• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WLVI & THE Ten O'Clock News..... a job well done!

P

pqgeorge

In watching the last locally produced Ten O'Clock News on Channel 56 from Morrissey Boulevard, you couldn't help but feel anything but admiration for the 150+ employees of WLVI-TV. They were truly professional right to the last moment. Seeing Jack Hynes for one more time on Channel 56 was very moving. I know how it feels to leave a place you worked for many years, only to find that it was NEVER going to be there anymore. I recognized many of the people on the closing credits. Some of them I've worked with in "other lives". It is sad that 150+ people will have no jobs the week before Christmas. In essence, a major part of Boston TV history has ended. I'm going to miss Channel 56. I was glad to have watched the early days of Channel 56 back in 1966 as WKBG-TV. I recall the change to WLVI-TV in 1974. I remember "The News At Ten" back in 1984. And now Channel 56 has come full-circle. Oh, there will be a station called WLVI. But, it will never be the same. To the crew of Channel 56, I salute you. A job well done.


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
 
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:
In watching the last locally produced Ten O'Clock News on Channel 56 from Morrissey Boulevard, you couldn't help but feel anything but admiration for the 150+ employees of WLVI-TV. They were truly professional right to the last moment. Seeing Jack Hynes for one more time on Channel 56 was very moving. I know how it feels to leave a place you worked for many years, only to find that it was NEVER going to be there anymore. I recognized many of the people on the closing credits. Some of them I've worked with in "other lives". It is sad that 150+ people will have no jobs the week before Christmas. In essence, a major part of Boston TV history has ended. I'm going to miss Channel 56. I was glad to have watched the early days of Channel 56 back in 1966 as WKBG-TV. I recall the change to WLVI-TV in 1974. I remember "The News At Ten" back in 1984. And now Channel 56 has come full-circle. Oh, there will be a station called WLVI. But, it will never be the same. To the crew of Channel 56, I salute you. A job well done.


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
Click to expand...

Not to poo-poo on anyone's going-away party, but everyone in the newspapers is talking like WLVI was the first to introduce 10pm news in the Boston market. That's far from the truth. Channel 2 had very good 10pm newscast which ran for 15 years(1976-1991) with Crhissy Lydon, Gail Harris and Carmen Fields.
 
Hi Boris:
Actually Channel 56 WAS the FIRST in the market from 1969-1970 with "The Ten O'Clock News with Arch MacDonald". It was a great newscast, but the time was not right for a Ten PM newscast, not quite yet.
 
Peter-

That was an excellent tribute to the fine staff at WLVI. As someone who has regularly watched The Ten O'Clock News for many years on WLVI, it definitely leaves a twinge of sadness to see it end, and to see so many dedicated employees put out of work. As Karen said, the anchors there seemed to have a strong bond with each other which you do not see on other Boston stations.

Having grown up in NJ, I wonder if the staff of Channel 56 felt something like the staff of WLVI's former sister station, WKBS/48 in Burlington, NJ (Philadelphia) back in August of 1983. At the time, both stations were owned by Field Communications. Field sold WLVI to Gannett, while they took WKBS dark after being unable to find a buyer. WKBS, like WLVI, also had a 10 PM news, and I remember the last news show. I also remember the final sign-off of WKBS. Like WLVI, the staff said an emotional "good-bye" (to the background music of Simon + Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence"). It is too bad that we did not have a VCR back then to record it. After I moved to New England in 1990, I always felt some sort of "connection" between WLVI and WKBS, especially since WLVI was still using the old Field Communications-style logo. (48 had a similar logo). Even before I moved, 56 would be an occasional DX catch at my parents' house in Hazlet, NJ, I have on tape somewhere "The News at Ten" with Jack Hynes and Darlene McCarthy from the late 1980s.

Peter- since you mentioned that you watched WKBG from its inception, do you recall when Channel 56's transmitter was moved from Zion Hill in Woburn to the present site in Needham? How was the signal from Woburn? I would imagine that it was not that good and that is why it moved to Needham. Also, I once heard that during the WXHR/WKBG days, the antenna for 96.9 WXHR-FM/WJIB-FM was located on top of Zion Hill adjacent to the WKBG antenna. Is that true? Are those the two towers that are still on Zion Hill? The Wikipedia listing for WLVI says that WKBG's studios were located in Woburn until they moved to Morrissey Ave in Boston in 1969. Yet, the article in the Boston Globe on Saturday said that they were located in Brookline before they moved there. Do you remember where the station's original studios were located?

>>I recall the change to WLVI-TV in 1974.

Did they announce in advance that the station's call letters were changing? Did any of the programming change? What was the purpose of the call-letter change? Was that at the time that Kaiser Broadcasting bought out the Boston Globe's interest in the station?

And echoing Peter's comments, to all who worked at Channel 56 and read this board, thanks so much for your hard work and professionalism right to the end. Best of luck in future endeavors.

