Nightly local presence: some public TV stations go for it
At least 18 public TV stations produce nightly news or public affairs programs for their states or metro areas. Most are described below. [Related story.] This listing was compiled by Steve Behrens and published in Current, Sept. 22, 1997, with an addendum Oct. 20, 1997.
Alabama: For the Record, Alabama PTV. Monday through Friday at 6:30, before NewsHour. Repeats at 11 p.m. Friday edition also repeats Sunday 2 p.m. Format: Newsmagazine leads off with headlines, then usually one major topic plus short feature. Special features: interviews with call-in on Mondays; reporters' roundtable on Fridays. Staffing: news director, three producers, three associate producers, three shooters, one archivist, one director, one anchor. History: Developed out of The Lawmakers, which debuted around 1970. For the Record started 20 years ago.
Beaufort, S.C.:The Local News, WJWJ-TV (part of South Carolina ETV). Monday through Friday, live at 6 p.m., taped repeat at 10 p.m. Format: Two news segments with 10-12 stories, separated by community calendar of events. Also, weather segment and one studio interview. Serves diverse coastal population between Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., including Beaufort and Hilton Head Island. Staffing: executive producer, director, news director, four reporter/shooter/editors, one production assistant, one photographer, two part-time anchors. History: Launched in 1979 to serve region that otherwise would have little or no broadcast news coverage. Dropped in 1982 for budget reasons; returned to air in 1985 in response to popular demand.
Boston: Greater Boston, WGBH. Monday-Friday at 7, after NewsHour (recently expanded from Monday-Thursday). Repeats at 11 p.m. on sister station WGBX. Format: Two or three stories, mostly handled as studio interviews. Pretaped "as live." Ratings: often around 1, but as high as 2.7. Staffing: executive producer, host/executive editor, senior producer, story producer/booker, day-of-broadcast producer, researcher, two associate producers, one production assistant, two field producers, one videographer, various part-time on-air contributors and freelance producers. History: Launched January 1997, succeeding The Group, a nightly local talk show.
Charlotte, N.C.: WBTV News at 10 on WTVI, produced for WTVI by local CBS affiliate's news department. Monday-Friday at 10 p.m., after primetime programming and before Nightly Business Report. Format: Begins with headlines, including national stories. In center segment, anchor interviews a newsmaker for four or five minutes. "Tabloid" news omitted. Rating: about 1.6 average. Staffing: Gives WTVI access to 75-person news department, Doppler radar, CBS News feeds. History: WBTV, commercial station owned by Jefferson Pilot Broadcasting previously produced 10 p.m. newscast for UPN affiliate WJZY. Newscast redesigned for WTVI and began airing June 1995. Public TV station splits costs, paying $90,000 a year; commercial station makes in-kind contribution of $110,000.
Chicago: Chicago Tonight with John Callaway, WTTW. [Article.] Monday through Thursday at 7, after NewsHour. On Oct. 1, repeat will move from midnight to 10 p.m.--head-to-head with commercial stations' newscasts. A second repeat will be added at midnight. Format: interview/panel with one topic per night, opening with a field report on the topic. Ratings: usually 3 or 4. Staffing: executive producer, host, two correspondents, four producers, one researcher, one associate director, one shooter. History: began 1984 at midnight, gradually moved earlier. Callaway earlier hosted WTTW's multi-topic newscast Public News Center, which began in 1974.
Delaware: 12 Tonight, WHYY, Philadelphia/Wilmington. Monday-Friday at 5:30, after children's programming and before NewsHour. Format: Headlines, then a major live interview, then weather and stocks. Interviews are specialized each weekday: politics on Monday, medicine on Tuesday, writing on Wednesday, sports on Thursday and reporters' roundtable on Friday. Ratings: .5 to 1.3. Staffing: producer, two reporters, anchor, managing producer, operations manager, director, assistant director, plus part-time reporters. History: Started under different name in 1963. Reduced field production 1991.
