Action News

Action News is a local television newscast format in the United States. It was conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at WPVI-TV in 1970 as a response to the "Eyewitness News" format used on rival station KYW-TV.

Related Topics:
United States - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - WPVI-TV - 1970 - Eyewitness News - KYW-TV

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The main difference between Action News and Eyewitness News was that the former was far more tightly formatted. Time limits were set on packages - for instance, a reporter package could be no longer than 90 seconds. This difference enabled the station to cover more stories than what their competitors were using. Another key difference was the focus on the surrounding Philadelphia suburban areas - a response to the movement of residents from the city to the suburbs. Finally, WPVI placed more emphasis on young talent - while WCAU-TV and KYW-TV used older, respected news anchors such as Tom Snyder and John Facenda, WPVI used a young Larry Kane as their top anchor. Later the station would add the very popular Jim O'Brien as their main weathercaster.

Related Topics:
Action News - Eyewitness News - Philadelphia - WCAU-TV - Tom Snyder - John Facenda - Larry Kane - Jim O'Brien

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The format quickly took off and within a few years, beat KYW to become the top-rated newscast in Philadelphia. The station has been dominant ever since, and the format spread to other stations.

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Interestingly, WKBW-TV in Buffalo called itself "Eyewitness News" and used the Move Closer to Your World theme, but used the basic "Action News" format. WKBW was the sister station to WPVI, which shared the same owner--CapCities.

Related Topics:
WKBW-TV - Eyewitness News

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In New York City WPIX-TV, an independent station at the time (now affiliated with The WB and owned by Tribune Broadcasting) picked up the Action News concept (and music) successfully for their 10 PM newscast. The newscast won numerous awards, but they had nothing approaching WPVI's ratings.

Related Topics:
New York City - WPIX-TV - The WB - Tribune Broadcasting

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