-Mike D'Amico
Arlington, MA
 
Some WKBG/WLVI history (was Re: WLVI & THE Ten O'Clock News..... )

>>Peter- since you mentioned that you watched WKBG from its inception, do you recall when Channel 56's transmitter was moved from Zion Hill in Woburn to the present site in Needham? How was the signal from Woburn? I would imagine that it was not that good and that is why it moved to Needham. Also, I once heard that during the WXHR/WKBG days, the antenna for 96.9 WXHR-FM/WJIB-FM was located on top of Zion Hill adjacent to the WKBG antenna. Is that true? Are those the two towers that are still on Zion Hill? The Wikipedia listing for WLVI says that WKBG's studios were located in Woburn until they moved to Morrissey Ave in Boston in 1969. Yet, the article in the Boston Globe on Saturday said that they were located in Brookline before they moved there. Do you remember where the station's original studios were located?<<

Thank you, Mike. Indeed, I saw portions of the first week of programming on WKBG-TV in 1966. For the first few weeks, WKBG-TV used the original WTAO transmitter site to get things started. Considering that Channel 56 (then WTAO) left the air in 1956 and only briefly came to the air in 1962 (then as WXHR-TV) for a series of FCC sponsored tests, they basically had to use what was salvagable (which wasn't much). In 1965-1966 Kaiser Broadcasting, which teamed up with The Boston Globe spared no expense and retrofitted the new WKBG-TV for color (for local live, film and videotape). They used a temporary studio facility in Brookline to get the station back on the air. Eventually in 1969, 75 Morrissey Boulevard opened up using an old supermarket building. For a while, a liquor store shared the space but evenutally...WKBG-TV took over the remaining portion of that building (which until some 18 hours ago would be their home for nearly 40 years).

In September 1968, WKBG-TV moved its' transmitter to the new Stainless Candelabra tower in Needham, MA. This was a co-operative venture with WSBK-TV (Channel 38) and the never built WREP-TV (Channel 25). Eventually WREP-TV's antenna and CP were sold to CBN which fired up WXNE (now WFXT) in October, 1977. Today Channels 25, 38 and 56 still share the mast (as well as their DT counterparts). WJIB-FM/96.9 joined WKBG in 1968 at practically the same week (they were co-owned and operated, but did not share the same studio locations).

Prior to 1968, the signal of Channel 56 was pretty dismal, especially south of Boston. In 1966, WKBG could boast 1,000,000 watts (ERP) from Zion. But the height was still not enough to cover the entire Boston area. Once they fired up in Needham, the rest was history. But there was more! On a Sunday afternoon the winter of 1971, WKBG-TV made UHF history as Arch MacDonald (Dean of Boston TV news and Channel 56's news director at the time) announced on live TV that "WKBG was now operating on the world's most powerful transmitter" (125,000 watts worth!) and inaugurated the event with the playing of the Academy Award winning musical "The Music Man". WKBG-TV was now operating with an ERP of over 2,000,000 watts of visual power, the same signal they use today.

As for the call-letters..... WKBG-TV changed it's name to WLVI-TV in May of 1974, as a result of The Boston Globe's diverstiture of their portion of the license. WKBG stood for Kaiser/Boston Globe. (The original WHDH-TV Herald-Traveler, Channel 5 fiasco in 1972 probably had a little bit to do on the Globe's sell out as well, IMHO). Kaiser bought the Globe's remaining shares of the station and would operate WLVI for another 3 years until Field Communications (who already owned a major portion of WFLD-TV Channel 32 in Chicago along with Kaiser Broadcasting) would buy the entire stable of Kaiser stations namely WLVI-TV, WKBD/Detroit, KBHK/San Francisco, WKBS/Philadelphia and KBSC/Los Angeles. Another Kaiser station WKBF-TV (Channel 61) in Cleveland, OH had left the air in 1974 after merging with WUAB-TV (Channel 43).

The history of Boston's Channel 56 is a long and storied one. I'm sure many of WLVI's great staff would want to chime in here to add some more about this great station. I grew up watching Channel 56 in the 1960's and 70's. I am sad to see what has come about the sale. Again, to all of the great people at WLVI-TV who stayed truly professional right down to the end last night, I salute you all. Your efforts of the past 40 years have not gone unnoticed by this viewer. "Good luck and good bye".

Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
 
3 questions:

1-What happens with the existing building just off of I-93/US 1/MA 3?
2-Why IS Cambridge their city of license?
3-Are they now coming out of the WHDH-TV studios at Bulfinch Place? (Looks kinda cramped at street level if you ask me!)
 
3 questions:

1-What happens with the existing building just off of I-93/US 1/MA 3?
Answer: It will either be sold, leased or rented at Sunbeam's total discretion.


