New York, NY 1968: John Vliet Lindsay is Mayor, sweeping into office in 1966 to run the most important metropolis in the world with an eye on Washington. The Viet Nam War is raging; people are in the streets. Gloria Steinman is leading the women’s march, the start of something big.
The Huntley-Brinkley Report is #1 on NBC News. Walter Cronkite, CBS, is the most trusted man in America and the American Broadcasting Company is trying to catch up after its anchorman John Daley (yes, the same one who hosted What’s My Line) was replaced by Bob Young.
The three giant media companies were located within blocks of each other along the Avenue of the America’s, 6th Avenue to New Yorkers. NBC was 30 Rock, CBS, Black Rock, ABC, Little Rock. In the middle, down from Tin Pan Alley on 52nd Street was the 21 Club where the suits drink their lunch and eyed the ratings.
The local news scene was dominated by Jim Jensen and Tom Dunn at WCBS, WNBC, focused on The Huntley-Brinkley Report, used network reporters as local news anchors including, Frank Magee and Lew Wood of The Today Show.
Channel 5, the independent station WNEW, was making significant ratings with Bill Jorgensen, anchoring a new newscast. (It’s 10 o’clock, “Do you know where your children are?”)
WABC had “Roger Grimsby and the Noisemakers,” among them Tex Antoine, dressed in an artist smock. He was horrified when I told him he had to wear a blazer and lose “Uncle Weathby.” I said, “Tex, we’re all going to wear blazers or we’re all going to wear smocks.”
Howard Cosell did sports, but only on the early newscast. “Let Roger do the scores at 11,” and Rona Barrett with all the Hollywood gossip.
Each station had a weather man and a sports man. It was an all white, Anglo-Saxon man’s world.
I arrived in the city on Labor Day, 1968 from Philadelphia where I was News Director of KYW-TV, the NBC station newly acquired by the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company in a historic change of ownership. It was my first News Director job after spending 12 years at KDKA-TV, Pittsburgh, rising from mail boy through every position in the news department to Assistant News Director.
WABC’s General Manager and management operated out of corporate headquarters on 52nd Street where I reported for work. After a five minute meeting with Richard Beezemeyer, General Manager, a tall lanky production executive, Gordon Kuntz escorted me up to 66th Street and the station.
ABC had remodeled the old St. Nicholas Arena with studios, control rooms and offices. The WABC-TV newsroom was at one end of the block and a tiny studio at the other.
After a quick look at the studio and control room he brought me to the newsroom, “We call this the snake pit,” he said and left me in the News Director’s office.
There were two secretaries waiting cheerfully while the staff was milling around the office for a look at the new guy.
I remembered that when I met Leonard Goldenson, ABC’s owner at my job interview, he asked why I would want to leave Westinghouse Broadcasting to come to ABC. He also said that all he wanted was to be able to walk to the 21 Club with his head held high. I boldly said we are going to do better than that.
After capturing my composure, I went through the newsroom and met the staff. They were a seasoned group of newsies that lived the reality of a dead last operation with little hope.
Before long Howard Cosell came into my office and did a play by play of my career with the caution, “don’t get too comfortable, people are born hating ABC.” He also pointed out that Goldenson treats him like a son.
The very first thing I did was to rename the 5-minute sign-off newscast, Eyewitness News, to protect the title. It consisted of a title slide with the announcer reading news briefs as the station went off the air for the day. I learned in Philadelphia that while the title could not be copyrighted, it could be trade marked if you proved first usage in the market.
The second action was to kill the advertising campaign for the “Noisemakers.” This sent the promotion team into a panic all the way up the corporate ladder. It was the first real test with the loss of a considerable amount of money. I also made certain that no advertising be made for news programming until we were ready.
It was a very long first day at WABC but before leaving, I requested everyone clean out their desks and bring order to the newsroom which I also requested be repainted. That act got everyone’s attention in preparation for the first staff meeting where I outlined the new format. Motivating staff is critical.
ABC was kind enough to book me into the Sheraton Hotel within walking distance to the station. It was during those times I felt the heartbeat of the city and the people in it. They were short, tall, black, brown, white, Christians, Jews, Arabs, a mix of humanity that was New York. None of the above could be seen on television. Divine intervention. I knew this was the moment of change and I set out to accomplish it.
Melba Tolliver was an African American from ABC News and when there was a brief strike, she replaced Marlene Sanders network newscast. After settlement, Melba was sent to WABC. I made her live reporter on the 11 pm newscast, the first woman in prime time. She covered the arrival of the Rolling Stones at JFK asking Mick Jagger, “Are you getting any satisfaction?”
While I could only work with the people on staff in Philadelphia, we had budget to bring in talented people into the news organization.
The problem was no one wanted to come to ABC which had no reputation for news. I approached some of the best at the other stations, but no one was willing to take a chance on moving.
I wanted to recruit Gloria Rojas, of Channel 2 but she wouldn’t leave. However, she gave me a name, Jerry Rivers, a Puerto Rican lawyer who was doing community work. I convinced him he could help more people by becoming a reporter than representing them in court. He agreed to attend the Columbia University Minority Reporters training course and with a lot of resistance to using his proper name Geraldo Rivera. The rest is history including winning a Peabody Award for the Willowbrook series which forever changed that way physically and intellectually challenged people are treated.
The station had a freelance newspaper reporter at City Hall named Milton Lewis. His job was to call the assignment desk when the Mayor called a press conference and help our camera crew get a spot. His vast knowledge was so impressive, I offered him a full-time position. With some training, he began breaking stories. The journalism at Eyewitness News began to take shape.
While in Philadelphia, a small TV station was just starting a new operation. They were everywhere, covering the same stories our large staff did but with just two people, Norman Fine, News Manager and Reporter Doug Johnson. I hired them both to come to New York.
Roger Sharp was languishing at ABC Radio and I remembered him as an early ABC Network News reporter. John Johnson was also at the network and I was able to convince him to come to local news.
We were on our way.
With Jack Guest, Art Director we were able to fashion a new logo while drinking our lunch at the local “Chips” bar and grill. It was the touchstone to a unique look and style for this unique news presentation.
Jack also was instrumental in designing a news set which would feature the reporters on an equal level with the anchors. We settled the problem of the small studio by placing the studio camera in the hall outside and rolling it in on the opening. It made for dramatic opening of the program. The old cameras were locked in position with the cameramen sitting on a stool beside it. I wanted the show directors to move them.
The opening music to the news was another innovation. Director Marty Morris and I spent hours at the ABC Music Library which contained hundreds of CD’s of music, cleared by ASCAP and BMI for use on television. We hit upon the theme music from the movie, Cool Hand Luke, written by Lalo Schifrin. He once said he was more famous for the Eyewitness News theme than all the great music he composed.
All the above was accomplished in two months and the newsroom changes paid off. The staff finally understood the concept and we began November 17, 1968 to change the course of broadcast journalism. Marshall McLuan said, “Eyewitness News was a revolution in telecommunications.”
Albert T. Primo created the Eyewitness News concept, which revolutionized television news, developed the regional news formats for cable television and has an independent production company which provides programming for networks, TV stations and cable.
His latest innovation: TEEN KIDS NEWS, a weekly newscast syndicated to 220 TV stations, covering 94.3% of USA, 1,000 locations in 175 countries, worldwide, through American Forces Networks, distributed to 12,000 schools reaching 10 million viewers.
He is the author of “Eyewitness Newsman,” a history of the concept and source book.