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.

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.

1978 Atlantic hurricane season

The 1978 Atlantic hurricane season was the last Atlantic hurricane season to use an all-female naming list. The hurricane season officially began on June 1, and ended on November 30. It was an above average season due to a subsiding El Niño. The first storm, a subtropical storm, developed unusually early – on January 18 – and dissipated five days later without causing any damage. At the end of July and early August, short-lived Tropical Storm Amelia caused extensive flooding in Texas after dropping as much as 48 in (1,200 mm) of rain. There were 33 deaths and $110 million (1978 USD) in damage. Tropical Storm Bess and Hurricane Cora resulted in only minor land impacts, while the latter was attributed to one fatality.

Later in August, Tropical Storm Debra produced widespread effects, though damage was also relatively minor. Hurricane Ella became the northernmost Category 4 hurricane while located at 38°N, and lashed the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada with gusty winds and rip currents. Hurricanes Flossie and Kendra as well as Tropical Storms Hope, Irma, and Juliet caused minimal land impacts as a tropical cyclone. However, the precursor to Hurricane Kendra caused flooding in Puerto Rico. Hurricane Greta brought strong winds, high tides, and flooding to Central America, particularly Belize and Honduras. Greta resulted in about $25 million in damage and at least five fatalities. Overall, the storms of this season collectively caused $191 million in damage and 42 fatalities. Hurricane Greta crossed into the eastern pacific and was renamed Olivia.

South Florida

South Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida, it comprises the southernmost part of the state. It is one of Florida's three most common "directional" regions, the others being Central Florida and North Florida. It includes the populous Miami metropolitan area, the Florida Keys, and other localities. South Florida is the only part of the continental United States with a tropical climate.

Area

As with all vernacular regions, South Florida has no official boundaries or status, and is defined differently by different sources. A 2007 study of Florida's regions by Ary Lamme and Raymond K. Oldakowski found that Floridians surveyed identified "South Florida" as comprising the southernmost sections of peninsular Florida. This area includes the Miami metropolitan area (generally defined as Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties), the Florida Keys, and the interior region known as the Glades. Additionally, South West Florida, representing the state's southern Gulf Coast, has emerged as a directional vernacular region. Some respondents from as far northwest as the southern Tampa Bay area identified their region as being in South Florida rather than South West or Central Florida.

Local news

In journalism, local news refers to news coverage of events in a local context which would not normally be of interest to those of other localities, or otherwise be of national or international scope.

Television

Opt-outs of local television news are frequent during, before or after national evening news television programming. In certain countries/regions, such as the United States, local news is provided on local commercial broadcasting channels (some of which are television network affiliates). In other countries, such as the United Kingdom, most local news is provided on a local network station with similar branding and studio design to that of the national network news. Examples of this include the nationally networked BBC News and its regional news services such as BBC North West Tonight (on BBC North West) and BBC Newsline (on BBC Northern Ireland); also the nationally networked ITV News and its regional stations including ITV Granada and UTV.

Differences

Local news largely covers the following: