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WTTV- Channel 4 Newscast

E

e-dawg

Hi I know this is a radio board, but there is no regional Indiana tv board.

Question, when did WTTV produced their local newscast. When did it cease their local news production, and why did they cease their local news production?
 
I remember WTTV/WTTK doing a newscast in 1999 that was produced by WRTV. As I understand it, that was canned the moment Tribune got the station. After all, Tribune also has Fox 59 WXIN, and they didn't want to air a competing 10 pm newscast.
 
e-dawg said:
Hi I know this is a radio board, but there is no regional Indiana tv board.

Question, when did WTTV produced their local newscast. When did it cease their local news production, and why did they cease their local news production?
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They produced their own newscasts from at least the early '50s, if not from their 1949 sign-on, until sometime in the '80s. They carried WRTV's product after that. I may be wrong here, but I think their news department was closed down right after Sarkes Tarzian sold the station.

During the '60s (maybe even earlier), through the mid '70s or so, they aired newscasts from both studios (Bluff Rd. & Bloomington) to satisfy the existing FCC rule that they had to originate some programming from their COL. The Bloomington newscast (11:45 AM, IIRC) was in B&W - that studio was never equipped for color from what I remember - even after the rest of the station had gone full color.
 
I remember Doug Rafferty doing the news and Chuck Marlowe doing sports, but have been racking my brain trying to recall who did weather there.
 
Paul Poteet did weather on WTTV toward the end, IIRC.

Newscasts on channel 4 came and went toward the end of the 80s and very early 90s. I remember they cancelled their newscast in 1987 or so only to start one up again around 1989 or 1990. That latter news operation was very short lived...I don't even think it lasted a year. It wasn't until the mid-90s when they'd get back into the news game through an agreement with WRTV.
 
IndyDan said:
I remember Doug Rafferty doing the news and Chuck Marlowe doing sports, but have been racking my brain trying to recall who did weather there.
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IIRC, it was Stan Wood back in the '50s and early '60s, prior to going to Channel 8, but I forget who did weather after that.

If my now-fading serves, Wood goes back to WTTV's Bloomington days in the early '50s - I remember seeing a photo of him doing weather from there. They kept some memorabilia in the Bloomington studio years ago, and I was able to take a look at some of it back when the Bloomington ham club had its meetings there circa 1970-72.
 
Wood was there when it was Channel 10? If you see the really old information I believe 4 was 10 until some agreement allowed them to change.
 
ChiefEngineer said:
Wood was there when it was Channel 10? If you see the really old information I believe 4 was 10 until some agreement allowed them to change.
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Yep. WTTV was on Channel 10 from 1949-53 and was the Indy market's NBC affiliate. When the original TV allocations were issued in 1947, Indy (including Bloomington) was allocated Channels 3, 6, 8, 10, and 12, and Terre Haute was allocated Channel 4. By 1952, only Channels 6 (WFBM-TV) and 10 (WTTV) had made it to air. There had been a CP for Channel 3 (WWHB, later WUTV, owned by the William H. Block Co.) issued in 1947, but it was never built.

When the FCC lifted the freeze and redid the allocations table in 1952, Channel 3 was moved to Louisville, 12 was changed to 13, 4 was swapped with 10, and as a result, the Indy market lost a VHF channel.

: Link: Jeff Miller's History Page - 1947 TV Allocations
 
Apollo7979 said:
Newscasts on channel 4 came and went toward the end of the 80s and very early 90s. I remember they cancelled their newscast in 1987 or so only to start one up again around 1989 or 1990. That latter news operation was very short lived...I don't even think it lasted a year. It wasn't until the mid-90s when they'd get back into the news game through an agreement with WRTV.
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Don't get 4 confused with WPDS - WXIN. 59 rif'd their news dept. mid 80s. Later to return for Fox. I did sound for 4s News 4 Indiana and later Indiana Nightly News and the Lottery feed. The news dept. was rif'd in 1990. The 6 deal started later. Doug anchored. Chuck Workman sports. Marlowe was fired years earlier - in the Rich Green days. Marlowe continued with the Bobby Knight show. Gary Lee did weather near the end. 4 traditionally only had the anchor do a brief forecast. One exception was mid 60s - Sue Scott weather for Capitol News Beat with Mike Ungersma. My BSU prof Dave Smith had moved with Stan Wood from 4 over to 8 in the 50s - and was damned willing to tell you about it.
 
