WDIV Detroit Celebrates 75th Anniversary With Two-Hour Documentary

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://marketshare.tvnewscheck.com/2022/11/04/wdiv-celebrates-75th-anniversary-with-two-hour-documentary/

Its a special on WDIV celebrating its 75th anniversary.

Try to imagine the beginning of television. Images and sound floating through the air to land inside a little box in your living room. It must have appeared magical.




WDIV, Graham Media’s NBC affiliate in Detroit, celebrates its 75th year of broadcasting with a two-hour documentary tonight, Nov. 4, at 9 and will streaming on Local 4+ on clickondetroit.com.
“The story of WDIV mirrors the story of Detroit,” says Bob Ellis, WDIV’s GM. “Tremendous early success, followed by some difficult years, and then an epic comeback. We never take for granted being Detroit’s favorite TV station and realize that doesn’t happen without the unwavering support of our viewers. Sharing this story reaffirms our commitment to serve this community. We’ve been in the city of Detroit for decades and will be for decades to come. This trip through time is our way of saying thank you for all the support and a way to renew our vows to do our part to make Southeast Michigan a better place for all of us to live.”




This documentary focuses specifically between the years of 1978 and 1985 and tells the inside and in-depth story of the four key ingredients that propelled the station to become “the most trusted in Detroit.”

 

[ShawnHill1]

The documentary is also on their YouTube channel as well.

I watched it the other night, and I thought it was really well done. I've never been to, let alone lived in, Detroit, but I've always had fascination about TV stations in other cities (and learning about other cities in general), especially one with the history of WDIV. Although it did focus on the Mort Crim/Carmen Harlan years, it also spent a good deal talking about the WWJ-TV years, plus their live coverage of Tigers games.

It was mentioned by someone in the documentary that after Post-Newsweek took over the station in 1978, there was a possibility of WDIV not renewing its broadcast rights to the Tigers, because of the team's on-field performance before Sparky Anderson arrived, plus the station's (and NBC's) own rating woes in the mid-70s heading into the '80s. However, you could say that 1984 was the year that things turned around for WDIV--Tigers win the World Series and NBC is back at #1 in the ratings.