Stations with Local New Year's Eve Celebrations

[formeraa]

Which markets air local New Year's Eve celebrations at Midnight local time?

 

[fybush]

WFAA in Dallas does a huge one. They were deep in preparations for it when I visited a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Mario500]

TV stations in the Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida TV market had plans to broadcast celebrations on the eve of the new year. Here are some links to details of the plans:

"WKRG-TV to broadcast new year celebration in Mobile; delay 'Late' shows from CBS"
"WALA-TV to broadcast recording of 'New Year's Eve Live' instead of live version"
"WEAR-TV to pre-empt parts of 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' for local event"

 

[BDBopper]

Nothing in Atlanta but the local affiliates do a double box with the National feed of Times Square on one side and Atlanta's Peach Drop on the other at 11:59.

According to searches of TV Guide by Zip Code, the following celebrations will also be shown locally:

Chicago and its Fireworks on WLS (ABC)
Philly's Fireworks on KYW (CBS)
Boston's First Night on WBZ (CBS)
Houston's celebration on KTRK (ABC)
Baltimore's Fireworks on WJZ (CBS)
Memphis' celebration on Beale Street on PBS throughout Tennessee
San Antonio's Fireworks on WOAI (NBC)
Pittsburgh's First Night on KDKA (CBS)
Seattle's Space Needle on KING (NBC)
Las Vegas' Fireworks on KSNV (NBC)

There's probably more but I'm not going to go through all the hundreds of markets.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

NBC San Diego 7 in their San Diego 7/39 days had a half-assed New Year's Eve 1/2 hour show which showed a mini-version of the Times Square ball drop from the Aventine and a the First Night fireworks display from San Diego Harbor with former news anchors Marty Levine and Susan Taylor, year news and death retrospectives. That stopped last year and I don't think anything is scheduled this year.

San Diego tries to act like a "big city," but their efforts often fall short in the tradition of Hooterville.

 

[easttxtv]

WFAA in Dallas does a huge one. They were deep in preparations for it when I visited a couple of weeks ago.

Their New Year's thing has only been going for the last 4 or 5 years, before that there really wasn't any organized effort in DFW to do a local New Year's Eve celebration on- or off-screen.

 

[easttxtv]

According to searches of TV Guide by Zip Code, the following celebrations will also be shown locally:
Seattle's Space Needle on KING (NBC)

Maybe they'll archive their coverage. I always seem to miss the Space Needle New Year's, so I end up looking for a low-quality version on YouTube.

 

[dave73]

Nothing in Atlanta but the local affiliates do a double box with the National feed of Times Square on one side and Atlanta's Peach Drop on the other at 11:59.

According to searches of TV Guide by Zip Code, the following celebrations will also be shown locally:

Chicago and its Fireworks on WLS (ABC)

I'm only gonna focus on WLS-TV & their New Years Eve countdown. They start out first by airing the live network feed of the Rockin' New Years Eve Countdown, then interrupt the live feed, & WLS-TV broadcasts their own local countdown show at 11:08pm. The local show is at Navy Pier, & they have bands playing, but they get little airtime in the less than hour show. At mightnight Chicago time, fireworks go off at both Navy Pier & at Buckingham Fountain. After the local show is over, they return the Rockin' New Years Even show on tape delay. For the last several years, WLS-TV has been the only station airing a local New Years countown show.

 

[LKellerIII]

The Otherwise pathetic KRON 4 in San Francisco (the bankrupt former Young Broadcasting property) does a nice New Years Live broadcast every year.

 

[jfc40ts]

WKBW-TV (ABC) in Buffalo, NY has been airing the local ball drop from the former Niagara-Mohawk Electric building for the last 25 years...

 

[arnoldevns]

WFAA in Dallas does a huge one. They were deep in preparations for it when I visited a couple of weeks ago.

Their New Year's thing has only been going for the last 4 or 5 years, before that there really wasn't any organized effort in DFW to do a local New Year's Eve celebration on- or off-screen.

There were several attempts to have local New Year's Eve celebrations.. but they never quite worked. For the big 2000 celebration, there was something in downtown Dallas that all the stations broadcast. The next year the organizers tried to do the same thing..but got maybe 1,500 people to show up when the weather turned out to be just horrendous. I believe the year after that there was no show.. then they brought it back.. but at Fair Park.. and that too didn't go well. It wasn't until Victory Park opened up that they had a natural location to do such a thing. WFAA stepped up to sponsor "Big D NYE." They promote it and broadcast it.. but it has grown big enough that all the stations provide some coverage of it. (though WFAA is the only one with rights to the exclusive live coverage at midnight) This year they expect something like 40,000 people to show up. I am somewhat doubtful that will be the case.. but who knows. One of the things the event has benefitted from each year is the annual Dallas Stars hockey game on New Year's Eve at the American Airlines Center... which is at one end of Victory Park. So in years past the event had 20,000 people who walked out of the arena after the game to wait for the party at Victory Park. If they can still draw a big crowd without that sporting event and with pretty bad weather to boot.. I'll be very impressed. I suspect they will have about half the crowd they did last year.

