And since we’ve been talking about early CNN, here’s a great book about the channel’s early years. Published in 1990, it’s widely available used:
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A branding history of the Argentine news channel Crónica TV, from its launch in 1994 to 2021.
Crónica is well known for its well-known tabloid and buzzy presentation style, including having for many years a flexible schedule (with no strands and alternating presenters 24 hours a day), its use of red-top breaking news slides (placas rojas, featuring catchy and often outrageous and comedic headlines to describe upcoming news, even the less important stories), the use of the American presidential march The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa as theme music, and an aggressive, all-out commitment to get the story and to present it in graphic, visual detail (even if the footage was very graphic or violent, at the extent of not sparing any of the gory details). This tabloid styling, with a left-wing, pro-working class ideology, led to Crónica becoming the most watched news and cable channel in the country for around 10 years (in a country which has had historically a well-developed subscription TV industry).
However, the channel doesn’t air always news programming; it has also aired archival programming from Héctor Ricardo García’s archives (including the era where he administered La Plata’s Channel 2) and a wide range of concerts from Latin and Argentinian artists, as well as some entertainment shows. A particular tradition by Argentinians is to watch Crónica on New Year’s Eve, where it airs an all-night pop marathon, including the countdown and live shots of fireworks around Buenos Aires.
When its namesake newspaper was sold to the Olmos family (Raúl and Alejandro, key members of the metal worker unions in Argentina) in 2005, García retained ownership of the TV channel, but licensed the paper name and logo in the interim; coinciding with the channel dropping the Teledos-inherited graphics generator in favor of Vizrt technology, Crónica TV debuted an Impact-font word mark, which it used until the Olmos family took over half of the network, allowing them to bring back the paper’s masthead by mid-2016.
In recent years, the channel has taken an increasingly progressive and activist approach, supporting both the Kirchner and Fernández governments; it has also finally adopted a fixed strand-based schedule, and its coverage of stories (particularly sensitive issues, like gender affairs) has become more serious and “solutions-based” in tone. Its presentation, whilst retaining some hallmarks (like the placas rojas and the Sousa fanfare) has been also modernized in recent years, losing its charm.
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Some not very fondly remembered (but quite disturbing and flashing, you are warned) masterwork from Lambie-Nairn, made for Flemish commercial broadcaster VTM in 1995, specifically, for its then newly launched second channel, Kanaal 2, for which Lambie-Nairn shortened the name for on-air use to Ka2.
Ka2 was launched by VTM on January 31, 1995, in response to the arrival of satellite channels coming from outside the country in the wake of the launch of cable TV, for example, VT4, launched by SBS from London (and which repurposed Lambie-Nairn’s work for sister Swedish channel Femman). When it launched, Ka2 took on a really unconventional remit for a privately owned commercial channel, focusing on arts and culture programming. However, unlike the then BRTN’s second channel (considered as elitist and little watched other than during sport), Ka2 took in a much more accessible style and a more progressive and radical approach to content, in the style of Channel 4, mixing serious and very radical content (including a sort of Channel 4 News broadcast and very controversial shows dealing with taboo topics) with more populist and accessible programming from the UK and Europe, unlike VTM, which had a mom-and-pop content remit and lots of American imports. The launch of the channel was widely expected, both in the social and political circles, and quickly caught the attention of cultural associations, which were allocated a late evening slot for a daily agenda feature.
However, after launch, the mix of cultural shows with more conventional fare was awkwardly received by viewers and the channel soon tanked, even more so when VT4 was licensed to broadcast terrestrially. As a result, VTM took the decision to restructure the channel slowly, first by adding younger skewing programming gradually (the more serious shows being demoted to late nights, including the agenda feature, moved to closedown) and then completely repositioning as a trashy entertainment channel for a younger audience to respond into VT4’s arrival.
Although this phase of the channel was short lived, it would certainly inspire the BRTN for the relaunch of their second channel, with its cultural programming style becoming more accessible and leading to its eventual renaming to Canvas in 1997, as part of the BRTN-wide rebrand by Lambie-Nairn (which also affected its main TV1 channel and launched the new Ketnet children’s brand).