Gainesville, Fla.: News 5, WUFT-TV. Monday-Friday at 5:30, after Wishbone and before Bill Nye the Science Guy. Format: 12-18 stories in three blocks, plus sports for three-and-a-half minutes and weather for three minutes. Newscast has access to CNN NewSource and NBC News Channel feeds (there is no NBC affiliate in town). Tune-in promos air in breaks during newscast. Unit also produces five-minute noon newscast for WUFT and five-minute newscast for local insertion in CNN Headline News on local Cox Cable system. Ratings: 1 or less. Staffing: three professionals (news director, assistant n.d. and assignment manager) plus students from University of Florida's Department of Telecommunication. History: Started as 15-minute daily newscast, probably in early 1960s, and expanded to half-hour in 1965 or 1966.
Gary, Ind.: 56 News, WYIN, Gary/Merrillville, Ind. Monday-Friday at 6 p.m., after the imported British-made international newscast ITN News and before local talk show. Format: Newscast with major stories, feature, weather, local sports. Tune-in promos and underwriting spots inserted in breaks. Staffing: news director/producer, four reporter/shooters. History: Adopted half-hour format in 1994, after about seven years as five-minute module.
Houston: Weeknight Edition, KUHT. Monday-Friday at 5:30, after Wishbone and before NewsHour. Repeats at 10:30 p.m. Format: two or three stories a night, interviews and field reporting. Ratings: typically about 1. Staffing: executive editor, two associate producers, two segment producers, three shooters, two hosts, director. History: Started October 1995.
Los Angeles: Life & Times, KCET. Monday-Friday at 7:30. Format: Rotating panel of nonprofessional, opinionated hosts conduct interviews and discussions. Typically one field-produced segment per show. Will add newscast and neutral anchor in January. Will also move from taping week's shows on Friday to nightly live broadcasts. History: Debuted January 1992, with half-hour documentary on Wednesdays and show confined to studio on other nights--a schedule that was later dropped.
Minnesota: Newsnight Minnesota, KTCA, Twin Cities. [Article.] Monday through Thursday at 7 (the slot used on Friday by KTCA's weekly Almanac). Repeats at 9 on sister station KTCI. Airs also on four other Minnesota stations and on North Dakota's Prairie PTV network. Format: newsmagazine, leading off with local headlines, then two major pieces plus minor feature. Staffing: executive producer, producer, assignment editor, three associate producers, two hosts, two reporters, 2.5 shooters, 1.5 editors, plus stringers. History: Pushed by then-President Jack Willis after his hiring in 1990. KTCA raised $6 million before launch to give it a three-year start. Debuted 1994.
New Jersey: NJN News, the New Jersey Channel. Monday-Friday at 6 p.m, after Wishbone and before a strip of local public affairs shows. Repeats at 7:30 and 11 p.m. Also simulcasts nightly at 6 on WNET, New York. Format: traditional newscast with three-minute business and sports segments, but limited local crime/accident news. Staffing: news director, executive producer, anchor, six full-time reporters (including sports and business), five part-time reporters, two assignment editors, six producers, 11 videographer/editors, one part-time host and one part-time editor, operations manager. (Staff is shared with weekly programs.) History: Started 1978 as New Jersey Nightly News, a co-production with WNET. NJN assumed full control 1981.
North Carolina: North Carolina Now, University of North Carolina Center for PTV. Monday-Friday at 7:30, following NewsHour and Nightly Business Report. Repeats at 12:30 a.m., after Charlie Rose. Format: major story, typically five minutes; headlines including business, six minutes; interview, six minutes; light feature to end. Ratings: typically 1.5 to 2. Staffing: executive producer, managing editor, senior producer, three producer/reporter/editors, one host/interview producer; one associate producer, one assignment editor; three shooters; one director, six part-time producer/reporter/editors, including Charlotte bureau. History: Launched January 1994.
