WNEV-TV inaugural sign-on 1982

[drum3433]

This was during what I consider the "golden age" of television in Boston. Locally owned stations with locally produced shows. The current Channel Seven is a horrid tabloid toned station that feeds on the misery, fears and misfortune of humanity in its news productions.

[Fanik10]

WNAC is currently FOX Providence(Ch. 64). I believe it has been so since 1985, or 86.

[Macduck92]

was WNAC affilated with CBS when they were owned by RKO General?

I'm a New England/Boston Lover but I still don't know some aspects

[VintageTelevision]

WNAC/WNEV/WHDH (channel 7) was a CBS affiliate between 1948 and 1961 and between 1972 and 1995.

[wmbrown6]

And from 1961 to 1972, WNAC had been affiliated with ABC, up until the original WHDH (a CBS affiliate from 1961-72) was kicked off Channel 5.

[hkfreak]

So what happened to their news op between 5/22 and the fall?

[TXNews]

3:32, why would someone cross out something that's already crossed out? It's insane I tell ya!  :>)

[mstax]

Hilarious... looks and sounds like the SCTV intro... pure cheese.

[wiedep]

oh yea!

[jbinwv]

does anyone have the full news theme for this station when they first signed on? i think the jingle is cool even with the words!

[SailorCallie]

At what time did this one air? IMO, it had to be prior to the airing of CBS's Saturday Morning Cartoon block that day.

[VintageTelevision]

I think WNEV-TV's inaugural event was broadcast about 6:00 in the morning on May 22, 1982.

[hkfreak]

Mike Taibbi even said they were on at 6 in the morning.

[bigg3469]

Like the way they (WNEV) used the "7" instead of the "V" in their logo (SE7EN=SEVEN).

[heine71]

You forgot in December 1994-January 1995 WHDH Boston swapped affiliates with WHDH becoming NBC and WBZ 4 became CBS.

[mediadude08]

The exact date of the switch was Monday, January 2, 1995.

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

I wish I thought to keep the old stuff I had when I had my old VCR. I had some old music videos and Spectrum Wrestling that I taped off of Prism..and the old Prism and HBO logos. Also some Miami Vice episodes..'Smuggler's Blues' and 'The Prodigal Son'.

[CasandroLion]

Wow, if someone from germany would have seen that back then, they would have had the following questions:

1. Why does a station have 'share holders'?

2. Wow, 7-TV stations, how can you have that many stations.

[VaultMasterDBT]

OK, on the Boston dial, we never had TV stations for every channel assignment, especially not from 1-7 completely..the gaps were filled by other neighboring markets (for example, at the time of this on Boston VHS, we had 2, 4, 5 and 7, while RI had 6, 10, and 12, but not everyone in our area could pick up RI stations).

[bjdon99]

And Channels 9 and 11 in New Hampshire

[hkfreak]

I don't get why Hartford is so far away from Boston, yet, has 3,8,and 30. And especially the problem with Springfield with all analog channels in the UHF section. Is Albany, Burlington and Hartford/New Haven that much of a problem for them!?

[VaultMasterDBT]

A station can have share holders who seek to profit from its success, especially if they contribute to the station in some way. The best example of a Boston TV shareholder is former WCVB sports anchor Don Gillis, who had been with Channel 5 so long, that he wanted a piece of it. When 'CVB was sold to Metromedia for the largest sum ever put for a local US TV station, you surely bet Don rode on his share like a rocket out of the stratosphere. He profited beautifully and retired not long after.

[Punkghost21]

you recorded this? this tape is worth alot of money if you did.

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

SOMEONE ELSE put this here. I just know a lot about videotape and other broadcast equipment. I am, most definitely, an electronics 'nerd'.

[VaultMasterDBT]

Punkghost was talking to VintageTelevision, the provider of this material.

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

VintageTelevision has some great stuff here.

