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With the purchase of WICD from Plains Television
Partners during the Summer of 1994, Channel 15 became NewsChannel 15 in
February of 1995.
WICS was already under Guy Gannett ownership, when WICD was
purchased. At that time, WICD was suffering from several years of
neglect.
A
skeleton staff of Plains Television Partners
operated the station for some time before the sale. The General
Manager under Plains was Joe Norris with Operations Manager
Larry Waters. With the sale of WICD to Guy Gannett, Joe
Norris left while Larry
Waters stayed as Operations Manager. Grant Uitti was added
as News Director, replacing Rich Porter, Dave Boyer was Chief
Engineer, Gary Hackler became Local Sales Manager and Doug Quick was
Promotions Director.
Les Van became Station Manager, while the General Manager of both WICS
and WICD was Jack Conners.
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The orignal NewsChannel 15 logo as it was shown in early 1995. It
was before the NBC branding mandate was required which added the NBC
logo into the station logo....shown far right.
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"Wings" ran on NBC
during the1990 to 1997
seasons. It starred Tim Daley and Crystal Bernard, David Schramm,
Rebecca Schull, Thomas Haden Church and Tony Shalhoub.
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"Sister"
aired on NBC from 1991 to 1996 on Saturday
nights. The stars are pictured above(left to right): Julianne
Phillips, Patricia Kalember, Sela Ward and Swoosie Kurtz.
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"Coach" continued
to air in the 6:30-7:00pm timeslot, Monday through
Saturday, before Seinfeld was picked up in syndication during the Fall
of 1997. Afterwhich, it turned up on weekdays at 12:30pm, until
Judge Judy took over the slot.
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Afternoon's were still a comedy block from 4 to 5pm. The off
network NBC network series "Fresh
Prince of Bell-Air" aired in the
4:30pm half hour during the mid 90's.
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In the days of Plains Television Partners ownership, "Family Ties" the
NBC off network series aired in a number of timeslots on WICD,
including the Noon half hour during which WICS aired local news.
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"Full House", the
off network ABC series found a home in syndication on
WICD during the mid 1990's. It ran on ABC from 1987 to
1995. (Still looking for a screen grab for this one)
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It was the era of the talk shows, and Ricki Lake was
a daytime regular on WICD during the mid 90's. By the early 00's,
Ricki was running overnights.
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"Montel"
was a late afternoon regular at 3pm
for much of the 1990's and 00's.
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"Baywatch Nights" a spin off of
"Baywatch" starring David
Hasselhoff, Angie Harmon, Eddie Cibrian, Dorian Gregory and Donna
D'Errico, aired on WICD from 1995 to 1997 late night weekends.
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It was nearing the end of it's 7 season run, which began on NBC in 1988
and
continued to 1995. "Empty Nest"
was a Saturday night spin off of "Golden
Girls."
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WICD photographer Joe Hampton. Look for his name in movie credits
as he's currently working in the movie business. Joe along with
various Danville Bureau Chiefs worked out of the Vermilion County
Newsrooms, located at DACC, on North Vermilion behind the Custard Cup
and at it's present location on Liberty Lane in Danville. The
first Danville Bureau Chief was Anna Custer.
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"Grace Under Fire",
the off network run of the ABC series which aired
from 1993 to 1998 was picked up in syndication by WICD, where it failed
to deliver much of an audience. It completed it's run airing
overnights and disappeared a few years later..
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Monday's NBC schedule featured "Fresh
Prince of Bel-air" followed by "Blossom."
It
starred Mayim Bialik and Joey Lawrence. The
series ran on NBC from 1991-1995.
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Here's the Saturday Night News anchor lineup: Niki
Searles, Scott Andresen(sports) and Jerome Ritchey(weather).
Ritchey was also morning DJ along with Melissa Foreman on WLRW, 94.9FM
during that time.
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Here's a graphic used to promote an upcoming special
news feature on Saturday. All of these were designed and produced
by yours truly.
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Doug
and Maureen Kocot anchoring a Sunday night newscast during 1995.
The Weather Center behind them did not work at the time, and all
weather production took place in small office off Master Control.
The Sunday night anchor staff consisted of Maureen, Scott Andresen and
Doug Quick.
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This video capture is from an inhouse video produced by Doug Quick for
an annual Guy Gannett meeting in the mid to late 1990's. Paul
talked about the many improvements in the news operation during the
period.
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A WICD
staff photo with
Station Manager Les Vann in the center.
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"Earth: Final Conflict"
ran in syndication on WICD late night
Saturday's after SNL. It was created by Gene Roddenberry and
produced by his widow, Majel Barrett. It starred Lisa Howard,
Richard Chevolleau, Jayne Heitmeyer, Von Flores and others. Majel
Barrett also had a recurring role in the series.
(I'm still working on a screen grab.) |
From 1998, the
Monday night primetime lineup
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When "Seinfeld" left NBC, WICD
was one of many of the NBC
affiliates which planned special events. This promotion was held
with
WKIO, Oldies 92.5 FM, at the Chancellor Hotel and Convention Center in
Champaign on May 14th, 1998. A viewing party was set up with food
and a projection
of
the last Seinfeld telecast. It was also introduced by a Danville
High
School student who won a contest with the opportunity to do the station
ID before the show.
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WICD, while I was Promotions Director,
participated in many of the NBC special promotions. This one was
for the mini-series "Merlin"
in which I worked in my other employer,
WDNL. That's why my name is on it, as I was the DJ during the
afternoons on D-102.
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WICD's main
anchors Stacy Case and Paul Donohue.
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WICD's Dave Ferguson, one of the more popular local reporters.
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Scott Musgrave, WICD Sports Director beginning in 1994.
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Keith Page continued to deliver the weather for a couple of years after
the 1994 purchase of WICD by Guy Gannett. Here he is
pictured with the new WSI weather graphics.
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In 1998, WICD's anchor lineup consisted of
Paul Donohue, Stacy Case, Jerome Ritchey(far left)
and Scott Musgrave(far right)
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"1998, WICD
began to broadcast it's own morning news programming, after it being
produced by WICS for a number of years. Once again, the graphics
shown with the Sunrise logo were designed and produced by me.
Some people absolutely hated the repainting of the news set, but I have
to take at least some of the credit for that. Brian Stumph and I
initiated the set redesign. The WSI weather computers were moved
to the news set, because doing weather for the morning show would have
been impossible from the previous weather computer location."
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The
lineup of "Sunrise" is pictured above with Tamara Gibbs and Doug
Quick. "In this photo the new news set is shown with the bright
blue background and marble columns. This set also included
station logo branding which was absent on the previous set. A lot
of people hated the running vinyl logos on the plexiglass which is
visible here in this shot. If they hung vertically, they
reflected lights into the camera. They were eventually slanted
and tied back by nearly invisble fishing line, eliminating the glare
problem. I designed them to be out of the normal one-anchor
shot, but visible on a two anchor shot, like that above."
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Doug
Quick was the morning weathercaster and Tamara Gibbs did news from 5:30
to
7:00am, before the NBC's "Today." "Sunrsie Today" was later
extended from 5am to 7am. "Of course we also did the news/weather
cut-ins during the "Today Show" at 7:25, 7:55, 8:25 and 8.55am.
For the first time in a number of years, the weather center became a
"working " weather center with the new WSI weather system....with
branding. Note the plexiglass panel with the logo and "Storm
Team." The darker blue panel was to be repainted to make the
"Storm Team" on the glass more visible...but it never got done."
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"Jag"
was a combination of "A Few Good Men" and "Top Gun" and ran on NBC from
1995 to 1996 and was cancelled by NBC when it did no better than
77th. CBS picked it up where it rain for an additional 9
sesons until 2005.
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Regis and Kathy Lee
moved from WCIA to WICD during the mid 1990's,
where it remains to this day, except now it stars Kelly Ripa with
Regis. The show really always seemed out of place on an NBC
station, since the show many times promoted ABC shows. It was
produced by ABC.
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"One of the graphics produced by yours truly, while
in the promotions department, with Ricki Lake airing at 4PM, followed
by Home Improvement."
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Rob Elgas and Niki Searles, two of the WICD reporters who worked
together on a Special Report on Holiday Gifts
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More to come.
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Both "Home
Improvement" and "Seinfeld"
premiered in syndication the same time, the
Fall of 1997.
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Here's another
example of a promotional graphic which would be at the end of "Home
Improvement."
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Another of the program promo end graphics I designed
during my time as Promotions Director.
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Here is long time WICD reporter Brian Zents doing a
live shot from Danville after the Danville Church bomber killed himself.
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"Leeza" was a
daytime regular as here one hour talk show ran from 11am
to Noon for several years.
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"Donnie and Marie" was
actually a pretty entertaining show, produced by
Dick Clark Productions, it ran weekday mornings from 10 to 11am.
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The longtime popular NBC Show "Will
and Grace."