Oklahoma: Oklahoma News Report, Oklahoma ETV. Monday-Friday at 6:30, following NewsHour and Nightly Business Report and preceding primetime. Format: Fast-paced newscast. Focuses on state legislature when in session, February through May. Ends with short world news wrapup, stocks and oil prices. No sports "unless OU beats Texas," says news chief Pam Henry. Ratings: typically 1 or 2. Staffing: manager, assistant manager, producer, four reporters (split between Tulsa and Oklahoma City), four shooters (ditto), two part-time anchors and part-time weatherman. History: Started 1980, grew out of earlier talk show with state lawmakers.
Orange County, Calif.: Real Orange, KOCE, Huntington Beach, in partnership with the Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition. Monday-Friday at 7 p.m. Repeats at 11 p.m. Format: News and business summaries, three-minute feature, weather, 10-minute news analysis or interview. Staffing: executive producer, host/managing editor, director, producer, four associate producers, plus freelance reporters and shooters. History: Planning initiated earlier this year by Mel Rogers, new president. Started Sept. 1, 1997.
Phoenix, Ariz.: Horizon, KAET-TV. Monday-Friday at 7 p.m., following the NewsHour and preceding various programs including Washington Week in Review on Fridays. Format: Host reads headlines, then field report and panel discussion of major topic, followed by local stocks report and field-produced second segment. Emphasis on public affairs, including state legislature coverage January through April. Program periodically airs results from KAET Polls, taken in cooperation with Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunication. Ratings: typically between 1 and 3. Staffing: executive producer, four producer/reporters, part-time host (local attorney Michael Grant), two videographers, director, student floor crew and production assistants. History: Started approximately 1981.
Schenectady/Albany, N.Y.: NewsChannel13 News Live at 10 plus Q&A, WMHQ (sister station of WMHT). Monday-Friday at 10 p.m. after primetime programming. Format: Two separate 15-minute programs: Newschannel 13 News Live at 10 is produced by local NBC affiliate WNYT, with headlines, weather and five-minute newsmaker interview, using same hosts as WNYT's 11 p.m. newscast. Q&A, produced by the public TV station, is a 15-minute interview with a newsmaker, visiting author, legislator or other subject. Ratings: 1 rating last year; unmeasurably lower this year, since Fox affiliate began a sensational newscast at 10. Staffing: Hosting Q&A is one of the tasks for two producers. History: Both programs began in January 1996. The relationship with WNYT grew out of an earlier collaboration: its 6 p.m. newscast was already carried by WMHT-FM.
Tucson, Ariz.: Arizona Illustrated, KUAT-TV. Monday-Friday at 6:30 p.m., between Nightly Business Report and the NewsHour. Repeats at 11:30 p.m. Format: three to six segments, covering public affairs, arts, health and other topics, mostly field-produced but with one studio segment per program. Friday program includes reporters' roundtable plus Arizona travel feature, By the Side of the Road. Ratings: between 2 and 3. Staffing: executive producer, director, six producer/reporters (including the anchor), three videographers. History: Launched 1980.
In planning
Maryland: Newsnight Maryland, Maryland PTV. Monday-Friday at 7 p.m., after NewsHour, starting in early November 1997. Format: Long-form segments of 10 to 30 minutes, mostly in studio. Frequent debate segments. Friday edition will incorporate weekly state legislative show State Circle. Staffing: executive producer, producer, three associate producers, one assistant producer, two reporters (five when state assembly is in session), two shooters, two editors.
Pittsburgh: Unnamed nightly magazine/talk program, now being defined by WQED.
Other stations have made nightly programs in the past. Howard University's WHMM in Washington, D.C., which has a special interest in serving the city's big African-American community, produced a weeknight local talk show for more than 10 years, but the show is now appearing twice weekly--Friday and Monday nights at 8 p.m., both taped on Fridays. The Friday night show is a press roundtable, says producer Michael Nelson. Longtime host Kojo Nnamdi remains with the show.
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Related story: These stations find the nightly shows are worth the substantial cost.
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