2-Why IS Cambridge their city of license?
Answer: It goes back to when the Table of Assignments were enacted for UHF. In addition to the current WJIB/740 (formerly WTAO, WCAS, WLVG and WWEA) and WHRB/95.3, 96.9 (formerly WXHR-FM) was originally licensed (and allocated) to Cambridge. And WGBH-FM/89.7 was originally licensed to Cambridge as well. Channel 56 is the ONLY visual service licensed to Cambridge, while Boston is well served by several VHF stations.


3-Are they now coming out of the WHDH-TV studios at Bulfinch Place? (Looks kinda cramped at street level if you ask me!)
Answer: As of midnight, control of Channel 56 operations were probably moved to Bulfinch Place, right after "Sex In The City". You can see a little blurp in the video and can hear a loss of audio for just a few seconds after midnight. Then, it resumed as normal. Chances are, both sites had safety copies of the midnight show to keep the flow uninterrupted.


Hopefully this info will be of help to you.

Take care,
-Pete
 
>>3-Are they now coming out of the WHDH-TV studios at Bulfinch Place? (Looks kinda cramped at street level if you ask me!)
Answer: As of midnight, control of Channel 56 operations were probably moved to Bulfinch Place, right after "Sex In The City". You can see a little blurp in the video and can hear a loss of audio for just a few seconds after midnight. Then, it resumed as normal. Chances are, both sites had safety copies of the midnight show to keep the flow uninterrupted.

Just a quick comment there. I had heard that the actual transfer from Tribune to Sunbeam was going to occur at 12 midnight. Besides taping the last Morrissey Blvd. newscast, I let my VCR roll through about 12:15 AM. After "Will and Grace" ended right before midnight, there was a few commericals, the last one being a "Verizon" commerical. Then, there was a slight "blip" in both the picture and sound as Peter described which cut off about the last 1-second of the Verizon commerical. I think that is where the actual "switch" occured, because right after that, the "Star-Spangled" banner played. (It was a locally produced version of the SSB as it showed Boston landmarks and things such as the Red Line rolling over the Longfellow bridge). There was no explanation following this, and as soon as it faded out, the next show ("Friends") came on.

Peter- being that you have worked in master control before, do you know how the actual transfer took place? I would think that there was probably a microwave or fiber optic link up between Morrissey Blvd. and the antenna in Needham. Would a 2nd link be established with Bullfinch Place, that would then take the place of the first STL between Morrissey and Needham? I would think if that was the case, it would have to be carefully timed so 2 competing STL signals received at the same time would not blow out the receiving gear in Needham. (I might be way off base here, since I am not an engineer).

As far as the office space at WHDH being cramped, I work in Government Center in Boston, and the WHDH studio building looks fairly substantial. Figuring WLVI will not have a studio, there is probably will not need to be alot of space to house "CW 56". probably just a master control, the programming inventory and some production equipment...

Oh- and one last comment. Tonight, they keep hyping "7 News at 10 on CW 56". The teaser stories involve plastic surgery and Paris Hilton. How superficial. Reminds me of the Don Henley song "Dirty Laundry." :(

-Mike
 
>>Peter- being that you have worked in master control before, do you know how the actual transfer took place? I would think that there was probably a microwave or fiber optic link up between Morrissey Blvd. and the antenna in Needham. Would a 2nd link be established with Bullfinch Place, that would then take the place of the first STL between Morrissey and Needham? I would think if that was the case, it would have to be carefully timed so 2 competing STL signals received at the same time would not blow out the receiving gear in Needham. (I might be way off base here, since I am not an engineer).<<

Hi Mike: The way it looked from here, it looked like a fiber link was being re-patched at midnight. Up until midnight, as far as I know, they were using KMN-79 (their Microwave Link from Morrissey Blvd. to Cabot St. in Needham). After midnight, it looked like the feed was interrupted first with the video side, then audio side broke off for less than 2-3 seconds. And then it returned as usual. Chances are, they still used a brief backup fiber link to Bulfinch from Morrissey for the last few minutes after midnight, after the first switch (after the blip we saw) and then started feeding Needham from Bulfinch after the SSB and then right to "Friends". If it is similar to what WFXT uses from Dedham to Needham (strictly fiber), Bulfinch is probably feeding Cabot St. Needham with a fiber link. They probably also have a standard STL ready, "just in case". Then again, every station is different.

BTW: I watched a few minutes of the new "7 News at 10 on CW56". I didn't stay long. The second story about a Jack Russell Terrior being allegedly shot by disgruntled neighbors turned me off immediately. No thanks. And it's come down to this............


Take care,
Pete
 
I really enjoyed reading this thread. Threads like this is what this board is all about...unlike the silly drivel over on the Philadelphia radio board. Peter, and others: thank you for providing such wonderful insight to the history of WLVI. I really enjoy learning the history of legendary television stations and their staff.

