Broadcast Wars
Premiere Date: November 26, 2024 Format: 1 x 120-minute documentary; 3 x 30-minute episodes
Description
In the 1970s and 80s, with millions of dollars in revenue at stake, Twin Cities television stations waged a pitched battle led by handsome, high-priced news anchors with futuristic technology and feel-good promotion to win over viewers. While the ratings battles were fierce, expensive, and at times hilarious and hokey, they resulted in changes to the television industry that lasted for decades.
Episodes
Just the Facts | Episode 1 | November 26, 2024 Stanley E. Hubbard is an early pioneer in radio and television, and KSTP has been the top local TV news for decades. That is, until a fresh-faced Dave Moore and his team launch a new kind of newscast at WCCO that ignites a fierce war for ratings which still rages today. Women and people of color fight their way into smoky, insular newsrooms, proving themselves to everyone, and paving the way for others. Ratings Frenzy | Episode 2 | November 26, 2024 KSTP hires a consultant to find the perfect anchor, reporters of color begin to find slightly greater welcome in local newsrooms, and stations dabble with putting women at the anchor desk. Meteorologists transform weather news, videotape kills onerous film processing, while trauma and toxic stress lead some to substance abuse. By the late 1970s, local TV news is slick, sexy, and highly profitable.
Out of Nowhere | Episode 3 | November 26, 2024 After decades of local news irrelevance, perennial also-ran KARE11 goes from laughing stock to ratings powerhouse in just a few short years. The Hubbards pour millions into a technological breakthrough that is still in use today. Seismic shifts are felt when major anchors swap stations or get the axe. Newscasters chafe as the public and media take heightened interest in their private lives. 2-Hour Broadcast Special | November 26, 2024 There was a time when people would stop what they were doing and watch the local evening news. Twin Cities PBS’ Broadcast Wars , co-produced with Cathy Wurzer, takes us back a half century to the era when ratings battles were fierce, women and people of color were making their presence known, technology was rapidly evolving, and local TV news was as vital as it was entertaining.
Barrier-breaking reporter/anchor Marcia Fluer in the field
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