The network TV news game changed 45 years ago today. It was the first broadcast of ABC's World News Tonight.
I'll have more to say on this later this month, in a blog entry about one of the original 1978 anchors, Frank Reynolds.
Long story short... ABC News president Roone Arledge had to pull the network out of the Harry Reasoner/Barbara Walters disaster. Harry went back to CBS. Barbara became a special correspondent for the new World News Tonight.
Arledge tried and failed to get Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. Without a major "star" anchor, he decided on three "desks" rather than anchors. Frank Reynolds had the Washington news. Max Robinson anchored the national news from Chicago, and Peter Jennings handled the international news from London.
Brilliant!
The three "desk" thing received most of the attention, but ABC led the way with better video, better visual story telling, and better graphics to help illustrate a story. The other networks looked archaic in the process and they were left to play catch up.
I remember watching that first night, dazzled by the production. The half hour flew by. It was a huge change from the old presentation, and much more interesting than the other networks.
According to Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite saw ABC on the rise and he decided to retire in 1981, while he was still on top.
Network news became better July 10, 1978.