The Ka2 look, designed under the direction of Brian Eley (which would later designed the Carlton star hearts, leaving LN in 2003 to create Dunning Eley Jones and later working for Sony Pictures Television) and Jason Keeley, is Lambie-Nairn at its finest: a radical approach to design, with often bold and brash idents punctuated with music by Joe Glasman (Hum Audio). The fire ident which launched the channel is considered one of the scariest TV idents ever made. It contrasted with the American-style and lightweight brand VTM used to have before 2004. It was also one of the first Flemish channels with a DOG, something which VTM did not use until the 2000s.
Now to some more well-known, Lambie-Nairn’s work for S4C. Launched in 1993 in a bid to diversify the Welsh-centric channel’s audiences (and not only to cater the rural, aged audience and the preschoolers), the creative solution by Brian Eley and Charlotte Castle involved taking any everyday objects and play with them depicting, in an abstract way, the Welsh red dragon symbol.
It was a rousing success, leading to the channel adopting a new logo from Glenn Tutssel and Jan Casey in June 1995 to replace the late 80s Bodoni logo from Peter Leonard, with the launch idents accordingly tweaked and new additions being consistently commissioned, until Iona Jones took the bold decision to replace the whole look in 2006, given it wasn’t ready for the digital environment plans she was spearheading for the channel. The idents were dropped that Christmas, and a new look from Proud Creative was launched the following January.
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An interesting choice of programme for Valentines celebrations, on 1996 TVB Pearl in Hong Kong: Instead of solely Western romance classic, The Legend of Purple Hair Pin (紫釵記), a 1959 film adaptation of the Cantonese opera, was selected. The main actors were prominant Cantonese opera faces in the 20th Century, with some leaping onto commercial TV scene after the start of TVB.
Being a Black and White film about a Chinese romance story, the addition of English subtitles as part of their Be My Valentine campaign of shows was pretty unimaginable, for a station mostly specializes in English programming. But it wasn’t the only language it deviates to: From 1980s to the 2000s, Pearl also had a dedicated Japanese programme strand, Japanese Hour, tailored for Japanese living in the city:
With the start of J2 and the decline of Japanese tourism to HK, the strand was no more in 2008. A similar, English-languaged counterpart was the Go!Japan TV show, moving from ATV World to ViuTV after the former had lost its franchise.
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An interview with the legendary Rede Globo creative director Hans Donner, aired during its media-based variety show Vídeo Show in 1998 (in Brazilian Portuguese).
Donner, born in Wuppertal, Germany, he moved to Brazil in 1975, tapping Rede Globo to help them to design a new logo, which he did where on his way to the country in a nap. Donner quickly escalated to the top positions at the company, being tapped to lead a fully in-house creative services department. A pioneer in the use of new graphical techniques, Donner’s designs became fully identified with the broadcaster and would eventually win a big number of awards and many exhibitions both in Brazil and abroad. He was not only in charge of designing the channel’s branding, he was also responsible for the opening titles and bumpers of almost all of Globo’s programming, including its prized telenovelas and all of its news programming (including sets).
Donner was also responsible for many projects outside of Globo, including the 10th anniversary logo of the Centre Pompidou, and its pet project, Onne Watch (previously Time Dimension), which has evolved into a watch face and an app for many devices and smartwatches. Citing the need to change its graphical direction branding-wise, Donner amicably parted ways with Globo in 2015, with his longtime protégés, Ricardo Moyano and Alexandre Arrabal, succeeding him as co-directors of the creative services department, with Moyano focusing on the branding and entertainment side and Arrabal on the creative work for the news and sports division.
After a time focusing on his Onne project and working in a freelance basis, Donner would return to full-time work in 2021, being hired by the Goiana-based realty company Serén Incorporadora to work on architectural and housing projects.
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Here’s the launch of Portugal’s TVI, on February 20, 1993. The channel, formed by both for-profit and non-profit companies and organisations related to the Portuguese Catholic Church, including Rádio Renascença and the Catholic University of Portugal, as well as minority shares by, among others, the Público paper and Editora Verbo, initially aired a strong line-up of family-oriented programming, prioritizing original shows focusing on the preservation of Portuguese cultural traditions, as well as an emphasis on religious programming (with a full strand on Sunday mornings) and with a strong line-up of imports (both films and series, both classic and recent).
