(upbeat music) (static crackling) - Well, what if you're losing in the ratings?

If you're like the management of many local stations, you'll bring in an outside consultant.

- The news consultant- - [Cathy] Consultants became a powerful influence on local TV news.

- How to guess the viewing audience.

- The consulting firms are pretty much the last word when it comes to, "Why are people watching you or why aren't they watching you?"

- [Cathy] They used audience research that led to these fast paced, flashy news formats, action news or eyewitness news, the happy talk banter between anchors, the emphasis on good-looking anchors, dramatic graphics, the slick set designs.

They really changed the face of local TV news.

- [Nick] Consultants saved the industry.

- [Marcia] It ruined news, it ruined everything.

- [Ron H] Overall, I think they helped the business.

- [Cyndy] I think the consultants were wrong.

- [Ron M] I think consultants in their purest form are very useful.

- [Nick] Nobody likes consultants.

- [Cathy] 'CCO is now number one.

The Hubbards had tried to compete with Bob Ryan and John MacDougall.

- The old things didn't always work anymore.

We had to find out how things are changing, what are people thinking, and how can we improve ourselves?

- [Cathy] The Hubbards hired Frank Magid.

- People come to us as to increase the number of viewers.

- [Speaker] Magid was the number one news research company in the country, - And which one of all the anchor people do you personally like least?

- [Cathy] Magid did some research on the KSTP newscast and found it was staid.

They were old fashioned.

They were tired.

MacDougall and Ryan were bounced.

Tom Ryther, Barry ZeVan and Ted O'Brien became "The World Yoday", which was an attempt to answer the number one prominence of 'CCO.

That didn't work either.

- When I walked into KSTP in 1972, they've just fired their anchorman and decided we are going to work our way up to number one.

(static crackling) (indistinct) (switch clicks) (switch whirring) - [Announcer] Engine Tune-Up is recommended.

- [Announcer] Introducing the Ronco Glass Froster.

- Perfect before lunch or dinner.

(soft music) - The consultants started taking tapes and handing it to competition.

And there's a lot of stories like that.

You know, manipulation might be a strong word, but playing with a lot of different lives in a lot of different markets among themselves.

And Stanley Hubbard admitted, "Well, I used to send my Dave Moore tapes out, but he won't leave, so I don't send 'em out anymore.

He's not gonna go anywhere."

(soft music continues) Competition in San Francisco wanted him on the market, so they sent a tape up to Stanley Hubbard in Minneapolis, maybe he'll take it.

(upbeat music) - [Cathy] The Hubbards had seen a tape of Magers anchoring and hosting a hip entertainment and music magazine show in San Francisco, and they liked what they saw.

- That's pretty far out.

So let's take a moment to put our minds back together and then blow 'em again as we get into calibration.

- I literally got a phone call one day from a consultant named Frank Magid who said, "We know you're not happy in San Francisco and you're thinking about leaving.

Want you to consider Minneapolis.

So I ended up taking the job.

I became the anchor and the news director not long after I had arrived here.

- Okay, that was Ron Magers.

He's on his way.

- Oh, right.

- Ron's on his way!

- Right.

Ron's on his way.

- Is he married?

- I was really concerned about all the pre-promotion that was done before I got here because it raised expectations.

You kind of want to come in with expectations low and prove yourself.

Now, I'm coming in when they're setting a much higher bar, but they were clever and they got people to start watching, at least sample.

That was extremely important.

- Let's watch "Eyewitness News" tonight.

I hear it's a hot number.

It's Ron, Tom, and Barry, honey.

- "Eyewitness News" may not get you a date, but it'll get you all the news, sports, and weather you want at 6:00 and 10:00 on Channel 5.

- Ron was astonishing.

He was the smartest high school graduate I ever met.

He never graduated from college, and he was absolutely amazing.

- A shot definitely was fired in the vicinity of President Ford this afternoon in San Francisco.

- Before teleprompters, people can't appreciate this.

When they had script only, all on a piece of paper, Ron could look at the paper and look up and memorize six, seven lines of copy.

How do you do that?