WTTV had news continuously until about 1990.

On a semi-related note, WTHI was never on 4, correct? I'm pretty sure WTTV went from 10 to 4, and then WTHI signed on from Terre Haute a few months later. Correct?
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
WTTV had news continuously until about 1990.

On a semi-related note, WTHI was never on 4, correct? I'm pretty sure WTTV went from 10 to 4, and then WTHI signed on from Terre Haute a few months later. Correct?
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Correct. WTHI signed on July 22, 1954, long after the channels were reallocated. WTTV had moved to Channel 4 on February 21 of that year, freeing up Channel 10.

IIRC, the FCC gave stations a couple of years to move to their new channel assignments. WTTV had to do more than just buy a new transmitter & antenna for their existing facility, since they moved their main studio to Indy at the same time. I guess it took awhile to get that 1250-foot tower built in Trafalgar (their original transmitter was in the same building as their studio on the south side of Bloomington, behind the main Tarzian building).
 
KeithE4 said:
PTBoardOp94 said:
IIRC, the FCC gave stations a couple of years to move to their new channel assignments. WTTV had to do more than just buy a new transmitter & antenna for their existing facility, since they moved their main studio to Indy at the same time. I guess it took awhile to get that 1250-foot tower built in Trafalgar (their original transmitter was in the same building as their studio on the south side of Bloomington, behind the main Tarzian building).
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Was it 4 or 10 on the mast outside Cloverdale? Thought Trafalgar replaced that.
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AndTheLambGoesBAA said:
Was it 4 or 10 on the mast outside Cloverdale? Thought Trafalgar replaced that.
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Cloverdale is halfway between Indy and Terre Haute but at 30 miles away, it might have been close enough to Bloomington to give city-grade coverage. But if WTTV ever had a tower there, I've never heard that before. I thought they went straight from Bloomington to Trafalgar. Not sure if WTHI ever had one there either. No radio or TV station transmits from there now, as far as I can tell.
 
AndTheLambGoesBAA said:
Don't get 4 confused with WPDS - WXIN. 59 rif'd their news dept. mid 80s. Later to return for Fox. I did sound for 4s News 4 Indiana and later Indiana Nightly News and the Lottery feed. The news dept. was rif'd in 1990. The 6 deal started later. Doug anchored. Chuck Workman sports. Marlowe was fired years earlier - in the Rich Green days. Marlowe continued with the Bobby Knight show. Gary Lee did weather near the end. 4 traditionally only had the anchor do a brief forecast. One exception was mid 60s - Sue Scott weather for Capitol News Beat with Mike Ungersma. My BSU prof Dave Smith had moved with Stan Wood from 4 over to 8 in the 50s - and was damned willing to tell you about it.
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Yeah, I guess you're right. For some reason, I was thinking that the news was replaced by Hawaii Five-O for a brief period in the 80s for some reason. Now that I come to think about it a little more, that happened right after 4 cancelled their newscast in the fall of 1990.
 
KeithE4 said:
AndTheLambGoesBAA said:
Was it 4 or 10 on the mast outside Cloverdale? Thought Trafalgar replaced that.
Click to expand...

Cloverdale is halfway between Indy and Terre Haute but at 30 miles away, it might have been close enough to Bloomington to give city-grade coverage. But if WTTV ever had a tower there, I've never heard that before. I thought they went straight from Bloomington to Trafalgar. Not sure if WTHI ever had one there either. No radio or TV station transmits from there now, as far as I can tell.
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Cloverdale was WTTV not WTHI. Massive thing. Saw it as a kid. Long after the move to Traf.
 
Wasn't Leslie Olsen also involved with Channel 4 news at one time...maybe towards the end of their tenure of news? and it seems like Shana Kelly was also with them at one time
 
Wasn't Shana Kelly around after the news as well. If memory serves me correctly, wasn't she also a movie host and, for a short time, even Commander KC on the TTV4 Kids Club?
 
I remember the brief stint of Don Hein and also the tenure of Tracy Hoerth as co-anchor with Rafferty in the 80s, but I do not recall Shana Kelly from anything on TTV-4...except with her shoes off in that cheesy commercial for dental assisting.

"I've got a real fun weekend planned."
 
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