The channel initially aired these imports with Portuguese dubbing, something non-standard on Portuguese TV, which airs imports in its original soundtrack with open captions. This led to rejection by audiences, and, within months, imports began to air subtitled. However, the channel itself was also subject to low ratings from its inception in contrast to its commercial competitor SIC, even losing to PSB channels RTP1 and RTP2 in the race for ratings. It won’t be until Media Capital began taking over TVI from 1996, when its ratings began to increase due to the unexpected success of Morangos com Açúcar, its teen soapie.
And here’s the opening extract of the first news broadcast, presented by Clara de Sousa. She is now a staple over a cross-town rival SIC, alternately (and sometimes jointly) anchoring with Rodrigo Guedes de Carvalho its main news. Worth noting that TVI’s newscasts initially prioritized covering more news from the regions, unlike RTP’s emphasis on politics and SIC’s aggressive tabloid news.
The channel’s inaugural brand identity was commissioned by TVI (on behalf of American consultancy Frank R. Magid Associates) to Martin Lambie-Nairn. Working with Charlotte Castle, Lambie-Nairn took the bold decision to name the channel A Quatro, as (according to the man himself on his 1997 book Brand Identity for Television: With Knobs On (p. 154), the TVI moniker was being derided by the press as “TV Igreja”. Working with marketing director João Sachetti, who came from the advertising industry, and given the channel’s remit focusing on rescuing cultural traditions and due to its Church backing, the brand took many Church-related imagery without being “evangelical in flavour”, such as the Magellan cross, which became the starting point for the logo.
The design process was also hampered by Magid’s laidback workplace culture, leading to a slow and chaotic pace, and a big spelling mistake on the colour boards presented to the channel management, leading to Lambie-Nairn giving a bottle of champagne to its managing director (p. 156).
The on-air branding elements had a sailing theme (related to Portugal’s historical relationship with the sea), with the ident and brand elements featuring a blowing sail with the 4 numeral emblazoned. The idents were shot in London, and were electronically manipulated in post to produce four versions.
The brand identity was also joined by a distinctive jingle and sound branding by Lebanese composer Gabriel Yared, who had worked with Lambie-Nairn on rebranding TF1 in 1990 (including penning the famous and dramatic TF1 news opener).
However, as it can be seen, the Lambie-Nairn identity was never embraced by the channel’s design and promotion departments. According to Brand Identity for Television: With Knobs On (p. 154), although the ident was emotionally well received by channel management and marketing staff, the channel’s creative services teams “looked down on it because it had not been done in a computer. They regarded live action as old-fashioned”.
As a result, from the outset, a mishmash of elements could be seen on-air. Not only many of the Lambie-Nairn designs didn’t went to air, but also many out-of-style elements, with flashy 3D elements and two conflicting jingles (the Gabriel Yared one and another featuring a three-note sound logo) were shown during promos. Over time, the Lambie-Nairn ident was relegated to start-up/closedown duties and the brand was fully dropped by 1994, when the TVI brand was finally adopted on-air, with a new logo, new idents and graphics (fully CGI and in-house) and the Yared jingle being dropped.
TVI wouldn’t have a fully unified until it debuted its multi-colored swirl, yellow-I logo by Pittard Sullivan in 2000, coinciding with an increase on more tabloid shows and beefing up its news offerings with aggressive formats and more emphasis on sports and opinion.
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I wonder who composed TVI’s early-2000 themes because a part of it seems to contain Ten News’ musical signature:
This is the open, right? I love the music, but I’d never have guessed that Nambie-Nairn was responsible for the graphics here. (The 3D, computer-animated style reminds me of Novocom’s work from that era.)
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A just-uploaded 1983 edition of the Evening News from AFN (American Forces Network) Europe. As you can see, many anchors and reporters were military personnel in uniform:
Although intended primarily for U.S. service members and their families living on and near American bases in Germany and beyond, AFN Europe also had a loyal following about the local European population. The channel could be picked up via over-the-air signals near U.S. facilities and was also carried by many cable systems. People didn’t seem to mind that it could only be seen in black-and-white because of the difference in standards. (AFN Europe broadcast in NTSC, whereas most of Europe used PAL, like Australia.) In fact, German TV listings magazines included schedules for AFN:
Image: Claus Grimm
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A compilation of early 2000s idents from Chile’s largest TV channels and top competitors: TVN and UCTV Canal 13. As the national public broadcaster, TVN incorporated the country’s magnificent landscapes into its branding.