- Ron's a great personality, you know, looks good, delivers well, but he's not Dave Moore.

- News of the day, the strike was put off because- - KSTP had been in trouble for some years before I took the job there.

It was kind of the classic legacy station versus the new kids battle.

I knew it was gonna be a tough battle.

- [Reporter] Fast moving and factual.

Bringing you complete- - [Speaker] WCCO decided giving viewers more news was the way to win.

So they extended the length of their 10 o'clock newscast.

- [Ron] They made it 40 minutes for a while, they made it 50 minutes for a while, they made it an hour for a while.

- Which was simply too much, and it hurt us badly.

(dramatic music) - We were an NBC station with Johnny Carson at 10:30, which a lot of folks wanted to watch.

We needed to sell the idea that we could give you everything you really needed to know at 10 o'clock.

WCCO for a while kind of wanted to dismiss us as, "Oh look, they're gonna be the headline news.

That's not our competition.

We're in depth, we're deep, we go longer."

- [Cathy] Stan Hubbard had boasted that with Magers, KS would be number one by April of 1974.

Took a little longer than that, but not by much.

(dramatic music) - [Reporter] Channel 5 captured top news ratings in 1975.

- We hired Magid and very quickly became number one again.

So it made me feel very good to become number one again.

- I always had respect for our competitors.

As much respect as I had for you, I really also want to beat you.

Both us and 'CCO, when we were fighting for number one and number two, we controlled almost 90% of the marketplace.

Not long after we became number one, I think for the first time, someone came up with a billboard that said, "Number 1 and gaining."

Yeah, that's the trick we gotta keep gaining.

You know, it isn't over.

We had our day.

Now go back there and do it again, and do it better.

- [Reporter] WCCO holds second place in the Nielsen ratings.

(switch clicks) - [Announcer] Five wheels- (upbeat music) - [Announcer] The biggest, brightest, fastest, strongest news team.

Channel 5's "Eyewitness News", down to earth, up to the minute.

(upbeat music) - I came from San Francisco where the person whom was my mentor was a Black woman.

And some of the reporters I most admired were Black reporters.

- I understand you have- - Who in San Francisco, I saw get us stories that I didn't have the ability to get, that got people to talk to them that I didn't have the ability to get those people to talk to me.

So I came from a market where that was extremely important.

I was aware early on that the Twin Cities looks different than places I had come from and been accustomed to.

- I knew if they already had a Black person on the air, you didn't want to go there and apply for a job.

And they would tell you that, "We got our one, bye."

- We had one person of color who was Native American and typically he would be sent on stories to cover Native American issues.

- [Tom] Tom Beaver, WCCO Television News.

- [Cathy] Sam Ford was one of WCCO's first Black reporters who then went on to CBS News.

- So I didn't go to 'CCO.

Toni Hughes was on Channel 11 doing weather.

- A big weekend coming up- - Big weekend.

- [Lou] So I didn't go to Channel 11.

- We had a weekend anchor of color at KSTP by the name of John Evans Grigsby.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] John Evans, accurate, concise, informative.

- John Evans Grigsby who was doing a noon show only.

- [Announcer] Authoritative news picture.

- So I went over to Channel 5 on University Avenue and I met a young man named Ron Magers who was news director.

And Ron said, "I'm gonna be frank with you.

I just want you to know that this station is not necessarily keen on hiring a person of color, but I'm letting them know, this is the 70s, times are changing and we have to get into the thought that people of color have to represented on television.

And I'm looking for, in this case, a Black person."

Told us their product was the best or better.

- [Ron] I was just aware we didn't have any Black reporters on the air, and I started to look for Black reporters.

There was never a conversation with ownership or management.

To me, it just seemed something that we needed to do.

(upbeat music) - We used to laugh about it because it was Carolyn Brookter, Neil Murray, myself.

We had Byron Barnett, Pat Simpson, all on the air at the same time and I like to tell people we never got the station sued, we never got thrown off the air, we never rioted, we never did anything crazy and we were just fine.

We were still doing great in the ratings.

- You want people that can do the job.

