Milwaukee: Behind the Headlines; Anatomy of a Newscast; Part 1

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Series
Milwaukee: Behind the Headlines
Episode
Anatomy of a Newscast
Segment
Part 1
Producing Organization
WMVS (Television station : Milwaukee, Wis.)
Contributing Organization
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip-526-fn10p0xx64
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Description
Episode Description
This episode goes through the process of producing a newscast. The program begins in the newsroom with the assignment of stories to reporters and photographers. A reporter and cameraman go to report on an industrial accident at a steel yard. Reporters join producers for their morning story conference, and news director Tom Hauff is interviewed on his efforts to improve the news coverage at the station. Reporter Bunny Raasch is interviewed about her view on news broadcasting and reporting. The program follows the sports reporter as he collects a story on a weightlifting team and interviews him afterwards. Producer Dave Robinson talks about his job as a producer, and executive producer Al Volker talks about his goals for each newscast. The narrator explains that reporters write scripts for the stories they covered and supervise the editing of their stories. The director of the news show is interviewed about his process preparing for the show, and the news anchor talks about the importance of his job. The five o'clock program begins, and the narrator talks about the jobs of each person on the studio floor and in the control room. After the five o'clock show, all the focus shifts to preparing for the ten o'clock show and the next day. The program profiles long-time weatherman Howard Grenett about his career in weather. Editorial director Ron Anderson talks about the station's editorial segments, and the station general manager discusses ensuring that the station's news program runs smoothly. Daniel Schorr talks about the criteria by which he judges the quality of a news program. During the broadcast of the news, this program gives viewers a behind the scenes look at the broadcast. After the newscast, Schorr gives his critique of the program and discusses it with several producers and reporters.
Series Description
"The special 'Anatomy of a Newscast', which was part of the WMVS-TV monthly 'Milwaukee: Behind the Headlines' series, is a two-hour program which was produced on May 16 and May 17, 1979 and broadcast between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm on May 17 on WMVS-TV. The program had three objectives: (1) show the decision making and technical processes involved in the creation of a nightly newscast; (2) show a specific newscast being created and broadcast from several ('behind the scenes') viewpoints; and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of the subject newscast with the principals (news director, assistant news director, producer, anchorman) and an outside authority on broadcast journalism (Daniel Schorr). The commercial television station whose newscast was the subject of the program was WISN-TV, the ABC affiliate in Milwaukee and a broadcast property of The Hearst Corporation. The first hour of the program consisted entirely of material recorded on May 16 and May 17 by WMVS's remote production personnel. That material included coverage of news stories in the field by WISN personnel, editorial meetings in the WISN newsroom, interviews with WISN personnel involved in the news product of the station, editing of film and videotape to be used in the WISN newscast, as well as explanations of the technical aspects of newscast production. Then from 10 pm until 10:30 pm, while WISN was broadcasting its newscast, WMVS-TV simultaneously broadcast the control room, studio and newsroom side of the program . Following the newscast, Daniel Schorr, former CBS news correspondent discussed the newscast with some of the key personnel in its production, pointing out what he felt to be the strengths and weaknesses of the program. The WISN personnel were not in total agreement with Mr. Schorr's viewpoints."--1979 Peabody Awards entry form.
Broadcast Date
1979-05-17
Asset type
Episode
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
01:01:51.188
Credits
Director: Byrd, Phillip
Host: Lorenz, Larry
Interviewee: Maday, John
Interviewee: Cassidy, Steve
Interviewee: Robinson, Dave
Interviewee: Anderson, Ron
Interviewee: Raasch, Bunny
Interviewee: Volker, Al
Interviewee: Gibbons, Vince
Interviewee: Hooton, Mickey
Interviewee: Luck, Rod
Interviewee: Hauff, Tom
Interviewee: Heaton, Terry
Interviewee: Schorr, Daniel
Producer: Lorenz, Larry
Producer: Byrd, Phillip
Producing Organization: WMVS (Television station : Milwaukee, Wis.)
Writer: Lorenz, Larry
AAPB Contributor Holdings
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia
Identifier: cpb-aacip-574c977a9cc (Filename)
Format: U-matic
Duration: 2:00:47
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Citations
Chicago: “Milwaukee: Behind the Headlines; Anatomy of a Newscast; Part 1,” 1979-05-17, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 7, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-fn10p0xx64.
MLA: “Milwaukee: Behind the Headlines; Anatomy of a Newscast; Part 1.” 1979-05-17. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. June 7, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-fn10p0xx64>.
APA: Milwaukee: Behind the Headlines; Anatomy of a Newscast; Part 1. Boston, MA: The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-fn10p0xx64