On the other hand, Canal 13 (then owned by the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile) offered a rebellious and refined identity despite its religious roots.
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Well, that open was certainly not done by Lambie-Nairn. The thing is, TF1 didn’t use most of the elements of the Lambie-Nairn package for unknown reasons, including the opener titles Daniel Barber did for the newscasts (which remind of the BBC’s Nine O’Clock News opener from the period). In the video (sourced from TVARK, still in recovery mode), it also shows a more somber version of the theme (normally used in its bombastic style). I have also made a quick resync with the normal version of it.
Another unused element was this ident which featured a 3D version of the logo (GIF sourced from Lenodal); there have been some rumblings it had been used for a while, but it is not certain if it was as such, as TF1 continued to use its “Venus de Milo” sequence (complete with old logo) during startup and closedown, until it soft-launched round-the-clock broadcasts in February 1991.
What it was also certain was Yared’s eventual involvement on working with Lambie-Nairn on doing many of TF1’s visual elements from the period. He also did the short jingle pub (break bumper) sounder used between 1989 and 1991.
And this short cue was used to end promos during the period:
Here’s a bigger recap of many of the elements used by TF1 during the period:
According to his Brand Identity for Television: With Knobs On book (p. 139), Lambie-Nairn was selected for a closed pitch with Carré Noir, one of the foremost French design agencies, by French-Indian advertising agency Lintas (now part of MullenLowe), which was working with TF1 in 1988 to work on a rebrand to signify the conclusion of a dramatic transformation process as a newly-privatized channel under Bouygues.
According to Mr. Lambie-Nairn himself, “Curiously, both creative submissions were researched using hypnosis to help them reveal their feelings about the channel”. A curious move, but after winning the contract, soon cracks began to appear, as a meeting with the channel’s executives lasted “eight grueling hours” (p. 140) and the aggressive management wanted a solution as quickly as possible to go on air. TF1’s creative director at the time, Patrice Ferrand, suggest Lambie-Nairn to “make it direct” by taking cues from Air France and Pernod Ricard.
The new logo was set to launch during the 1989 season launch, but was delayed (although many of the graphical elements went on the air that summer in a transitional basis) until it was fully launched after Jean-Pierre Pernaut’s 13h news on February 2, 1990.
Although the identity only aired for one-and-a-half seasons (being followed by short-lived in-house works and then by the “emotional connections” identity by Gédéon), the logo has been on-air ever since then, notwithstanding minor alterations (one done in 2006, where the blue and red hues were made darker and a gradient 3D approach was made, done by Christophe Valdéjo’s View and Aerodrome Pictures; the other done in 2013 by Naked, where the blue and red were made “neon-like” and now as a gradient design), becoming an icon of French culture and design (even if the channel, ever since its privatisation, has been accused of pandering to the lowest common denominator).
Back to Gabriel Yared’s theme, here’s an extract from an interview from Franceinfo (in French, obviously) where he describes the inspiration for the theme (John Williams’ soundtrack for Jaws) and the difficulties making such bombastic tune authoritative for a newscast intro:
And here’s another from French performance rights organisation SACEM and social media news producer Brut where he speaks on his prized career as composer for movies:
The theme has been rearranged three times: first in 2006 by Yared himself, coinciding with the launch of a new set and modernized graphics; the rearrangement was criticized by viewers for being “too light” and “overproduced”, leading to two attempts at remixed versions, which were less looped and more authoritative; this didn’t convince viewers either and TF1 brought back the original version by mid-December.
The second remix came as TF1 launched a modernized presentation in 2011, which included a more significant use of video wall techniques and a faster pace. The remix, less bombastic but still somehow authoritative, was done in-house by TF1 Entertainment and Santiago Casariego (cousin of French-Spanish singer-songwriter Manu Chao). He was also in charge of the current version of the theme music, much lighter in tone and less urgent, used since 2018.
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Wow, thank you so much, Medianext.MX!
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A documentary on the short-lived history of Swiss TV channel S Plus, aired on the late hours of February 20, 1995, as the channel began a week-long stunting/test transmission in preparation for its evolution as a more culturally and politics-focused channel, Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera 4.