I don't care what color they are.

I don't want any communists.

- Later today, Todd- - Imagine me, a big afro.

I look like Linc from "The Mod Squad."

and I'm going down to city hall to cover the police beat.

Somebody said, "Lou, you're late for a news conference."

And I said, "Oh, who am I interviewing?"

And they said, "You're interviewing the Nazis!"

(Lou laughing) And sure enough, there were three or four Nazis in full uniform.

I'm the only person of color there covering this event.

I said, "What's your problem with Black people?

Just tell me what the problem is."

"What?

What are you talking about?

I don't have a problem.

Just think you ought to be in Africa.

You ought to just get outta here.

This is not your country."

And ended up the newspaper did a big story on that.

Has Lou Harvin caught in the middle of Nazi, blah.

So I on front page of "Star Tribune."

And I didn't like the fact that I was making myself the story, but I was just trying to figure out why this guy was so hateful and I never did get a straight answer.

- If it seems too good to be true, forget it.

Alright?

Tell him, Neil Murray told you that ""On Your Behalf."

- Children are the subject of "On Your Behalf" tonight.

Here now- - "On Your Behalf" was a very powerful entity and he would take on any business in the Twin Cities and he feared none.

- I would walk into the six o'clock news at the end of the news and say, "'On Your Behalf', tonight at 10:00, you need to see this."

That was the only promo we needed.

I'm Neil Murray and I'm back "On Your Behalf."

(upbeat music) - [Lou] Neil's whole thing was more than any reporter, we have to be right.

We cannot be sued, we cannot be wrong.

- After I've been here about a month, people knew to be careful 'cause I talk back.

And I'd say, "Okay, you sure you wanna say that?

'Cause I'm going upstairs to Stanley Hubbard."

There's more bad news.

- And when you're Black, yeah, you're gonna hear a lot of stuff.

And in the beginning at KSTP, I would hear things from the photographers about, "Oh God, I gotta interview with Lou.

Oh, I gotta bring extra lights.

Oh jeez.

He's so dark."

And I would hear that all the time.

- Minneapolis, that's the second most racist market in the country.

Boston is number one, and this was number two.

- I would hear people throw out the N word when they talk about a news story and they would just try to see it had a shock value to me.

So I would throw out the N word to them five times in a day more than they would.

And then that took the shock value away.

Cedar Riverside's new town in town project has had its problems since the way it started in 1968.

(indistinct) My father was a military chaplain and he wanted to go into broadcasting.

When I went into television, my father was so proud.

He came here one year and they were staying at the Leamington Hotel in downtown Minneapolis and he would go down the street and tell everybody, "My son's a newscaster, my son's a newscaster.

Do you know him?"

(laughing) So they were very proud that I was able to get into the business.

Others say it's the only way to keep this new town experiment alive.

Lou Harvin, Channel 5, "Eye"- (switch clicks) - [Reporter] There was one more weather event in the Twin Cities in the 70s.

It was the introduction of meteorology into the nightly newscast.

(upbeat music) - Looking at last night- - Under the heading of experimentation, a couple of very visionary general managers in weather-sensitive markets tried out putting actual degreed meteorologists on the air back in the mid 70s.

And viewers seemed to like it because they could actually explain what was going on and why.

- [Reporter] Our own color radar shows you how intense the storms are.

- Why is the weather doing what it's doing and why should I care?

It caught on, it caught on quickly.

- [Reporter] With a time-lapse feature that enables you to see if they're moving in your direction.

- Who's a meteorologist and who's not, who's just a weather guy or a weather girl?

- And it was consultant-driven where they went to a meteorologist.

Dr. Walt Lyons being the first bonafide meteorologist that was in the Twin Cities, if not the country.

- Yeah, it has been a strange February.

80s in Texas, 60s in Nebraska, 40s in North Dakota.

The mildness continues out West.

- When we first got acquainted with Walt Lyons, Stanley Hubbard came to me and said, "Hey, we're thinking about hiring a guy from academia.

He's a college professor, but he's got a little bit of TV experience."

And I looked at some tape of Walt and I thought this could be great.