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During the
1994-1998 TV Seasons NBC had some terrific lineups. Those shows
included: Mad About You, Hope and Gloria, Brotherly Love,
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Wings, NewsRadio, Frasier, Pursuit
of Happiness, Dateline NBC, Seaquest, Law and Order,
Friends, The Single Guy, Seinfeld, Caroline in the City, E.R.,
Unsolved Mysteries, Homicide: Life on the Street, JAG, John
Larroquette, Sisters, Homecourt, Third Rock from the Sun, Boston
Common, Jeff Foxworthy, Mr. Rhodes, Something So Right,
Suddenly Susan, Dark Skies, The Pretender, Profiler, Jenny, Fired Up,
Naked Truth, Just Shoot Me, Tony Danza Show, Built to Last,
Working, Union Square, Veronica's Closet, Players,
Sleepwalkers and others.
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After Tamera Gibbs left WICD, she was replaced by Jennifer
Broeker. The show continued to grow under this lineup and
the chemistry between these two anchors helped increase the popularity
of "Sunrise."
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A back studio shot of Doug and Jennifer on "Sunrise."
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"Frasier" was
a spin off of the original "Cheers" in
which one of the characters, Frasier Crane, moves to Seattle to become
a talk radio psychiatrist.
Frasier was played by Kelsy Grammer from 1993 to 2004.
Other players included John Mahoney, Perri Gilpin, Jane
Leeves, David Hyde Pierce and Dan Butler.
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"Mad About You"
aired on NBC from 1992 to
1999. It starred Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser as a young urban
couple in New York.
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It was the first years of the "Law and Order" series
in 1990. Now in it's 16th season on NBC.
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"Caroline in the
City" was another New York set
sitcom, this one with Lea Thompson in the starring role as Caroline
Duffy. Others in the cast were Eric Lutes, Malcolm Gets,
Amy Pietz and Sofia Milos.
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"Just Shoot Me" ran
on NBC from 1997 to 2003.
It was a Wednesday night staple during it's run. The show starred
George Segal, David Spade, Laura San Giacomo, Wendy
Malick and Enrico Colantoni.
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"Home Improvement"
aired in syndication on WICD, weekdays at 5PM and
later was double run from 4:30pm to 5:30pm. It was the off
network ABC series which ran from 1991 to 1999.
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"seaQuest DSV"
was a return to sci-fi TV and aired
on NBC from 1993 to 1996. The final year, the name was changed to
seaQuest 2032." The stars were Roy Scheider, Janathon Brandis,
Michael Ironside and Stephanie Beachham.
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"Suddenly Susan"
starred Brook Shields, Kathy
Griffin, Eric Edle, and Judd Nelson. This one premiered in 1996.
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"Friends" aired
on NBC from 1994-2004 and will run
for many years in syndication. The hit NBC show starred Jennifer
Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and
David Schwimmer.
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"The Single Guy"
starred Jonathan Silver, Joey
Slotnick, Ernest Borgnine and Ming-Na. It aired on NBC and WICD
from 1995-1997.
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"NewsRadio"
was the final effort of Phil Hartman as
he was murdered during it's run. Other starts pictured include
Maura Tierney, Andy Dick, Vicki Lewis, Stephen Root, Joe Rogan and Jon
Lovitz. This sitcom ran on NBC from 1995-1999.
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This was a live shot from Papa John's Pizza during a "Fan Club"
promotion to raise funds with the purchase of pizzas to buy fans for
the needy during Summers.
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This is a still from a special 30-minute show I produced for the
Balloon Classic Illinois which ran on WICD. Here I'm hosting from
a hot air balloon. The show ran on the Thursday evening before
the former annual event in Danville.
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It started in 1965, and it continues....like sands through an
hourglass....these are the "Days of Our Lives."
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"Another World" aired
before "Days of Our Lives",
actually it was recorded the previous day, and played back the day
after....bet you didn't know that one did you? Another world
aired at 1PM, Days of Our Lives at 2PM.
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WICD initiated the first "sponsored station ID's." Now, every
station does it. This one with Mountain Dew.
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"Sunset Beach" ran
on WICD daytime from 1997-1999.
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"Third Rock from the Sun"
was sort of sci-fi, sort of sit com starring
John Lithgow, Kristen Johnston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, French Stewart
and Jane Curtin.
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It was time for another NBC hit series of the mid
1990's. "E.R."
became a fixture on Thursday nights in 1994 o take the place of "L.A.
Law."
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The daytime
schedule included another soap which would take the place
of "Sunset Beach" during
1999 into the 00's. "Passions" was
added to the lineup on WICD as well.
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"Lateline" was
a takeoff on a light night news
program. It starred Al Frankin and featured cameos from real
celebrities. It lasted one year, at the "second season" in 1998
through the first half of 1999.
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Pictured to the
left is a series of weathercast pictures with some severe wether
passing through east central Illinois and west central Indiana.
The weather supplier was WSI.
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NewsChannel 15
was involved in a promotion at the Texas Roadhouse which involved the
American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Here Doug is doing a
remote weathercast at the popular Champaign restaurant, with a group of
excited employees
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