And here’s the loop the channel aired during that week leading up to launch on March 1:
S Plus was the Swiss PSB response to the arrival of satellite channels to the country. The broadcaster (actually a private, non-profit association owned by the Federation) relaunched its part-time second channel (Sportkette) as a full-fledged younger-skewing “alternative” channel, with a stand-alone offering with little overlap with the main SRG SSR’s channels (only in the case of sports programming, which was still the bread and butter of the network; that unique format was reflected on its branding, designed by French agency Gédéon.
A full schedule was also implemented, with a daily short-form and faster-paced news bulletin, and younger-oriented shows on specialist topics, including a daily music show and an alternating debate show with alternating topics; it also added more cultural shows, both serious and contemporary, and time-leased shows provided by Presse-TV AG, a joint venture between newspaper groups NZZ Medien (now part of CH Media), Tamedia, Ringier and Südostschweiz Media, which were produced alternately by each paper.
S Plus had three problems which would eventually lead to its demise: first, its entire schedule was aired in German (and Swiss German), not effectively reflective of Swiss cultural regions; second, its programming was considered too elitist and little watched (outside of sports events); and third, it was available on FTA, but initially on the German and Romansh territories. The SBC quickly sorted these problems out by adding more Romansh programmes into its schedule (subtitled in German) at the outset of 1994, but at the expense of more repeats (including a Tagesschau next-day repeat). Second, it expanded coverage to the entire Swiss territory some months after launching, but it was still only available as a German channel.
Over time, the SBC saw the urgent need to restructure the channel’s schedule, leading to the relaunch of the project as Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera 4; the channel formally launched on March 1, 1995. The channel was more reflective of Swiss cultural differences, with programming being designed to be bilingual and/or trilingual, and with the schedule including all languages in an inclusive way (even shows could have SAP translations and multilingual subtitles), and a branding which featured the multicolor 4 numeral as a balloon, flying over important Swiss landmarks.
Primetime was cultural in flavor, with performances, non-mainstream films and documentaries filling the slots; the early evening was oriented to local current affairs programming, including the first test of the common political newsroom model the SBC currently uses in Bern. Daytime shows were composed of teletext on view (Swiss-TXT) and the slow TV show Swissview, which became very popular and gained a cult following, being rebooted in 2008 for the HD suisse joint network (which had a similar structure).
Although the experiment was relatively successful, the SRG SSR saw the need to go further and give control of the second channel to each regional broadcaster. On August 31, 1997, Schweiz 4 ended regular programming and the following day was split off into three distinct channels focusing on each region (that day TSR and TSI debuted new logos too, and the main SF DRS channel had been renamed as SF 1 at the start of August).
Although the TSR and TSI used the channel as a dumping ground for repeats, Romansh programming and expanded sport, religious and public affairs programming, SF DRS/SRF decided to orient the channel as a trashy, more appealing, younger-skewing channel, with more American imports, comedy, reality shows and music programming, with a fully Swiss German-speaking presentation (barring imports, dubbed into Standard German), plus expanded children’s and sport programming. The new channel inherited the PresseTV time brokerage agreement and still airs its shows on the channel.
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Is this the right place for this?
Fox Business taking Sky News back in 2015:
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A couple of pages from a defunct Argentine TV listings magazine called Canal TV in early June 1970. Includes some station ads. The 1960s and early 1970s were very good years for Argentina’s developing TV industry, where most of the programs were locally-produced (many of them were telenovelas, game shows and dramas). There were some imported shows as well.
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In his 1972 book The Universal Eye, Timothy Green mentions how television entrepreneur Goar Mestre brought his successful Cuban formula to Argentina:
From 1982, the end of the local news from WGN in Chicago and the beginning of the Independent Network News:
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That TVN identity, created by advertising agency Río Lab, was the final with that logo (dating back to 1990, after the return of democracy, with that version being done by the Procorp agency in 1996), as, on January 4, 2004, the completely new red square logo (designed by Raúl Menjibar of Porta) was introduced, finally placing the red square (used for presentation since 1994) into institutional basis. It also reflected the channel’s ever increasing fortunes at the time, including rebuilding its TV centre and some important scheduling and programming changes. The red square was dropped in 2020, but the word mark has been retained in a stand alone basis.
