WLS-TV: Encyclopedia II - WLS-TV - News Operations

WLS-TV - News Operations

WLS, like the other ABC owned-and-operated stations, adopted the Eyewitness News format in the late 1960s after it became a hit at flagship WABC-TV in New York. Fahey Flynn, a local broadcaster known for his bow ties, and Joel Daly served as the anchormen of the newscasts from the late 1960s until the early 1980s. For much of the 1970s and 1980s, it waged a spirited battle for second place in the Chicago news ratings with WMAQ-TV.

In 1983, two big changes came to WLS. First, it commissioned Frank Gari to write an updated version of the Cool Hand Luke theme widely associated with the Eyewitness News format. The result was News Series 2000, which was quickly picked up by the other ABC O&Os. The other was the hiring of Bill Applegate as news director. Those two changes bore fruit in March 1986, when it passed longtime leader WBBM-TV as the highest-rated news station in Chicago. It has held the lead ever since, aside from a brief period when WBBM managed to forge a tie for first. Applegate left for WABC soon afterwards and took that station from third to first as well.

Other changes that contributed to WLS-TV's success were the re-hiring of anchorman John Drury, who had previously worked at WLS, WBBM and WGN-TV, and the hiring of Floyd Kalber, who had led WMAQ-TV to the top of the ratings in the 1960s. Drury and Mary Ann Childers were a popular anchor team at WLS during the 1980s and 1990s, accompanied by weatherman Steve Deshler and sportscaster Tim Weigel.

In May 2005, ABC 7 News had a rating of 11.4 and 19 share, beating out rivals WMAQ (9.5/15), WFLD-TV who airs a rerun of The Simpsons(5.6/9), and WBBM(5.1/8).

The station currently calls itself "ABC7 News", even though it still uses the same basic format from its Eyewitness News days. Their current news music package is News Series 2000 Plus, also by Gari. It also recently updated the on-air look for their newscasts.[1]

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "News Operations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki