December 16th, 2009 
joel The nostalgic among us media types are getting excited for the WICU 60th Anniversary show, which is scheduled for Saturday, December 26th at 7:00 PM.
WICU Weekends: 1983
There are lots of different reasons why a show like this might be highly anticipated, so I’ll share mine: the people…like this crew.
From left, Harry Hairston, Evan Lovett, Steve Bohen, and Paul Wagner. This was the exact weekend team when I was interning at Ch. 12 in the Fall of 1983. Each Saturday and Sunday I wrote news copy, and checked the wire and went out on stories with the camera crews and fully caught the broadcasting bug.
WICU and NBC were unstoppable back then, with the network exchanging its former dismal ratings performance for nights full of Must-See TV, especially Thursdays with Cosby, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, and Hill Street Blues the year after graduation. Meanwhile, Ch. 12 being the only VHF as well as the oldest television station in the market began the 1980’s with same strength and power as it did in the 1970’s, 60’s, and 50’s.
Things began to tighten up ratings wise as the 1980’s continued and personnel changes ensued with the eventual toppling of the 12 empire from its #1 perch by WJET.
No matter what, however, they’ve always had great people and the station will celebrate their contributions for the anniversary celebration. Get some previews of the show by clicking on my original 60th anniversary post. Great pictures like the one above are available on WICU’s TwitPic feed.
The station wants to hear from you, so they’ve set up a new blog to take your “I Remember” comments. Go to: wicu12.wordpress.com where you will also see more nostalgia.
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Joel,
Thanks for this post. I’ve been looking forward to this telecast and plan to set my DVR so I don’t miss it in the wake of all the Christmas activities.
The promo videos and the Flikr photo postings are great! This will be a fun program to watch.
I wonder how WICU will use the posts of people who share their memories on the blog. Do you think that they will actually be a part of the program, or are they just being used to gather excitement and viewership momentum for the telecast?
Great memories…but it also sadly shows how much Channel 12 and NBC have declined in recent years. So this retrospective broadcast will have a bittersweet feel to it.
Growing up my parents would let me stay up late on Friday Nights to watch “11th Hour Edition” with Ned McGrath, Vance McBryde and Bill Knupp. I thought that was the coolest thing.
Being the nephew of WICU Chief Engineer Mike Csop I caught the broadcasting bug at a VERY early age. When other kids my age were playing Cops and Robbers I was playing newscaster. I would build a makeshift news set out of a couch and pillows.
It was a great honor to be able to work at WICU during the early 1990s.
I agree with “the other max” it is going to be bittersweet to watch the Anniversary show considering how NBC and WICU have declined in recent years.
I must say that the 7PM newscast was way ahead of its time. My grandparents watched it while my folks watched WSEE then WJET when the Action News movement was taking shape. I did meet Frank Rizzone a couple of times when he was a host on the WQLN radio pledge drives. A very nice & down to Earth person who was as fascinated with the upgrades at WQLN as I was with his days at WICU. Hopefully there will be interviews with him, Hyle Richmond from Phoenix. It would add to the nostalgia of the 60th anniversary special like it did on the 40th with people like “Chilly” Bill Cardille. I’ll be DVRing this one.
McGrath, Knupp, Richmond, McBryde, Rizzone. Great people to work for, you don’t find those kind today. It was a pleasure to work with these guys and learn from them.
The question is….will WICU still be there in 10 years for a 70th anniversary?
I’m really looking forward to this program. My only concern is that the program turns into an infomercial for the current 12 News staff. I noticed on one of the Weather promos they spent a good deal of time with pictures of A.J. Colby, Dylan Dreyer, Raychel Frank, Julie Coates, Jeff Taylor and Rob Wilson. No disrespect to these fine meteorologists but WICU Weather was built by Shirley Ramsey and Vance McBryde.
Do the program properly. Give a mention to the current staff but focus mostly on the LEGENDS that preceeded the current staff.
I join PR in hoping that WICU is around in 10 years to celebrate 70 years. To quote Mr Spock: “Live long and prosper.”
My wish for WICU at 60? That they would get rid of that HIDEOUS looking news set (IMO it really is the worst looking news set WICU has ever had) and replace it with a set with warm colors (blue, red, gold, etc)
You have to spend money to make money!
