Broadcasting the Local News
The Early Years of Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV
204 pages | 24 illustrations | 6 x 9 | 1995
Cloth edition is not available
ISBN 978-0-271-02481-3 | paper: $29.00 sh
A colorful history of one of the first television stations in America to offer local news programs.
"The book provides an excellent foundation of history and understanding for broadcast news professionals, broadcast news students, and those interested in the early days of communications. It is well researched, well written, and well structured."—Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
Every day millions of Americans tune in to a newscast on one of their local television stations to learn what is new in their community. In fact, more people watch local news than network news, but surprisingly little is known about the early days of television when stations across the country searched for ways to do news in the new medium. In Broadcasting the Local News, Lynn Boyd Hinds, a former Pittsburgh broadcaster, introduces us to one station—KDKA-TV—which literally invented television news in Pittsburgh.
Television came to Pittsburgh in 1949 when WDTV (the forerunner of KDKA-TV) went on the air. Whereas many television stations in the United States began reading news on the air only to comply with FCC requirements, WDTV treated news seriously from day one with its first regular program, a local news show called "Pitt Parade." Today KDKA is still highly regarded among journalists for its news programming.
Although television news may seem familiar to us, it was anything but familiar to the men and women of early television. Hinds shows how they borrowed liberally from newspapers, radio, motion picture newsreels, theater, and even magazines to create, by trial and error, suitable ways to present the news. Rather than instantly replacing radio, television news moved slowly from the "rip and read" radio-style format, which simply duplicated what came over the wire services and was in the newspapers, to the conventions of local newscasts we take for granted today—live remotes, lead and feature stories, sports and weather, all brought together by an in-studio anchor.
Pittsburghers will recognize many familiar names in Hinds's account—Bill Burns, Paul Long, Florence Sando, Eleanor Schano, and others—veterans of Pittsburgh broadcasting whom Hinds has interviewed for this book. The story they tell is the story of dozens of other stations across the country. In the process, they tell us much about the early history of television in America.
Lynn Boyd Hinds spent over twenty years in Pittsburgh television and radio before moving to Penn State University where he was an affiliate producer for WPSX-TV, the public broadcasting station in Central Pennsylvania. There he created and hosted the popular quiz show, "The Pennsylvania Game." Today he is Associate Professor of Broadcast News in the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University.
Lynn Boyd Hinds spent over twenty years in Pittsburgh television and radio before moving to Penn State University where he was an affiliate producer for WPSX-TV, the public broadcasting station in Central Pennsylvania. There he created and hosted the popular quiz show, "The Pennsylvania Game." Today he is Associate Professor of Broadcast News in the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University.
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Symbols
Introduction
Better in the Poconos
Bill’s Old Bike Barn, Bloomsburg
Houdini Tour and Show, Scranton
White Christmas Chalet and Tree Farm, Slatington
Yuengling Brewery, Pottsville
Zane Grey Museum, Lackawaxen
Around the City of Brotherly Love
Boyertown Museum of Historical Vehicles, Boyertown
Christian Sanderson Museum, Chadds Ford
The Insectarium, Philadelphia
Lost Highways Museum, Philadelphia
Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, Doylestown
Mummers Museum, Philadelphia
Museum of Mourning Art, Drexel Hill
Richard Allen Museum, Philadelphia
Shoe Museum, Philadelphia
Wharton Esherick Museum, Valley Forge
Deep in the Lower Susquehanna Valley
Bob Hoffman Weightlifting Hall of Fame and Museum, York
First National Bank Museum, Columbia
Kready’s Country Store Museum, Lititz
Le Petit Museum of Musical Boxes, Marietta
New Holland Band Museum, New Holland
The Toy Robot Museum, Adamstown
Heart of the Alleghenies
Gardners Candies, Tyrone
Grice’s Clearfield Community Museum, Clearfield
Horseshoe Curve, Altoona
Johnstown Flood Museum, Johnstown
Mr. Ed’s Elephant Museum, Ortanna
Pasto Agricultural Museum, State College
Rockhill Trolley Museum, Rockhill Furnace
Iron City Environs
Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Uniontown
George Westinghouse Museum, Wilmerding
Jimmy Stewart Museum, Indiana
Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh
Photo Antiquities, Pittsburgh
Heading for Lake Erie
John Brown Museum, New Richmond
Vocal Groups Hall of Fame and Museum, Sharon
Wild West Museum, Franklin
Top of the World
Eldred World War II Museum, Eldred
Ole Bull Museum, Oleana
Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, Galeton
Piper Aviation Museum, Lock Haven
Tom Mix Birthplace and Museum, Driftwood
Zippo Visitors Center, Bradford
Photo Credits
Appendix: Other Small Museums Mentioned