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

I think one of the techs in this video was working with the head assembly of a quad VTR. Those heads (from what I've read) had to be meticulously maintained for the VTR to work properly. And some people complain how hard their PC's are to maintain...

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

I wonder what type of videotape equipment WNEV used. Same for the cameras they actually used, were they Bosch-Fernseh's?

[wmbrown6]

The KCU-40's were only for show in the promo ads (which were NOT filmed at the 7 Bulfinch Place studios, B.T.W.); as noted elsewhere, at the time of the transition from WNAC to WNEV, the station was using RCA TK-46's. Which, come to think of it, do look similar to the Bosch/Fernseh KCU-40.

[VintageTelevision]

I recall that WNAC-TV had some Ampex VR-2000s and at least one Ampex AVR-2 around the time of the transition to WNEV. For commercial playback, they had two RCA TCR-100s.

Channel 7 used General Electric PE-240 (or PE-250) studio cameras until about 1976 when they were replaced by RCA TK-46s.

[Jerseysson27]

I think that's gary owens's voice?

Christopher

[wmbrown6]

Never heard of PE-240, but am very familiar with the PE-250. RKO General seemed to swear by that camera, as WOR-TV in New York used PE-250's from c.1967 until about the mid-to-late 1970's, maybe (unless I'm wrong) into 1980 or so. Certainly prior to moving its city of license to Secaucus in '83 WOR had switched to RCA TK-47's . . .

[VintageTelevision]

I recall that in the early 1970s, WNAC had eight PE-250s and one robotic RCA TKP-45 they nicknamed "Morris."

Central New York stations were another stronghold for G.E. broadcast equipment -- probably since the corporation's broadcast equipment division was located in that region. WSBK-TV in Boston used to own a boatload of PE-250s. They were spread across their studio and two mobile units.

[wmbrown6]

In NYC, one other station I know of also had several PE-250's: WPIX (Ch. 11), from c.1967 to about 1975 (replaced with RCA TK-45's). I also seem to recall WJW-TV in Cleveland and WTOP-TV (later WDVM and now WUSA) in Washington, DC also used PE-250's at one time or another in their respective histories.

[wmbrown6]

@VintageTelevision - I did notice, however, that the PE-240 was a film chain camera offered by GE; that and/or its predecessor PE-24 were used by WNAC since the 1960's, and possibly into the WNEV era. (WBZ and WLVI had RCA TK-27's; WCVB, which was forced to build its own facilities since the original WHDH which had been kicked off Channel 5 in 1972 wouldn't hand over the keys to their studios, I believe had a more portable Philips/Norelco film chain. WSBK likewise had GE chains.)

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

There's one station I can't seem to find anything, especially film or video of, on the 'Net..that's WRCV-TV that was once Channel 3 in Philadelphia. WRCV was the NBC affiliate before KYW/Westinghouse took over duties in the mid-60's. I remember weatherman Bill Kuster, I was sad when I read he passed on.

[Danno010]

So what came right after this?

What was the first programming/first show of the first day?

[AarHan3]

And so, a door closed, and another opened.

Welcome to the world WNEV-TV (now WHDH-TV) Channel 7. ;)

[shoofirbin]

i remember this well. the night before, the celtics had played the sixers in a playoff game that aired on channel 7 (its last day as wnac). my parents told me that the next day there would be a new channel 7. i was so excited to see what it looked like when a new tv station came on the air that i got up before dawn the next day to see this. i remember being confused by the "se7en" logo. i was eight years old at the time. thanks so much for posting.

[hkfreak]

6am?

[cjrinme]

wow, amazing....  does anyone remember all those

Tom & Robin billboards???? What a disaster that turned out to be!

[AutisticPsycho]

Actually, I forgot that the courthouse next to the building (brutalist style building that houses state offices) in the lower right at 0:48 wasn't built yet. Because I walked up to WHDH's building a few months ago, and I didn't remember the building in the lower right being right across from it. But that's because they built this new courthouse around it.

[Jerseysson27]

That announcer's voice sounds familer, is that Gary ownens? or something?