Maybe WICU can do a week of vintage newscast opens before 12 News at 6 and 11? What I wouldn’t give to hear Mark Guy Findlay’s booming voice one last time announcing: “This is Channel 12 in Erie, WICU-TV” followed quickly by “ICU News the Eleventh Hour Edition…this portion sponsored by your friends at Hallie’s”
Those were the days!
Tom’s comment about the 7PM cast being ahead of it’s time reminded me of my time at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications in the mid ’70’s.
In one course (I think it was Broadcast Management), we had a project to program a local TV station. Knowing that WICU was the market news leader in Erie, I decided to counter-program the prime access entertainment shows in that market with a local newscast. That was the single biggest markdown I got on the project from the prof who said it was a really dumb idea.
I guess if it were a start-up station in a market, the professor’s perspective would probably be true. I don’t recall what the assumptions were for the station I was supposed to be programming (new station vs pre-existing one, etc.). Just because the first station in Erie had built and maintained their lead at 7PM was no reason to expect it would flourish in another city. Oh well….
It was one of the interesting exercises that we had in that course, as I recall.
Roger, back then the prof would have docked you for putting a 90 minute newsblock in Early Fringe instead of “Donahue”. Of course they had never heard of “Live at Five”!! (I (heart) Sue Simmons and Chuck Scarborough)
Ahahaha! In a galaxy long ago, I directed all these guys!!! (And look at The Boze with the full head of hair and the giant ’80’s ’stache! I know, I know, I used to have the same one back in the day!) This was my weekend on-air crew before I left for WSEE in November of ‘83. Very professional and a lot of fun, too! We always hit SNL and The George Michael SportsMachine on time! Always! And, actually covered NEWS on the weekend, not a rehash of the week’s top stories! Ah, the good old days!
WICU words alone can not express the love I have for the station that launched my career in local broadcast news.
I have fond memories of working countless hours, many days, nights, weekends and holidays as a Weatherman and Reporter.
It was an honor to serve the wonderful people of Erie and surrounding areas.
To be in the same company as Bill Knupp, Vance McBride, Shirley Ramsey Hal Richmond and the host of other legends was certainly one of the highlights of my career in Erie.
Happy 60th WICU and a special hello to my close friend MIke Ruzzi.
Harry Hairston
NBC News Philadelphia.
Harry!
How awesome it is to hear from you and thank you for sharing your memories. Congrats on all your success and it is quite a kick for me to watch you on NBC 10 each summer when my family is at the shore. Come back to P&T often.
Hey Harry,
WTF,what am I chopped liver… You were in my wedding and I don’t get so much as “good” friend. BTW Kathy and I are celebrating 25 in a week. Thanks to you.
Anyhoo, I put my 2 decades at mother 12. I was fortunate enough to put together the 40th show. The films were stored out at the transmitter. Bob Furstenbuerger and Leonard Griebel(both huge legends), were told by Mike Csop(the chief)to go find a few of their favorite reels and give them to “news” and I would take the reels(both film and 2″) and put together the show. Bill Knupp acted as Producer/Host for the 40th. I was on the Pappy show when I was young, and had great memories of the other local productions; Atlantic Weather, Farm and Garden, and Bea Canfield(Ithink or was Jeanne Carnes. That was the golden age of television, now it’s turned brown and smelly.
Happy Festivus,
Wow ! 60 eh ? Growing up with WICU on the northern shores of Lake Erie we in Tillsonburg Ontario lived our NBC moments through the family at Channel 12. I remember standing outside the living room window out at the farm and my Grandmother shouting directions for me to turn the outdoor Tv Antenna. Kyle, Ned, Vance and of course Shirley were extended American family members. Congratulations to the documentary crew at WICU for packaging together TV history that should never be forgotten.
Ned McGrath was my grandfather. He passed away before I was born but I hear great things about him. When people learn my last name, they ask if I am any relation to Ned and then tell me how “he was Erie’s news man” while they were growing up.
I was really looking forward to watching the 60th Anniversary show with my parents. I could sense their disappointment when, except for about a 10 second interview with my Dad and two “head shots”, Grandpa Ned was barely mentioned. I learned more about some grocer’s cuts of beef than the man that I’ve heard was such a highly respected broadcaster. I couldn’t even find a photo of him on WICU’s web-site.
My Dad said that he was happy to see that “Dave, Vance, Bill, Hyle and Shirley” were given their due. Maybe WICU’s next anniversary show will spend a little more time on Ned.