it is Fox, and does well (has a morning newscast, 4/5PM and 10PM).

-crainbebo
 
While "great" is a relative term compared to how far they've come, I think Raleigh-Durham NBC affiliate WNCN (NBC 17) qualifies. What started out in 1988 as low-budget independent WYED-TV licensed to Goldsboro, NC--radio giant Beasley Broadcast Group's first and only foray into TV--in 1995 became an NBC owned and operated station, complete with a built-from-scratch news operation. While they still are an also-ran up against heritage market leaders WRAL-TV and WTVD, they station has been much more successful than the market's previous NBC affiliate, WRDC-TV 28. Still licensed to Goldsboro, though its studios were never based there, NBC sold the station to Media General a few years ago. It's come a long way from 24-hour home shopping, weekend sportman shows, and low-budget local psychic programs with limited cable coverage (none on the market's core cities until 1992).
 
Here in Alaska, KTUU in Anchorage had been in third place behind KTVA and/or KIMO (now KYUR) for decades. That changed in 1985 when they hired John Tracy as their reporter; Maria Downey joined from KIMO and would be paired with Tracy at the anchor desk some time later...the rest as they say was history.

And despite NBC's overall troubles, KTUU has remained the #1 station in Alaska...and still the only place for actual local news anywhere in this state (compared to KTVF, which has gotten worse and worse)! Though they were the second station to sign on after KTVA, they're first in Alaska in everything else: first to broadcast in color, first to closed-caption their news, first with their own satellite truck, first with social media hubs on Twitter and Facebook, and first to launch a smartphone/tablet app!!! They still have yet to be first with local news in HD though.
 
I say one is WRIP TV 61 Chattanooga. They began as a Movie and theatrical cartoon station with a promising start and hoped to expand from about 15 hours a day to about 20 hours a day. Hopes were they would add off network sitcoms as well. BUT the station hit hard times in 1973, a mere year after sign on. They then were sold and the station gradually dropped movies for low budget syndicated shows about 3 hours a day and brokered time the rest of the day. The station sold time slots to local churches and local religious sects as well as to national TV evangelists. By 1978 they sold nearlyt the entire day leaving only a few holes where they placed any low budget product they could get their hands on. By the Spring of 1981 they were religious the entire day except for half an hour on weekdays, all religious Sundays, and had only about 4 hours of secular shows Saturday.

In the fall of 1981, WRIP TV began running secular shows 2 hours a day and was about 5 hours a day by late fall. They bought a couple sitcoms and drama shows from MCA, a couple shows from paramount and added a few barter cartoons - to run 2 to 7 PM weekdays. By 1982 they brought a few movies back and by the summer they were secular from about 1 PM to 10 PM. In the fall of 82 they added cartoons in the 7-9 AM block. The station was then sold in the spring of 1983 and renamed WDSI.

Then gradually the station was overhauled into a pretty strong independent station and they got Fox affiliation in 1986. In the 90's they were a pretty well run Fox affiliate and today they are quite a typical Fox affiliate as well. The station went through another ownership change in 86 and maybe another one in the 90's.
 
My family was late in getting a UHF TV, but when we did in 1973, Chicago's WCIU (26) was often little more than a placeholder with an identification card shown much of the day. And they were pretty darn weak back then.

Now, WCIU is "The U", and they have 5 useful OTA channels.
They're not the kind of station that would try to compete with WBBM, WMAQ, WLS, or WGN, with news, etc but they've
done very well over the years.
 
Admittedly I don't know that much about Minneapolis-St. Paul,
but I've heard over the years that the quality of WTCN/KARE's
news product began improving after the station went to NBC
(and I suppose after Gannett bought it), and that KSTP is not
what it used to be.

My vote for the biggest miracle goes to WMBF, the NBC affiliate
in Florence/Myrtle Beach, a station which came literally from out
of nowhere in 2008 and quickly became number two in the market,
behind WBTW (CBS). Also, I think there's been significant improvement
at Charlotte's NBC affiliate, WCNC, since Belo bought it; when Westinghouse
owned it under the call letters WPCQ it was an absolute embarrassment to
the Peacock Network (it didn't even carry "Nightly News" at one time).

And WCTI (ABC) New Bern, NC, which at one time could hardly put a signal outside
its home county, Craven, and a neighboring county (Carteret) or two, improved
its signal and now frequently ranks second behind WITN (NBC) at 5 and 6. In fact,
the competition was intense enough that CBS affiliate WNCT finally had to take the
plunge at 5.

Finally, NBC affiliate WWBT Richmond, a station which, as WRVA, was so pathetic
that CBS dropped it for WTVR in 1960; it spent five years with ABC before joining
NBC in 1965. But ever since Jefferson-Pilot bought the station in 1968 (Raycom owns
it now), it's been almost consistently number one in local news, even through NBC's
lean years in the late '70s/early '80s.
 
Since my previous comment, KTUU did become the first in Alaska with local news in HD this past spring, though it came without any fanfare. Viewers probably didn't notice the difference anyway.

Another first: They recently launched a dedicated app in which you can watch their newscasts live or on-demand. But the catch is...it works only in the Anchorage area, but you know the other stations will follow KTUU's lead in the months to come.

As for the chopper? That's still yet to come...
 
WOAY-TV50 (formerly 4) in Oak Hill, West Virginia-WOAY was 'lovingly' known as "Worst On Air Yet." Yet they became the first station in WV to go high-def with their news. Folks from that neck of the woods can sound off on this, as I haven't been in the area in at least two years.
 
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