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Published on Friday, 24 August 2012 12:00
On August 3, 1987, WFLD-TV launched its first full newscast since being owned by FOX Television, with the "Fox 32 News at 7." Last night, WFLD-TV saluted that first broadcast on its 25th anniversary. (Well, 20 days after the anniversary, but close enough...)
In a video salute, the station looked back at its news departments humble beginnings. News anchor Robin Robinson, the last remaining on-air staffer from WFLD-TV's original news team, reminisced about the start-up news operation. In the video, Robinson describes the news staff's direction and attitude at the time as "it was just really a get it done with what we have... be lean and mean, be creative, be flexible, don't worry about the old rules, 'cause it was a new day."
Unfortunately, the too-brief video only talks with two people from the 1987 team: Robin Robinson and photographer Vic Mellor, both of which have been part of the news team during this entire 25 year period. None of the other original staffers who have since exited the station, including news anchor Kris Long, sports anchor Bruce Wolf, meteorologist Dan Dobrowolski, or News Director Greg Caputo, were interviewed.
Robin Robinson's current co-anchor Bob Sirott congratulated her on being the station's news anchor for 25 years, a feat not likely to be duplicated any time soon, prompting Robinson to say "I wish they would stop saying that, because someone is going to notice and say 'Is she still there? We gotta do somethin' about that.'" The ironic twist in that is that Robinson was almost not part of the 25th anniversary celebration this month, after WFLD-TV management first strongly considered
not renewing her contract last month. With only two weeks left to go before her final farewell from the station, management had a change of heart and
gave Robinson an extension of a shorter than usual term of only one-year. This allowed the veteran news anchor to be part of the special milestone she helped create over 25 years ago.
Here is the video salute from the end of last night's 9:00pm newscast:
