A montage of South Florida’s WSVN news openers and promos up until 2020:
And here’s a montage of their sister station in Boston, WHDH:
Fun fact: these graphics have been mostly done in-house (sic). They also have its own in-house music composer, Chris Crane, who has done the station’s themes in his distinctive “Miami Vice-style” since 1991.
WSVN and WHDH are well-known globally for its tabloid “if it bleeds, it leads” news format. This particular format was made out of necessity rather than a decision of “change the rules”: although NBC was having a particular boom in the ratings thanks to Brandon Tartikoff, being regarded as “the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers” during the period, outside of network programming, WSVN was suffering in the rating fights, being third in the local news audience figures; thus, NBC, in an aggressive move, bought rival WTVJ from investment firm KKR. WSVN owner Ed Ansin, fearing NBC would terminate early their affiliation (which was set to expire in 1989), unsuccessfully petitioned the FCC to stop the acquisition; eventually, a compromise was made, where NBC would allow Ansin to air their network shows for one more year, including live coverage of the MLB World Series, the Miami Dolphins NFL games and, the crown jewel, the Seoul 1988 Olympics. Eventually, WTVJ, now under control of NBC, but still a CBS affiliate for all intents and purposes, began housing programming which WSVN preempted.
Behind the scenes, Sunbeam Television began behind-the-scenes talks with CBS, which almost immediately denied them an affiliation deal; the Tiffany Network was already in talks with Taft Broadcasting to buy Homestead affiliate WCIX (now WFOR). Thus, Ed Ansin was forced with sign with the then-nascent Fox network, which only aired network shows on weekends; as a result, WSVN began to be programmed as an indie station: they aired a movie in prime time at 8:00 p.m. every weeknight during the late part of the 80s, but, instead of buying large amounts of syndicated first-run shows, off-network sitcoms and cartoons, they decided to greatly expand their news operations.
Under the direction of Joel Cheatwood, WSVN dropped the lighter and softer newscast format in favor of the “Miami Vice-style” newscasts, with a very flashy, OTT, and “smack-in-your-face” look and feel. Cheatwood and Ansin moved the newscasts out of the traditional studio and into the newsroom and control room. After a few years of a slow implementation, the format brought up the intensity by 1991: the presentation became very aggressive, bold graphics filled the screen, discordant music opened the newscast and penetrated the proceedings, and even the station announcer, Scott Chapin, was menacing!
In summary: the tone of the newscasts was also wildly different from anything the market - perhaps the nation - had yet seen. This was not Peter Jennings soberly reporting on the latest going-ons in the Soviet Union. That wasn’t the point. The point wasn’t to just inform, but entertain as well - thus the flashy graphics, catchy headlines and fast-paced delivery in a rapid-fire, excited manner, not sparing any of the gory details when it came to describing murders or rapes.
By 1994, WSVN made another move: they moved the newsroom and studio into a much bigger two-floor space which they called it the Newsplex, embracing the then-new Internet media and allowing them to get network-level production values which is very rarely done anymore.
Many of its competitors saw that station lasting more than maybe two years with that “The News Station” format. Certainly nobody saw the station not only surviving the switch, but thriving: WSVN quickly rose to the top spot among English language stations in that market, and it was boosted by Fox getting the NFL rights in 1994; many of the new affiliates took WSVN’s model for expanding their news services, and Fox used the template to launch its Fox News Channel in 1996.
The competitors noticed and took some time to clone WSVN. When they finally switch to NBC, WTVJ had a handsome art deco look from Jon Fox’s Hothaus Creative. By 1992, that was replaced by cold banks of monitors, a theme music straight out of Miami Vice, and a campaign called “Watch Our Team Work”. Cross-street, WPLG did copy the “if it bleeds, it leads” concept, although not as grandiose as WSVN, with more muted graphics and a more traditional studio, and they are now competing for first place with 7.
For a time, WCIX was a hold-out, and took the bold decision to relaunch its early evening shows into a “family sensitive” format with no violent footage, as well as reduce the prevalence of crime news in all of its newscasts; this didn’t last long, and with WCIX swapping frequencies with WTVJ to become WFOR, they got a WSVN clone by 1998, with a new look with more tropical colors and a new version of Gari Media’s News Source with a salsa beat; the changes revived the laggard station, but it has now taken a more middle-fiddle format which has profited from CBS’s status as most watched network; its 11pm news is more competitive with 7 and 10, and has successfully fended off the ratings dominance of the Spanish-speaking local channels.
In the US, they also took notice: the aggressive pacing and styling slowly took over other TV stations during the 90s, reviving the ratings of some laggards and placing them in par with its more traditional rivals which were (in most cases) the top-watched channels. Even the network newscasts were quick to add tabloid stories and flashier graphics.
But Ansin took note of the situation at WHDH, then owned by a consortium of local retail mogul David Mugar and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, to try to bring his ideas to Boston. After failing to imitate WCVB and quickly losing money, Ansin was quick to react and bought the station in July 1993; he quickly installed Cheatwood and bought the “Miami Vice” format to New England, although WHDH’s new format was more toned down than that of Miami, it shocked the Boston TV statement and led to the high profile resignation of many veteran station personalities. Soon, WHDH had its ratings revived and it is now competing with WCVB in the race for first place.
Soon, with increased rejection by social groups of the “if it bleeds, it leads” format, WSVN had its world famous format toned down, with less coverage of crime (which is still the bread and butter of WSVN news) and increased time for consumer, lifestyle, health and well-being segments and more coverage of entertainment, sports and weather, specially during big events happening in South Florida. For a flashy, very Latin city like Miami, they do a great job covering their city and when a major breaking story happens they are brilliant.
WSVN is consistently also regarded by media insider publications as a “station for straight and solid journalists”, mainly for being considered as a “news factory”: the station bosses are a good group to work for and expect hard work and a tenacious attitude toward getting the story. Some criticism is regarded on the overall work environment, often told as “cold” and for its low pay wages.
PD: sorry for the really long post!
