Wide Wonderful World of Media - A Look Back At Television

[Phillip Dampier]

Here is another one of those great lengthy closes to the noon news, this time the "Eye of the Tiger" with scenes of disaffected New Yorkers walking down the street.  Your bonus is a very clean copy of WOR's Station ID at the end, the last time the station would be licensed to New York City.

WOR-TV News At Noon Close and Station ID - 1982
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[Phillip Dampier]

WOR moved its city of license to Secaucus, New Jersey in 1983 to appease the FCC.  The station needed to re-do their ID's, and was already starting to suffer some money troubles, so they went on the cheap.  But after that, if you watched WOR at all during the 1980s, you'll certainly remember Million Dollar Movie!

WOR-TV Station ID and Million Dollar Movie Open - 1983
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[Phillip Dampier]

A more colorful on-air look for WOR in 1984 with this promo for SWAT moving to a new time and a new opening for Fright Night!

WOR-TV Promo and Fright Night Open - 1984
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[Phillip Dampier]

By 1985, WOR adopted a look more recognizable by today's standards with some computer graphics for their movie openings.  These aren't terribly different from what one might see on the air these days.  WOR, like many TV stations, required a lot of labor in the control room to keep things running.  Automated, computer controlled equipment really didn't become that common in TV stations until the 1990s.  Technical problems were very common before then.  In this clip, the ID slide stays on screen for several seconds, no doubt as station personnel try and get the tape for the movie opening cued up.

WOR-TV Station ID and 9 All Night Open - 1985
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[Phillip Dampier]

Notice the common theme between these clips... here's a "bumper" for 9 in the Afternoon:

WOR-TV Station ID and 9 In The Afternoon Bumper - 1985
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[Phillip Dampier]

Another year, another new opening for Fright Night:

WOR-TV Station ID and Fright Night Open - 1985
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[Phillip Dampier]

Here was one of the more bizarre promos for WOR in 1986 showcasing the reruns they loved to air....  You should be able to identify where most of these clips came from.

WOR-TV - Promo Set - 1986
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[Phillip Dampier]

RKO sells off WOR-TV and the new owners stick another W in it to launch WWOR-TV.  A new ID, a new look, and more important, a whole new attitude....

WWOR-TV ID 1987
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[Phillip Dampier]

No relation to Robert Downey by the way.  WWOR ushered in the late 1980s by totally alienating the older viewers who watched the station for more than 20 years.  Gone were the classic movies and older dramas.  In came the confrontational, more working-class attitude programming, personafied by the man who started TV down the slippery slope towards Jerry Springer.

His name, Morton Downey, Jr.  His attitude - a right wing populist who chain smoked on his show filled with thug-like audiences, with a whole lot of hollering and fist fights.  You get a sense of where we're going just from the opening theme:

Morton Downey, Jr. Show Open - 1988
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[Phillip Dampier]

To give you an even better sense of how ludicrous Morton Downey, Jr.'s show was, here is a lengthier segment of the show covering heavy metal music.  An interesting bit of trivia - Downey died of lung cancer and recorded public service announcements retracting his earlier statements about protecting "smoker's rights."

The most interesting part of this whole clip in the opening sequence.  If you watch it slow, you'll figure out what he stands for on just about everything.