Early attempts
At WTAO-TV's inception, the station aired two fifteen-minute evening newscasts, at 6 and 10:30 pm, branded as United Press News and anchored by Bob Merhmann. These newscasts were canceled within two years.[3]
On December 1, 1969, WKBG-TV debuted a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast, called Ten PM News; the first prime time newscast on a commercial television station in the market. The newscast was anchored by Boston news veteran Arch MacDonald, who was lured away from WBZ-TV, where he had been a news anchor for two decades.[59] It is also notable for being the first on-screen job for Natalie Jacobson, who went on to become lead anchor at WCVB-TV in the 1970s. Despite a loyal audience and ratings that were competitive with the network affiliates, WKBG lost a considerable amount of money on the newscast and shut the news department down in November 1970. MacDonald remained at the station for another year to host a weekday morning interview program; he took a position with the then-new WCVB in 1972.[60]
Return to late news (1984–2006)
Field Communications started a news department shortly before putting WLVI up for sale. In 1982, it began producing a 10 p.m. weeknight newscast, which initially was a pair of ten-minute locally produced inserts in what otherwise was an hour-long simulcast of CNN Headline News.[61] Rumors of expansion were immediate upon the Gannett expansion;[62] WLVI expanded it into a half-hour broadcast on April 23, 1984, originally on weeknights only. Debuting as The News at Ten, it established itself with top-drawer talent early on with Boston news veteran Jack Hynes as lead anchor and Bill O'Connell handling sports.[63]
During its first three years on the air, The News at Ten was accompanied at 10:30 p.m. by the continuation of cable news service simulcasts. CNN Headline News aired in the timeslot following the local half-hour news, as it did prior to the latter's debut. In January 1986, Headline News was replaced in favor of the nationally syndicated Independent Network News, which was produced by WPIX in New York City.[64] When WLVI's one-year contract with INN expired, the station expanded the weeknight broadcast of The News at Ten to one hour on January 26, 1987; that week, it also began broadcasting hourlong weekend newscasts.[65]
For well over a decade, WLVI was the ratings leader in the 10 p.m. timeslot, with or without news competition in the arena. The only other Boston station producing a newscast in that time period was WGBH-TV; that effort ended in 1991. On February 1, 1993, WLVI rebranded its newscasts as The Ten O'Clock News—a less confusing title that had been used by WGBH.[66] That fall, however, legitimate competition sprang up for The Ten O'Clock News. Fox affiliate WFXT (channel 25) debuted the New England Cable News-produced Fox 25 News at Ten on September 7, 1993, while WSBK-TV introduced the WBZ-produced WBZ News 4 on TV 38 on October 25.[67] The latter stations aggressively marketed their fledgling newscasts, and a three-way race ensued with the stations running close in the ratings.[68]
At the same time, Jack Hynes relegated himself to weekend anchor and commentator/substitute anchor on weekdays, paving the way for future lead anchors Jon Du Pre (1993–95, later of Fox News Channel),[69] and Jeff Barnd (1995–2002). While Barnd developed a strong following with viewers, he also became known for his joking in-between stories and tendencies to ad-lib. One such occurrence of this behavior in September 2001, just days after the September 11 attacks, shocked local media outlets, in which Barnd jumped from his anchor chair and started dancing around the set after presenting the top story. Barnd was subsequently disciplined by station management after the incident.[70] In 2002, the station parted ways with Barnd, seeking a return to a more serious newscast.[71]
Another mainstay of WLVI's newscasts was chief meteorologist Mike Wankum, who first joined the station in 1993.[72] Boston Globe columnist Jon Keller, who joined the same year,[73] was also a fixture for over a decade as the station's political analyst. In 2005, Keller departed WLVI to become the new chief political reporter and analyst for WBZ-TV.[74]
The only time WLVI programmed news outside its established late evening time slot was in June 2000, when it premiered Boston's WB in the Morning. Formatted as a mix of news, talk and lifestyle features, the show aired from 6 to 8 am.[75] The program lasted two years; despite expanding to three hours during its run, it could not hold its own against the other local and national morning news programs, and it was canceled in April 2002,[76] taking with it 17 jobs.[77]
By 2002, when Boston's WB in the Morning ended, WLVI's 10 p.m. newscast had slipped to second in the ratings behind WFXT, which had established its own local news service in 1996. After Barnd left, Frank Mallicoat, who had joined the station in 1991 as a weekend sports anchor[78] and would go on to host the morning show before replacing Jack Hynes as weekend anchor,[79] was tapped to replace him on the program. However, WFXT had firmly established itself as the 10 p.m. news leader in Boston.[80] By the time of the Sunbeam sale, due to the increasing popularity of the WFXT newscast and Tribune's closure of news departments at its stations in Philadelphia and San Diego, there were unconfirmed rumors and speculation that Tribune would shut down the WLVI news department and have the newscast outsourced to another station or even canceled altogether.