I missed the final WLVI-produced newscast. I hope someone is nice enough to have recorded it, then put it up on YouTube (or at least just the final minutes of the newscast). I wish nothing but the best of luck to those who were affected by the Sunbeam takeover.

The first ever "7 News at 10" was a complete joke. I never saw any mention of CW 56 at all. I never saw the CW logo on anything. It was all Channel 7 tabloid garbage. The newscast had no news at all. How can anybody watch it? I'm not a fan of Dave and Maria at Fox 25 (both are annoying as hell), but I think I will be watching them a bit more at 10:00. I can't take another minute of this alleged "newscast" on Channel 56.
 
I also watched the first few minutes of the WHDH newscast on WLVI. With all that's going on in the world, was Miss USA really the most important story? I already miss "THE Ten O'Clock News". The new newscast is garish and embarrassing. If I want entertainment news, I'll watch Entertainment Tonight. Oh well, it's back to NECN at 10.

If anyone from the old WLVI is reading, I echo the comments of others here, congratulating you on a job well done and sending best wishes for the future for all of you.

Paul
 
I noticed last night that the ID that shows up on the screen at the top of the hour is saying WLVI-TV WLVI-DT 56 BOSTON. When is someone gonna tell them that the city of license is actually Cambridge?
 
soxandpats said:
How about the lead story being the Miss USA thing? What a joke...
Click to expand...

Agreed. I wasn't a big fan of 56's anchors but loved their reporters. The way they(7News) now package it with the MTV-like feel to the 15-22 year olds is pretty pathetic. Not many local options left at 10. NECN - News on the Cheap with lifeless robotic anchors and reporters. No thanks. Fox 25 - owner bites dog news and infotainment packages all night long. I won't be going back to watch TV38 news at 9:30. That is one dreadful newscast.
 
I won't be going back to watch TV38 news at 9:30. That is one dreadful newscast.
Click to expand...

How does the WSBK 9:30 newscast compare with the WBZ one at 11:00? I watched it once the first week and it did seem more, um, casual than the 11 PM one.

Paul
 
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:
In watching the last locally produced Ten O'Clock News on Channel 56 from Morrissey Boulevard, you couldn't help but feel anything but admiration for the 150+ employees of WLVI-TV. They were truly professional right to the last moment. Seeing Jack Hynes for one more time on Channel 56 was very moving. I know how it feels to leave a place you worked for many years, only to find that it was NEVER going to be there anymore.


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
Click to expand...

Outside of the lucky few who have been plucked off the waiver wire (i.e. Lauren Jiggetts to NBC 5 in Chicago), I would love to know what happens to Karen, Frank, Wank and Mike Ratte. Hopefully they (and the rest of those not mentioned) get back on their feet soon. Yes, I know Karen is married to Jonathan Hall from 56's conqueror (7) - you'd think that would give her a leg up? I'd also love to know where the annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast will be seen from here on out, and does Jack Hynes (who appeared to burn his bridges to 7 behind him Monday night) still co-anchor the Southie breakfast? I thought I was having hallucinations left over from my oral surgery anesthesia when I saw Jack Hynes' rave and rant about the end of 56's newscast. ::)

Final question: does this mean that Springer's main broadcast moves to 7 at 3 p.m. while Family Feud is shuffled over to 56 as a demotion? ;D
 
>>I'd also love to know where the annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast will be seen from here on out, and does Jack Hynes (who appeared to burn his bridges to 7 behind him Monday night) still co-anchor the Southie breakfast? I thought I was having hallucinations left over from my oral surgery anesthesia when I saw Jack Hynes' rave and rant about the end of 56's newscast.<<

Jack Hynes is a 50 year fixture in Boston Television news reporting. He is the consummate professional. He is the best, bar none. And when he sees a major tragedy in Boston Television with practically all of his colleagues getting their "walking papers" one week before Christmas (over 130 top flight professionals at one of America's premier UHF stations), he boiled over (and rightly so). The way the whole situation was done, left a lot to be desired. More than likely, Tribune gave their severance packages with some stipulations. I couldn't help but feel that Jack was the "fall guy" for crew as he was pretty much retired from the business (and is living rather comfortably) and had nothing to lose. He is a class act and obviously cared a lot about his fellow employees at Channel 56 and wanted to set the record straight. In my opinion, he did just that.
 
He has every reason to be upset. The guy knows the news business he knows what BS Ansin is going to put in that time slot. He probably hates to see something that he worked on from the very beginning be put to shame with 7 News on 56. He knows local news and community events coverage is going to be slim to none and he knew there was nothing he could do about it. A very hard working and dedicated professional lost his job to a poor excuse for news coverage and he feels himself and his co-workers were unfairly let go. But hey, what can you do? Nothing except provide an opinion and insight and thats what he did, in true Jack Hynes style.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom