WTAE 50 Anniversary Special a true gem
Pittsburgh:The baby of "the big 3" local affiliates in Pittsburgh - not to mention VHF outlets, WTAE-TV (4) celebrated it's upcoming 50th Anniversary last night with a look back over the years. Sally Wiggin did a marvelous job of capturing an hour's worth of footage. (I could have gone for another three or four hours myself!) The special, which repeats on Saturday at 1:00 PM and is available in three segments at the station's website, recalls the children's programming of yesteryear when the ABC affiliation was in its infancy and most programs were locally produced. Extensive interviews with John G. Comomikes, Joe DeNardo and Bill Hillgrove remember the late Paul Long and long-time co-anchor Don Cannon - the team Conomikes brought together in 1969 to make the station's newscasts more competative. One segment also recalls the late Myron Cope who died earlier this year.
The station signed on September 14, 1958 from its current studio location at 400 Admore Boulevard in Wilkinsburg. For the last several weeks the station has been touting that it will begin High Definition news broadcasts within the next few weeks.
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Readers’ Forum
I found the program to be okay but not a “true gem.” Close to half of the show was devoted to Joe DeNardo or Myron Cope, so there was only around 20 minutes of actual “looking back.” The archival stuff was great to see, and it’s always fun to hear “behind-the-scenes” stories, but there are several former ‘TAE personalities still around who could have been interviewed and weren’t. Let’s say it was adequate.
airguy - August 29, 2008 at 06:57 am
Ok, you could say that it was adequate, but in comparison to WPXI’s TWO specials a year ago, I thought this had a better look back than they did. In ‘PXI’s defense though, they were touting their new facility, so I guess that can be understandable.
Now it defense of what both stations have done respective to their Golden Anniversaries, one might suggest that there may be less interest among the viewing public to watch a historical program about a station – and that is a shame – and that may be why only 20 minutes was dedicated to “looking back”.
Eric - August 29, 2008 at 10:12 am
I respectfully disagree. I think the viewing public, especially those in their 50s and older, enjoy “looking back”. I was disappointed with most of the show as I thought we would be hearing from some of the former personalites from WTAE who are still around. I did enjoy the old promos and seeing the old news sets. However, there was way too much Sally Wiggin. This should have had co-hosts instead of just Sally. Maybe when they celebrate their 60 years.
Sarah - August 29, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I don’t disagree with you Sarah. I too enjoy looking back, and yes it only scratched the surface. What are you gonna do though?
Eric - August 29, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Sadly, how many of those old video tapes are still around? A lot of that stuff was done live and never recorded – or the tapes have long ago been recorded over or have been thrown away. I wonder how much is really left in the video tape vault?
Dave - August 29, 2008 at 10:25 pm
The old clips with Paul Shannon,Janey Vance,Del Taylor,Carl Ide,Ed Conway and others were a joy to see again.As a tyke,I vividly recall watching the debut episode of THE FUGITIVE and then staying up to watch Dave Murray do the news with that great bookcase in the background.How sad that so much of Pittsburgh’s rich television history was recorded over or thrown out and lost forever.Anyway,all in all,a very enjoyable special.
Conrad - August 31, 2008 at 1:06 pm