Eyewitness News

Eyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting that is used by local television stations in different markets around the world. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video. It replaced the traditional "man-on-camera" newscast.

History

Pioneered by Westinghouse

The earliest known use of the Eyewitness News name in American television was in April 1959 when KYW-TV - at the time, based in Cleveland, Ohio and owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting - launched the nation's first 90-minute local newscast (under the title Eyewitness), which was combined with the then 15-minute national newscast. The name was then adopted for use by Westinghouse's other television stations – KPIX in San Francisco, California; WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland; WBZ-TV in Boston, Massachusetts and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – for their local newscasts.

After the KYW-TV call letters, management, and some staffers moved from Cleveland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1965 (the result of a government-ordered reversal of a 1956 station swap involving it and Cleveland's WNBK (the current day WKYC) between Westinghouse and NBC) its then-news director, Al Primo, created the Eyewitness News format. In this format, which was meant to be faster in pace than the standard newscast format (in which an anchor simply read headlines), a reporter in the field would be the "eyewitness" to a news event to the anchor in the studio and the viewer at home. The anchors became personalities instead of presenters with the introduction of banter, or "happy talk" as it was named by Al Primo. Anchors would give their own personal comments in between stories to let viewers know their personalities.

WPLG

WPLG, channel 10, is an ABC-affiliated television station located in Miami, Florida, United States. WPLG's studios are located on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard (SR 858) in Pembroke Park, and its transmitter is located in Miami Gardens.

From 1969 through 2014, WPLG was owned by Post-Newsweek Stations; in March 2014, the station was sold to Berkshire Hathaway in exchange for cash and its shares in Post-Newsweek's parent company Graham Holdings.

History

WPST-TV

The station first signed on the air on August 2, 1957 as WPST-TV, as the second ABC affiliate in the Miami market; it was originally owned by Public Service Television, Inc., the broadcasting subsidiary of National Airlines. The station took ABC programming from WITV (channel 17, later occupied by PBS member station WLRN-TV), which ceased operations shortly after losing the ABC affiliation.

A Congressional investigation of former FCC commissioner Richard A. Mack in 1958 revealed that a Miami attorney named Thurman A. Whiteside, working on behalf of National Airlines, had bribed the former commissioner to obtain the WPST broadcast license. As a result, National Airlines was stripped of its license to operate WPST-TV.

Graham Media Group

Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations) is the television broadcasting subsidiary of the Graham Holdings Company. It is now headquartered in Chicago, after being co-located for several years with its local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV in Detroit.

History

The origins of Graham Media can be traced to 1944, when the Washington Post began its broadcasting activities with its purchase of WINX radio in Washington. Four years later the newspaper's parent firm, the Washington Post Company, announced its intention to acquire controlling interest in a rival station, WTOP radio from CBS. The two firms formed a joint venture known as WTOP Incorporated, with the Post holding 55 percent and CBS maintaining the balance (45 percent). The Post sold wholly owned WINX but retained its FM adjunct WINX-FM, which became the original WTOP-FM when the sales became final in 1949. In 1950 WTOP Inc. purchased WOIC, Washington's CBS television affiliate, and changed that station's call letters to WTOP-TV. This Post-CBS joint venture is the direct predecessor of Graham Media Group.