Monday, August 7, 1972. WBRC/6 Birmingham, AL and
WJRT/12 Flint, MI pick up ABC's newscast with Howard K.
Smith and Harry Reasoner, and after nearly 20 years of effort
(and some noticeable ratings gains after Reasoner moved
from CBS in December 1970), ABC finally has its newscast
on the full network. Within a year, ABC will occasionally
be beating NBC in the news ratings.
Reasoner had told the 1971 ABC affiliates' convention that
"any station having a network affiliation and not carrying
that network's news is a disgrace." I remember Atlanta's
Channel 11 picking up Smith/Reasoner shortly afterward,
giving Ted Turner a chance to make a BIG statement by
scheduling "Star Trek" from 6 to 7.
ABC didn't become truly competitive, however, until the
"World News Tonight" (now just "World News") format
was introduced in 1978, at which point Reasoner went
back to CBS (he'd never been happy about being paired
with Barbara Walters).
WJRT is an ABC o&o today, so imagine if ABC had owned
the station pre-'72 and the station didn't carry the news.
Unthinkable.
BTW, I've seen some Nashville postings that say that
WKRN/2 dropped ABC's news for a time in the '80s.
WJRT/12 Flint, MI pick up ABC's newscast with Howard K.
Smith and Harry Reasoner, and after nearly 20 years of effort
(and some noticeable ratings gains after Reasoner moved
from CBS in December 1970), ABC finally has its newscast
on the full network. Within a year, ABC will occasionally
be beating NBC in the news ratings.
Reasoner had told the 1971 ABC affiliates' convention that
"any station having a network affiliation and not carrying
that network's news is a disgrace." I remember Atlanta's
Channel 11 picking up Smith/Reasoner shortly afterward,
giving Ted Turner a chance to make a BIG statement by
scheduling "Star Trek" from 6 to 7.
ABC didn't become truly competitive, however, until the
"World News Tonight" (now just "World News") format
was introduced in 1978, at which point Reasoner went
back to CBS (he'd never been happy about being paired
with Barbara Walters).
WJRT is an ABC o&o today, so imagine if ABC had owned
the station pre-'72 and the station didn't carry the news.
Unthinkable.
BTW, I've seen some Nashville postings that say that
WKRN/2 dropped ABC's news for a time in the '80s.