The rebellious identity was part of a change of culture at the Catholic broadcaster. Although its religious viewpoint was retained, after Enrique García Fernández was elected director general, its programming strategy began opening up (“losing its virginity”) and more reality TV and imported formats (including Colombian format Protagonistas de nuestra tele and The Weakest Link, plus its own creation Vértigo), as well as critically acclaimed and edgy series (including Machos and Brujas) began to be broadcast. Its Teletrece newscasts also took a more American and tabloid styling, with journalists now serving as newsreaders instead of its own announcers.
It was replaced in June 2005 by a new identity from Guillermo Stein’s practice Steinbranding, with music from Mariano and Dante Saulino. Newly-appointed director Eliana Rozas Ortúzar retained the opening up policy, but saw the identity as too aggressive and outdated, even with its popularity with the channel’s viewers. The new look was also directed to bring back the channel’s more conservative audiences to it, given the policy had alienated most of them, leading them to switch to TVN and Mega, hence the campaign slogan “Nos vemos en el 13”.
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A compilation of break bumpers (jingle pubs) used by TF1 between 1999 and 2006.
That particular look, designed by Christophe Valdéjo’s newly-created company View (after separating from Gédéon), was launched shortly before 10am on New Year’s Eve 1999, as TF1 began its exclusive French broadcast of 2000 Today (named Le Millénium, executive produced by Renaud Le Van Kim with the TF1 news department, editorially coordinated by Jean-Claude Narcy), airing from the Grand Hall of the Chaillot National Dance Theatre, overlooking the Eiffel Tower, and featuring some of TF1’s main news and entertainment presenters hosting a French-style talk show (with a live studio audience, lots of happy talk and crosses to all the global segments of the 2000 Today broadcast).
Coverage aired continuously for 27 straight hours, with a few exceptions, including the 13h news with Jean-Pierre Pernaut and a variety special from Arthur, before switching to the live fireworks from the Eiffel Tower with (now-disgraced) Patrick Poivre D’Arbor and Claire Chazal (then TF1’s main anchors). Although the mood was largely celebratory during the coverage, it was also a sad day for the channel, as Alain Gillot-Pétré, its well-known and very lively weather presenter, suddenly died after surviving a long battle with a not disclosed cancer; he had been tapped to present the final weather bulletin of 1999 and the first one of 2000. Nevertheless, the channel carried on with the special, and with the launch of the new look.
The contemporary look replaced the “emotional connections” designs made by Gédéon, which were starting to look cold and not appropriate for the “new millennium”. The channel was quick to ask View to deliver on a much more digital-styled and minimalist look, where the TF1 logo was placed into a tab element, where information on programming could be shown as the tab pulled up.
The 3D letters on break bumpers were often involved on depicting playful situations, where the duration of the bumper was shortened, running less than three seconds each. Initially produced with black and white BGs (plus extra pastel coloring for summer), the white background began to be use for all bumpers from 2003, with previously produced bumpers being tweaked.
The original bumpers were dropped on July 10, 2006, profiting from the end of the 2006 World Cup to launch a new look, designed by American production agency Aerodrome Pictures, in the run-up for the launch of the new season. New PUB bumpers, also designed by View, were designed to reflect the new “premium” brand personality, and took away the playful element in favor of a sophisticated approach to it.
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A historical compilation of news opens used by NBC Nightly News, and its predecessors, since 1948:
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A promo and opener of Kansas City station KSHB’s 15-minute news bulletin 41 Express in late 1985. This program had no presenters: just out-of-vision announcers that read the day’s top stories.
It wasn’t until 1993 when the channel expanded its news operation with longer newscasts. In September 1994, KSHB switched network affiliations (from Fox to NBC) and more bulletins were added to its schedule, adopting a more formal style.
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Here’s an example newscast from November 1993: the expanded newscasts were launched that August, with a very unconventional style which had a reminiscence of the aethestic of MTV’s The Real World. The format was the brainchild of Mark Olinger, a controversial executive coming from Seattle’s KSTW; his tenure on the Northwest station (then an independent) came under fire for mass layoffs and demotions of long-tenured staff, leading to his resignation in the midst of a sweeps period.
The younger-skewed format by Olinger clearly showed it: short tabloid stories around controversial human interest issues (à la Today Tonight/ACA), lack of real news, fast paced rundowns, heavy use of all-over-the-place video and liberal use of incidental music, a futuristic, grunge-like marble set and a conversational style of news writing (down to the use of “See ya” as closing greeting).
Whilst KSHB was shifting to a more traditional style, Scripps transported the edgy news format to KNXV, but the Phoenix station (then a Fox affiliate) decided to take on a much more serious approach to coverage (with investigative reports and emphasis on national and international news, consumer affairs and off-beat stories), but still with heavy emphasis of the unconventional presentation.
In the middle of its pre-launch preparations, and after ABC signed a group-wide deal with Scripps after the New World-Fox deal, including KNXV, the newscast suffered a dramatic expansion in its staffing members and the 9pm slot was eventually displaced to 10pm, with additional early evening editions soon following; after the switch to ABC, it launched morning newscasts.
It was also made much more serious in style after it took the network affiliation, it began including standard weather and sports segments and the pacing was toned down. After the switch to ABC, KNXV benefitted from ABC’s positions in the ratings and rose as high as second place, behind KPNX (the lone station which wasn’t affected by the Phoenix TV affiliation mess), but fortunes were altered after Scripps removed the “no chit-chat” management due to KTVK starting to beating them with its new prime time news format, so, it switched to a “if it bleeds, it leads” format.
Now to Miami, where we show an example of Miami’s The Times. The weekday 7pm show aired on WAMI, the pet project of Barry Diller, then-owner of the USA Network, and which was working to expand his media interests based on the popular cable network, and reorganizing with those of the Home Shopping Network and its OTA stations (organized in Silver King Broadcasting). He eventually saw the opportunity to better use these UHF frequencies and guarantee better carriage on cable.
The WAMI concept (called CityVision) was very much inspired by Toronto’s Citytv. Diller and his team went to 299 Queen Street West to see how Citytv worked and take ideas for its copy. However, unlike the aggressive approach of its original, it was much more lighter and (often) irreverent. The Times, although it prioritized investigative and in-depth stories, it was more focused on humor and an edgy style that had no resemblance to CityPulse.
Additionally, given it aired on a little-known UHF frequency, WAMI (and The Times) didn’t take off as expected, as viewers were very much accustomed to watch the more tabloid agenda which WSVN popularised and its competitors did copy it at some extent, even though they did a massive campaign to position them as an alternative.
Speaking of WAMI, here are some showreels from its launch in 1998. The channel famously launched with a 24-hour stunt between June 7 and 8, depicting the sonogram seeing the formation of the new station logo (as with the birth of a baby). Then, at 6am, the “Birth of a Station” sketch was shown, where a soon-to-be mother was giving birth to the “Miami” thought-bubble station logo. That logo, used as a powerful marketing tool, was soon tweaked with the WAMI call letters due to complaints from viewers in neighboring suburbs.
The channel was aiming for a very young, Latino and urban audience (the same which often populates the city’s nightclubs), with a line-up of original shows, including edgy talkers, lifestyle magazines (including tying up with local publications Ocean Drive and Generation ñ for its respective shows), reality shows and even local sports coverage of the Marlins and the Heat (which had the channel’s biggest audiences). It also had lots of off-network syndicated reruns, movie sessions (under the WAMI Movie Palace brand) and the Fox Kids block (repackaged with local inserts branded as WAMI in Miami). Mornings were occupied by traffic and weather reports (in a Bloomberg-style design) and slow TV-style showcases of old-time radio shows.
The studio (called the Hotbox) was located in the street floor of the Sony Music building in the trendy Lincoln Road neighborhood, a former car dealer. The studio was very much a modular space, with a fixed marble staircase in where a live studio audience could be seated, and with an outdoor space for features. Not only The Times did use it, but many of the station’s shows. For the entertainment programming, it looked OK, but for The Times looked quite vacuous and spare.
They planned to take the CityVision concept to the rest of Diller’s OTA stations (all affiliated to the Home Shopping Network), but after WAMI tanked, they only exported it to three other stations (Dallas, Boston and Atlanta) in a considerably watered down version, with no local programmes and a fully syndicated schedule.
Then, after Diller sold USA cable network to the current NBCU, they decided to eventually sell the OTA station group to a separate company. Although Disney/ABC was the frontrunner to work on the project, its bid was later turned down. Afterwards, Univision entered talks with Diller and would eventually secure a deal to acquire the stations; these were used to launch the Hispanic broadcaster’s second network, Telefutura, now known as UniMás.
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