DNA of the Chicago School of Television for the news business

Dave Garroway, via Garroway at Large, created the Chicago Style, a technique being enhanced in New York, via Today (NBC), which in turn, innovated the newsroom-as-set trend.

By the mid-1950's period, the Chicago School of Television had begun to fade since power, money and production facilities consolidated into New York and Los Angeles.

Even so, the DNA of the Chicago School of Television persists across the US and around the world.

In television's early years, the studio and the newsroom were separate.

News anchors delivered the day's stories from an isolated and enclosed studio, while journalists in the bullpen physically sprinted across a high catwalk to deliver scripts to them.

This frantic setup was impossible to maintain for a longer, fast-paced newscast.

However, for television newscasts extending beyond the quarter-hour time limit, news anchors sat in a bullpen, surrounded by busy journalists, plus the teletype and its clattering sound.

Silent computers replaced the teletype and its clattering sound in the newsroom.

Ever since its 1974 inception, NBC's NewsCentre philosophy (as being emphasized by Fred Harpman's cinematic design) has led to copycats, similar to WBBM-TV's studio with a bullpen backdrop.

In addition, since its 1974 inception, the NewsCentre (for NBC) has also divided North America's local television news scene into two camps.

For one camp, local television outlets in the United States that retrofitted studio spaces with faux-wood panels, extra monitors and a chroma key backdrop represented the old guard.

Local CBS television stations, many featuring the newsroom/bullpen as a regular studio backdrop, also represented the old guard (w/wo chroma key), evoking the gritty newspaper feel of the East Coast.

Conversely, advanced and forward-thinking television stations used the NewsCentre model under Fred Harpman, Lee Hanna, Earl Ubell and Jim Kitchell (for NBC), representing the new guard.

This NewsCentre model (for NBC) evoked the cinematic NASA-like nerve centres and has served as a universal blueprint for modern broadcast news in America.

Using its innovative hybrid newsroom-control room set, BCTV fuses the old and the new guards of the local/regional television news industry across North America, influencing CNN.

For Ray Peters, BCTV's innovative hybrid newsroom-control room studio, which he co-conceived with Cameron Bell and Ernie Rose, paralelled the open area for Today (NBC) under Dave Garroway.

Incidentally, Today (NBC) is the television program of which BCTV's Ray Peters was an avid viewer.

WMAQ-TV's NewsCentre, in a poetic twist of television history, traces back to Dave Garroway's old stomping grounds: the Merchandise Mart.

Rival WBBM-TV pioneered the news studio with a regular bullpen backdrop.

Upon its June 1, 1980 launch, CNN used its BCTV-inspired hybrid newsroom-control room studio set design, which serves as the DNA for 24-hour television news.

BCTV, incidentally, juxtaposed CBS (bullpen, Robert Wussler, Daniel Schorr, Bernard Shaw and Sam Zelman) with NBC (NewsCentre, Mary Alice Williams and Jim Kitchell).

Lowell Thomas delivered the first television news broadcast on a commercial basis on July 1, 1941 via WNBT (and NBC), which Sunoco sponsored, at fifteen minutes to 7 p.m. (or a quarter to 7).

Richard Hubbell delivered the second commercial television news broadcast at 8 p.m. via WCBW (and CBS) after the Sunoco-sponsored news by Lowell Thomas via WNBT, also on July 1, 1941.

In the days after July 1, 1941, Richard Hubbell competed against Lowell Thomas on WNBT by airing visual-heavy newscasts on WCBW at 30 minutes past 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

May 1948 is when Douglas Edwards took over the visual-heavy mantle that Richard Hubbell had left behind, but backed by a larger corporate budget in the post-war era, via WCBS-TV.

Contrasting to Richard Hubbell, who relied on studio maps and grease pencils, Douglas Edwards used rapidly developing newsreel footage, live interviews and professional graphic overlays.

Douglas Edwards is the first individual on television to be delivering the news stories of the day, on a national basis, coast-to-coast, and on an appear routine.

In addition, Douglas Edwards is also the first person on television to have a broadcast on videotape.

John Facenda is the main news anchor for WCAU-TV from 1948 to 1973, during which it became the ratings leader in the Delaware Valley.

Some notable innovations shaping the modern local television news concept, which John Facenda had pioneered at WCAU-TV, include the 11 p.m. news and a four-person news team.

Plus, WCAU-TV is a pioneer of the format being used in television news: news-sports-weather.

Altogether, both Douglas Edwards and John Facenda are the first individuals to be presenting the news stories of the day on television in front of the camera on both a national and a local level.

Whereas early newscasts relied on newsreels, audio-over-slides or behind the camera readers à la radio news, both Douglas Edwards and John Facenda were telegenic newsreaders.

Lowell Thomas and Richard Hubbell were pioneering, yet unseen newsreaders on television.

CBS, through both Douglas Edwards and John Facenda, pioneered elevating newsreaders from unseen individuals to telegenic ones.

Eyewitness News

Staying with the subject of NBC, another innovative television station was KYW-TV.

Al Primo, a noted innovator in television news born in the Appalachian region, created the innovative Eyewitness News concept at KYW-TV in Philadelphia in the mid-1960's.

Just prior to Al Primo's Eyewitness News, news reporters were being used behind the cameras to avoid paying extra fees; this was the format of a radio-style newscast.

Due to Al Primo's Eyewitness News, news reporters made their appearances with their own story.

By relocating from Philadelphia to New York City, Al Primo's Eyewitness News concept innovated the happy talk trait, in which anchors and reporters have a light-hearted conversation.

In addition, the New York version of the Eyewitness News concept via Al Primo opened new doors for female and minority journalists in major markets.

Happy talk is a trait being used in television news, in which, instead of a simple handoff to some news personnel, anchors can use informal ad-libbed humour.

Even so, the Eyewitness News title originated in Cleveland, which is another place using the KYW-TV letters, but also a place near the Appalachian region.

Styaing in Cleveland, Dorothy Fuldheim is American television's first female newscaster.

Responding to Al Primo's Eyewitness News format, network newscasts changed formats.

For instance, in America's bicentennial year, Barbara Walters was named the first female evening news anchor on network television in the United States.

In 1978, Max Robinson became US network television's first minority evening news anchor.

Christine Craft stopped anchoring the news at KMBC-TV in 1981, because station executives said she deemed herself "too old, too unattractive and wouldn't defer to men."

Due to Christine Craft, television news was sued for how it treated women's appearance and authority.

With separate juries being found in Christine Craft's favour, girls/women in television news (not just in their appearance, but their authority) made changes.