 

[formeraa]

According to searches of TV Guide by Zip Code, the following celebrations will also be shown locally:
Seattle's Space Needle on KING (NBC)

Maybe they'll archive their coverage. I always seem to miss the Space Needle New Year's, so I end up looking for a low-quality version on YouTube.

Seattle's coverage will be available via King5.com tonight, if you're willing to stay up.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

in Kansas City, KCTV had coverage from the Crown Center Hyatt (now a Sheraton) over a decade ago

 

[vchimpanzee]

I don't know if CBS had anything. WBTV in Charlotte, which I kept ending up on when I would forget whether I was turning back to Channel 6 or Channel 9, appeared to be doing a local show. It has been a tradition to raise the Queen City's crown.

But for me it's not New Year's Eve without the ball dropping. So I turned back to Ryan.

 

[firepoint525]

Nothing in Atlanta but the local affiliates do a double box with the National feed of Times Square on one side and Atlanta's Peach Drop on the other at 11:59.
According to searches of TV Guide by Zip Code, the following celebrations will also be shown locally:
Chicago and its Fireworks on WLS (ABC)
Philly's Fireworks on KYW (CBS)
Boston's First Night on WBZ (CBS)
Houston's celebration on KTRK (ABC)
Baltimore's Fireworks on WJZ (CBS)
Memphis' celebration on Beale Street on PBS throughout Tennessee
San Antonio's Fireworks on WOAI (NBC)
Pittsburgh's First Night on KDKA (CBS)
Seattle's Space Needle on KING (NBC)
Las Vegas' Fireworks on KSNV (NBC)
There's probably more but I'm not going to go through all the hundreds of markets.

Bummed that WNPT did NOT show that this year. They have shown it in previous years!

 

[Laura151]

The stations in Las Vegas show the local New Year's Eve celebrations, both on the Strip and on Fremont Street (downtown Las Vegas). They also show the fireworks that are launched from the hotels on the Strip (that is an organized display).

 

[easttxtv]

According to searches of TV Guide by Zip Code, the following celebrations will also be shown locally:
Seattle's Space Needle on KING (NBC)

Maybe they'll archive their coverage. I always seem to miss the Space Needle New Year's, so I end up looking for a low-quality version on YouTube.

Seattle's coverage will be available via King5.com tonight, if you're willing to stay up.

Hey, thanx for the tip. I looked on KING's website and they had the video archived. Wow, great great fireworks show there.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Nothing in Atlanta but the local affiliates do a double box with the National feed of Times Square on one side and Atlanta's Peach Drop on the other at 11:59.
According to searches of TV Guide by Zip Code, the following celebrations will also be shown locally:
Chicago and its Fireworks on WLS (ABC)
Philly's Fireworks on KYW (CBS)
Boston's First Night on WBZ (CBS)
Houston's celebration on KTRK (ABC)
Baltimore's Fireworks on WJZ (CBS)
Memphis' celebration on Beale Street on PBS throughout Tennessee
San Antonio's Fireworks on WOAI (NBC)
Pittsburgh's First Night on KDKA (CBS)
Seattle's Space Needle on KING (NBC)
Las Vegas' Fireworks on KSNV (NBC)
There's probably more but I'm not going to go through all the hundreds of markets.

Bummed that WNPT did NOT show that this year. They have shown it in previous years!

The Beale Street broadcast from Memphis used to be on either WPTY 24 or WLMT 30 when they were independents or Fox on 24 and UPN/CW on 30 until recent years when it moved to WKNO and started being carried on PBS statewide.

WMC 5 in Memphis had a NYE broadcast from Overton Square in the 80's and possibly Beale Street for a few years before it moved to 24 and/or 30.

 

[crainbebo]

KING 5's celebration at the Needle was great! I enjoyed the fireworks show. Take that, Sydney Harbor Bridge (Australia)!

The Xfinity TV Guide listed a Hollywood New Year's Eve program on KZJO, but I saw a 30 Rock rerun instead. Mistake!

-crainbebo

 

[firepoint525]

Memphis' celebration on Beale Street on PBS throughout Tennessee

Bummed that WNPT did NOT show that this year. They have shown it in previous years!

The Beale Street broadcast from Memphis used to be on either WPTY 24 or WLMT 30 when they were independents or Fox on 24 and UPN/CW on 30 until recent years when it moved to WKNO and started being carried on PBS statewide.
WMC 5 in Memphis had a NYE broadcast from Overton Square in the 80's and possibly Beale Street for a few years before it moved to 24 and/or 30.

I remember the Overton Square celebrations. I believe I was even there for one of them, although the fireworks were cancelled that year on account of rain. :'(

I'm wondering if the east Tennessee PBS stations carried the Beale Street celebrations. After all, it was 1:00 a.m. there by the time it was midnight in Memphis.