Jerome Ritchey, Tiffani Sargent, Eric Renderle and Scott Musgrave.
This was the anchor lineup from the early days of the Sinclair ownership, 2001.
Above the left two graphics are a series of NBC graphics during the period. It shows stars from select NBC primetime shows. The right two graphics were a part of a program in which NBC would air shows "seamlessly", that is, bumping the end of one show, immediately into the next show. It also included the shrinking of the credits of it's shows into a much smaller area of the screen, so as to allow the airing of a promo for other NBC shows. It could and was also used as the epilog of the series which had just aired. This would take viewers into the next show, with no local commericals. The local station breaks were placed mid shows at around 15 and 45 minutes after the hour, half way through the show. The theory, was that audiences would be less likely to switch to another channel. It wasn't long before all the networks were doing pretty much the same thing. This NBC technique was called "NBC 2000."
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| WICD
wasn't the first to broadcast a hi-def signal, but the station wasn't
the last! WICD broadcast a full powered digital signal,
with NBC programming in High Definition from the early 00's. |
NBC's
"The Tonight Show" was the first late night series which broadcast in
hi-def. Why not, "The Tonight Show" accounts for over 15% of
NBC's total profits! |
"Medium"
one of the prime time series broadcast in Hi-Definition on WICD.
"Medium" began it's run in 2005. |
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| "The
West Wing" ran on WICD during it's best days on prime time. It
was also broadcast in hi-def on NBC and WICD. |
It's
too bad that "ER" wasn't broadcast in Hi-Def from the beginning, when
the show was in it's "glory years." |
Evenutally
"Late Night with Conan O'Brien was added to the late night Hi-Def
line-up. That was done right before the network switch in
September of 2005. |
Here is a series of scenes from the news anchor lineup used in newscasts in 2003 right before the much improved look of the station graphics of the next year.
Here is the anchor lineup in 2004-2005 with Doug Quick(weather), Aubrey Mika and Jim Niedelman along with Andrew Miller(sports).
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The WICD news opens...note the use of the peacock in the first picture at left. Here's the best example of the improved graphics during the early 00's, as a serious investment was made by Sinclair to improve the look of the local newscasts of WICD. Compare this look to the earlier look above with the anchor lineup pictures. |
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Here is a series of pictures from broadcasts of local news of the era. Pictured here is former reporter Larry Lawley doing a live shot from Champaign, then it's Aubrey Mika and Jim filling in for Lauren during "First News at Five," then it's morning weathercaster Jay Searles, Andrew Miller from the golf course and finally Doug Quick with Keith Page with the "Storm Team" weather during a Noon newscasts from 2001..
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| "American Dreams"
was filmed in and around Philadelphia and told the story of the Pryor
family during the 1960's. It began it's run in 2002. Stars
included Breittany Snow, Tom Verica, Gail O'Grady, Will Estes, Jonathan
Adams, Vanessa Lengies, Sarah Ramos, Rachael Boston and Arlen
Escarpeta. In spit of less than steller ratings, the critics
loved this one and NBC hung on until it was cancelled in 2005. |
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| "Ed" was produced
by David Letterman's production company and starred Tom Cavanagh, Julie
Bowen, Josh Randall, Jana Marie Hupp and Lesley Boone. It ran on
NBC from 2000-2004. |
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| "ER" continued it's run on Thursday
night's during the 00's. Even after many cast changes over the
years, the series remained popular, but not to the success it enjoyed
during the 1990's. |
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From 1998 to 2006, "Will and Grace" aired on NBC and became part of "Must See TV" Thursday night. "Will and Grace" was nominated for 83 Emmys during it's run, winning 16 of the awards. It starred Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes, Megan Mullally and others. |
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| "Montel" continued
his run on WICD during the afternoon block at 3PM until the network
switch. WICD lost an hour of programming during the late
afternoon, and "Montel" then made his way to WAND after September 5th,
2005. |
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Josh Samuels WICD Sports Director and anchor, picture from 2003. |
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| "Live with Regis
and Kelly" continued it's successfull run on WICD as part of the
morning lineup, dividing the "Today" show in two. The first two
hours of "Today" ran from 7 to 9am, followed by "Live with Regis and
Kelly" and then the final hour of "Today" from 10am to 11am. |
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| "Senfeild"
continued to be the heart of the the evening programming onWICD from
the mid 1990's through the NBC affiliation years and beyond. |
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| This is me at one
of the last live broadcasts I did doing weather for WICD as an NBC
affiliate during the Illinois State Fair in 2005. At the fair we
handed out hand fans which had the new ABC logos of Channel 15 and 20. |