On September 14, 2017, while attending the public party to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Channel 3 -- the Meredith Corporation’s CBS affiliate in the Hartford - New Haven television market-- vice president and general manager Klarn DePalma is interviewed by evening news anchor Denise D’Ascenzo and meteorologist and “Better Connecticut” co-host Scot Haney during "Eyewitness News at 6:00 p.m." He explains to them the meaning and history of the station’s current WFSB call letters and its original WTIC-TV call letters.
[WTIC-TV, the call letters Channel 3 used beginning with its launch on September 23, 1957, mirrored WTIC (AM) and WTIC-FM Radio which were all owned and operated at that time by the Travelers Broadcasting Service (reorganized as Broadcast-Plaza Inc. in 1964), the media subsidiary of the Travelers Insurance Company. When Post-Newsweek Stations bought Channel 3 on March 8, 1974, it changed those call letters to WFSB to honor “Fritz” Frederick Sessions Beebe, a 1938 Yale Law School alumnus and the late chairman of the board of the parent Washington Post Company, who --until shortly before he died from cancer at age 59 on May 2, 1973-- had been the principal negotiator to purchase the TV station from the Travelers.]
The live report, which is introduced by news anchors Mark Zinni and Erin Connally who are filling-in for Ms. D'Ascenzo and her "Eyewitness News at 6:00 p.m." co-anchor Dennis House, includes a clip from the local “Ranger Andy” children’s show which started its run when Channel 3 began broadcasting in 1957. (It continued until 1968, when “Ranger Andy” host Orville Andrews died suddenly from carotid artery disease, and was replaced by “The Ranger Station” which continued the tradition through its cancellation in 1977.) Ranger Andy plays banjo and sings the theme song, “The Song that Never Ends,” and invites his young studio audience into the ranger station.
The stand-up inside the Connecticut Science Center in downtown Hartford concludes with Mr. Haney and Ms. D’Ascenzo acknowledging Channel 3's loyal viewers, supportive advertisers, and assembled colleagues, particularly news director Dana Neves. (Ms. Neves will succeed Mr. DePalma as WFSB vice president and general manager in March 2018 when Meredith promotes him to be the executive vice president of MNI Targeted Media.)
[REQUEST: If you can identify any of the other people or correct any of the names provided in this description, please post a comment below noting the relevant time in the video.]
16 окт 2024