[terjer01]

Leif Jensen.

[altfactor]

Leif Jensen had been a longtime booth announcer at Channel 7 under WNAC, and continued at WNEV for awhile longer.

After RKO General lost its appeal to keep Channel 7, they sold the facilities to WNEV, which allowed it to go on the air months sooner than what would have been the case.

Had WNEV been forced to build its own faciities, the change might not have happened until early 1983.

[wmbrown6]

@altfactor - The difference between the transition from WNAC to WNEV, and the 1972 switch from WHDH Channel 5 to the new WCVB, is almost like night and day.

[JIMMASTERSTV]

Does anyone know which production company was responsible for the creation of the "There's A New Day Dawning" image campaign and the great theme music? Gari? Klein &? Edd Kallehoff? Others? Sometimes music like this is recycled and used later on by other stations, but as a follower of such things, I've never this music for anything else. Has anyone else? Unfortunately, in today's world such a "happy" song might not fly as well. It is a good, catchy promo theme. JimMastersTV

[NewsOnDemand]

Was it just me, or did the promo spot make it look like half the production crew was on drugs, and the other half were part of the Stepford Wives? lol.

[wmbrown6]

Interesting that with at least two stations, the 22nd of a month was significant -

- April 22, 1977: WJW-TV (Ch. 8) Cleveland becomes WJKW-TV (reverts to WJW in 1985);

- May 22, 1982: WNAC-TV (Ch. 7) Boston changes owners, and becomes WNEV-TV (now WHDH-TV [Mk.II]).

Any other examples?

[wmbrown6]

Oh, I suddenly remembered one. Exactly 22 years to the day before a new licensee took over Ch. 7 in Boston - May 22, 1960, to be precise - WRCA-TV/AM/FM in New York became WNBC. (Only the TV stations is owned by NBC today; the AM is now WFAN, the FM WQHT "Hot 97.")

[AutisticPsycho]

Oh 1982 Boston skyline, how bland you were and Central Artery, the traffic nightmare you once were alas, the days of Boston long gone by.

[wmbrown6]

The studio cameras seen in the WNEV promo at the end of this video were Bosch Fernseh model KCP-40, first introduced in 1975. Wonder if this camera had been used at the time of WNAC's demise?

[VintageTelevision]

WNAC-TV was using RCA TK-46 cameras at the time Channel 7's license changed hands. They continued in use at least through the mid-1990s.

Since the "New Day Dawning" promos were produced in advance of WNEV's residency at 7 Bulfinch Place, the video for these spots was shot outside the station. I recall someone saying that the scenes (including the one of the Fernseh studio camera) were recorded at a post-production company.

[wmbrown6]

Oh really, that's interesting. I figured that to be the case (recorded at a post-production firm), given that (I reckon) at the time the spot was made, WNAC was still in existence. Which studio in Boston would've used the KCP-40's (and Ikegami 79D ENG cameras) at the time?

[VintageTelevision]

I'm not aware of any Boston facility that had KCP-40 cameras, although the city had a few post houses in the early 1980s. (Century III and Vizwiz come to mind.)

[NEPatriot]

I also recognize Mike Taibbi, who would go on to do news at NBC 4 in New York.

[dgendvil]

Mike Taibbi is now a correspondent with Dateline NBC.

[BadGurl404]

And part of the only father-son duo to cover the Michael Jackson trial. (His son Matt is a columnist for Rolling Stone magazine).

[tvnetdude]

Mike and I started at NBC the same day. We met at the benefits seminar. He was surprised that someone knew who he was.

[Jerseysson27]

He looked like a young actor.

[Jerseysson27]

You know mike still looks young no matter what!

[wmbrown6]

Also, I measured the frequency of the tone as prior to the commencement of the first WNEV sign-on, and found it to be set at 1083 Hz.

[johnnysama]

Wow! An historic day in Boston TV, and the video quality is just nothing short of spectacular!