Unusual newscast titles

[searadiofreak]

Well, I guess the term "SuperNews" was the order of the day in the '70s, with WNBC being first in the nation with TWO HOURS of local news from 4:30-6:30, and then KNXT (now KCBS) in Los Angeles with 2 1/2 hours from 4-6:30!!!

And during the pipeline construction boom that time, KTVF was the first here in Alaska to expand their evening news to an hour (5:30-6:30). Their newscast became the "Fairbanks Evening News" in 1971 to tie in with the "CBS Evening News."

In Fairbanks, the evening news could have started at noon during the winter and nobody would know the difference.

 

[johnnya2k6]

WNBC-TV's two-hour newsblock was actually from 5 to 7 PM, starting in 1974 and lasting until NBC Nightly News was moved up to 6:30 in the fall of 1990.

And back to Los Angeles: In the late '80s, KABC's news block was THREE HOURS from 4:00-7:00 pm; it lasted until they moved World News Tonight up to 6:30 sometime later.

 

[Mario500]

WKRG-TV in Mobile, Alabama:

"Home Edition News" (6:00 PM newscast title between 1955 and 1963)
"First Edition News" (5:15 PM newscast title between 1963 and 1974)
"Home Edition News" (6:15 PM newscast title between 1963 and 1974)*
"Five-Star Final Edition News" (late newscast title between 1955 and 1974)
"Final Edition News" (later newscast title between 1964 and 1974)

*Between 1963 and 1977, WKRG-TV delayed "The CBS Evening News" by 15 minutes to air local newscasts at 5:30 PM and 6:15 PM.

 

[bpatrick]

Something I always thought strange, although I suspect it
was a carryover from the 15-minute days when the CBS Evening
News did air at 5:45 (CT). But then again, while I can't recall
WKRG ever deviating from the CBS daytime schedule, they played
fast and loose with the primetime one. I suspect that after CBS
disaffiliated KXLY Spokane for arranging the schedule to suit itself,
WKRG got scared and started airing primetime more-or-less in pattern.
Or is this for another thread?

 

[searadiofreak]

WNBC-TV's two-hour newsblock was actually from 5 to 7 PM, starting in 1974 and lasting until NBC Nightly News was moved up to 6:30 in the fall of 1990.

And back to Los Angeles: In the late '80s, KABC's news block was THREE HOURS from 4:00-7:00 pm; it lasted until they moved World News Tonight up to 6:30 sometime later.

Yes, and at one time with three different sets of anchors! The Cool Hand Luke intro was great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGSjfvCB65M

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Between 1963 and 1977, WKRG-TV delayed "The CBS Evening News" by 15 minutes to air local newscasts at 5:30 PM and 6:15 PM.

How many tape machines did they have...especially in 1963?

By my count, they'd need five VTRs to pull this off, even without a
backup, and you always need a backup--so make it six, with one
machine recording through the half-hour until and unless you need
it if one of your primaries loaded up.

RECORD PLAYBACK
VT1 5:30-5:40 5:45-5:55
VT2 5:35-5:45 5:50-6:00
VT3 5:40-5:50 5:55-6:05
VT4 5:45-5:55 6:00-6:10
VT5 5:50-5:59 6:05-6:14

Assumes five minutes to check out and rewind each reel for playback,
also assumes a five-minute overlap to synch up reels for segues.

If you liked to live dangerously, you could extend the first reel to 13:00,
with only 2:00 to check and rewind, but at least that was a solid start
point you were going to, with :30-:40 of net black recorded prior to the
beginning of the 'cast. Also on the last reel you'd record for 11:00 and
have only 4:00 to synch up and segue. With this you'd need four VTRs
for primary, and a fifth for a backup. (Of course you'd be living dangerously
so maybe no backup? )

RECORD PLAYBACK
VT1 5:30-5:43 5:45-5:58
VT2 5:38-5:48 5:53-6:03
VT3 5:43-5:53 5:58-6:08
VT4 5:48-5:59 6:03-6:14

Heck, the larger Mountain zone markets didn't even have six VTRs back
in 1963 and they were stuck with doing at least some delays weeknights,
unless they ran some or all of prime time from 16mm film prints (KTVK).
If they had three or even four VTRs, at least one machine probably had
to be dedicated to uses other than net delay.

 

[newsmark]

Might there have been a 5:00 feed of CBS Evening News at the time? That would have made the delay much easier--a one-tape ordeal.

As far as the number of tape machines, I worked at a station that delayed a 1 hour show (network 10:30 - 11:30 pm) by 30 minutes. We did it with 3 machines. I think you could do the 15 minute delay quite safely with 3 machines.

For 5:30 - 6 PM

Tape 1 Record 5:30-5:40 Playback 5:45- 5:55
Tape 2 Record 5:30-5:50 Playback 5:50- 6:05
Tape 3 Record 5:30-6:00 Playback 6:03- 6:15

You could start the send and third recordings later, but this way makes it a lot easier to sync up. They could also make it even simpler if they actually started CBS News at, say 5:47 and let it run 'til 6:17

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Might there have been a 5:00 feed of CBS Evening News at the time?

AFAIK, Cronkite was always 6:30/5:30 and 7/6 on the New York feed
since it went to a half-hour.

As far as the number of tape machines, I worked at a station that delayed a 1 hour show (network 10:30 - 11:30 pm) by 30 minutes. We did it with 3 machines.

Agreed--a 30 minute delay is much less stressful, a one hour DB a
piece of cake.

For 5:30 - 6 PM

Tape 1 Record 5:30-5:40 Playback 5:45- 5:55
Tape 2 Record 5:30-5:50 Playback 5:50- 6:05
Tape 3 Record 5:30-6:00 Playback 6:03- 6:15

You could start the send and third recordings later, but this way makes it a lot easier to sync up. They could also make it even simpler if they actually started CBS News at, say 5:47 and let it run 'til 6:17.

Interesting that you started all together, as it does make the subsequent
segments sort of a "backup" for the preceding segment. Did you run a
separate backup of the half-hour on a fourth VTR?

Your tape schedule scenario for Cronkite appears to work, if you decide
to "live even more dangerously"--where the first segue has less than 5:00
for synch-up, and the second is an on-the-fly where you may not have
much more than 2:00 to get done. One thing in its favor is the system cue
was about 5:58:57 so you get an extra minute to fool with.

I'm much more familiar with a long-form delay--prime time/late night, even
daytime later on--of one hour (think Mountain time zone), where with 2"
it was record in 50:00 segments with a 10:00 overlap. When those monster
quads gave way to type B 1" more user-friendly machines, the overlap went
down to 5:00 and at least the first reel of a sequence could record for 55:00
(since you knew the hard start point).

Oh, and your half-hour delay with 1" could be truncated down to record the
net news at 5-5:28:57 PM, wait maybe :03 after "this is CBS," then hit rewind
to your marked zero point on the tape and it was rewound and cued up for
whatever short pre-roll you had by 29:45 (at the latest) to roll for 5:30:00 air.

If you were in Mountain time zone TV "back in the day" it would be interesting
to hear what your station did--sequences/overlaps/backups--in performing the
nightly "in pattern" one-hour delay. I guess it's all a moot point nowadays with
digital delay servers, or in NBC's case, their Mountain zone feed.

 

[gr8oldies]

We did delay in Lafayette IN during the DST portion of the year(which most of Indiana did not observe at the time) 3 one inch machines rolled 45 min. apart.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

...3 one inch machines rolled 45 min. apart.

This was (prime time) record 7-10, play 8-11? So each segment was
45:00--how much overlap for segues? And did you record a backup?

 

[gr8oldies]

Daytime and primetime. Usually allowed 5 to 7 min of overlap and ran 3/4 in backups. The fun part was live news bulletins. We'd stop down all record and playback and just have a gap next hour. Never was that simple especially if there were multiple interruptions (ok I've got 6 minutes of Y&R on reel 1). When Nixon died, CBS ran a special report at 10:40pm EDT, killing the last 20 minutes of Picket Fences. We stopped record and playback, carried the special and picked up the last 20 min of the 9pm show we recorded at 8. We had 40 minutes of Picket Fences which we started at 10:20. Of course the last 20 min of the show was pre-empted, so we went directly into news. The phones rang off the hook! No one in the Eastern, Central or Mountain zones saw the last 20 min of Picket Fences, but it looked like we just arbitrally cut the show off.

 

[azumanga]

Did the station run a disclaimer explaining why "Picket Fences" was cut off? Or did it simply just go to news then and there without saying anything?

 

[TVWorldwide]

On a global scale, one of the most unusual newscast titles is used by ORF in Austria: Zeit im Bild, meaning "Time in Images" or "Time in Pictures" -- very poetic.

 

[gr8oldies]

Azu it's been so long I don't remember but I'm thinking not. I remember our GM the following week trying to do an editorial to address the situation but it got so confusing he gave up. I know at one point we figured folks could wait an hour for O.J. Simpson updates

 

[imhomerjay]

Though not all that "strange," KYW in Philly had "Newsbeat" as the name of its 6 pm show, and "The News Tonight" as its 11 pm show, initially with the not-so-budget-friendly approach of separate lead anchors who only did their individual half hour (they would later team up). WHat made the entire thing all the more strange was that KYW kept its Eyewitness News branding on its daytime and 5:30 p.m. shows, so you had a very disjointed transition from Steve Bell anchoring Eyewitness News into Newsbeat with an entirely different look. (Eventually they would drop the whole idea of separate brands and go to "News 3" before coming full circle back to Eyewitness News.)

 

[searadiofreak]

Though not all that "strange," KYW in Philly had "Newsbeat" as the name of its 6 pm show, and "The News Tonight" as its 11 pm show, initially with the not-so-budget-friendly approach of separate lead anchors who only did their individual half hour (they would later team up). WHat made the entire thing all the more strange was that KYW kept its Eyewitness News branding on its daytime and 5:30 p.m. shows, so you had a very disjointed transition from Steve Bell anchoring Eyewitness News into Newsbeat with an entirely different look. (Eventually they would drop the whole idea of separate brands and go to "News 3" before coming full circle back to Eyewitness News.)

KYW-1977...the late, great Jessica Savitch anchoring "Eyewitness News".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ydt_wxAi7w

 

[MikefromDelaware]

WHYY-TV channel 12 Wilmington, DE called their newscast "Delaware Tonight" (which aired from November 1963 to October 2009). They now do a weekly news magazine about Delaware that they call "First" ( I believe referring to Delaware being the First State).

 

[rjoc]

And for a time in Bangor, after being known as "Eyewitness News", it had the name "NewsPlus 7".

IIRC that went the other way around at WVII ...when my local cableco dumped WVII and WLBZ for their Detroit counterparts in the late 80s, WVII was using the NewsPlus 7 title then.

WVII ABC7 Bangor, Maine is now using "Your Bangor News at 6" (or 11) or 10 on their co-owned Fox channel WFVX-22.