- What's the strongest winds in a tornado?

Probably only 250 miles an hour.

- [Ron] He really is a scientist.

He really is a meteorologist.

- We shall get to that from the doctor in just a moment.

- The fact that he was a doctor of meteorology, not just a meteorologist but a doctor.

That's why he called him Dr. Walt.

- Going out like a lamb.

It's going out more- - There are two ends of the spectrum.

Dr. Walt and Barry Zevan, the weatherman.

- Walt Lyons and then Dennis Feltgen brought in one of the largest weather staffs on a local news level in the country.

It was pretty impressive really.

And the Hubbards spent a ton of money at the time, about a million dollars reportedly on a new weather radar system that even the National Weather Service didn't have.

So KSTP meteorologists would often call weather service forecasters on a hotline to let 'em know what the KSTB radar was showing.

- Cloudy here in the northwestern corner of- - We were concerned.

"What can we do to better compete with this new team?"

Mike Fairborne came on as a more scientific weather person than Bud had been.

- Our Laserfax picture shows you why.

- [Cathy] The guys like Kraehling who hung on.

He was such a wonderful gentleman, people loved him.

Barry left.

- Some little things in there from- - [Cathy] Roy Finden was fired.

Yeah, it made it hard for those folks.

- Degrees on the Celsius scale.

- My mother did the job for 10 years.

She was part of the news group.

When they did go out to find a meteorologist, my mother was terminated.

There were no opportunities offered and she didn't even receive severance.

I think my mom really liked being at WTCN, but my mom is also very resilient and so she had other skills and went forward with her life and did pretty well in the end.

There's really an irony to it because on one hand the television station was ahead of its time.

It decided to include diverse representation, and then on the other hand how it was handled was reflective of our struggle today.

- You have a very nice evening (switch clicks) - Mouthwatering, but that's not the best part, I promise.

- Presidential visit to the US servicemen who were injured in the attempt to rescue the American hostages- - It was a contest between KSTP and ourselves.

They had always been good competitors.

- [Reporter] Air Force One flew the president to Texas- - In Portland, Oregon I had worked on a newscast that did a 50 share.

In San Francisco I had worked on a newscast that did a 50 share.

In those days, that was the gold standard.

That's what you were going for.

- There's more to "Eyewitness News."

- [Cathy] KSTP was so successful with Ron Magers.

Not only did they regain number one status again, but they absolutely dominated WCCO, repeatedly getting more than half of the entire local TV audience.

(upbeat music) - Ron was largely responsible for KS' success in those days.

- In the glory days, at one point when Ron Magers was our anchor, we had higher ratings than the other three stations combined.

We had a 52 share.

- We weren't really prepared to compete with that.

- I'm still kind of stunned right now talking about it.

(laughing) - They were miles above us.

- I think it sure made the Hubbard Family very happy to this day.

(laughing) - You know, the ratings don't lie.

If your station is continually lagging behind, something has to change.

- You had to get your audience back, and they relied on consultants to bring in a Ron Magers clone, Doug Moore.

(upbeat music) - Saint Paul Fireman tonight, still don't know exactly- - [Tom] Who looked like Ron Magers and might have sounded like Ron Magers, but he wasn't Ron Magers.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Dave Moore.

Doug Moore.

- [Tom] And even shared Dave Moore's name, "Moore & Moore."

And of course a lot of people assumed Dave Moore's son now was the new anchor on TV.

So they had to often say, "No, we're not related."

(upbeat music) (people laughing) - And for (indistinct) zoo.

- I enjoyed very much.

- I've got something for you.

- Well, thank you very much.

- And I watch you too.

- The Minnesota Kicks- - Hall Scott got moved to earlier time slots, Ralph Jon Fritz became the main sportscaster.

So obviously the consultants told them they wanted young and they want something different, and they made it happen.

- Well, tonight at 10:00, Don Shelby- - No one remembers Doug Moore and I think he's a important part of the history because it was five years.

Not two years, not six months, on the air five years.

(soft music) - In 1978, Dave was working six nights a week at 10 o'clock, which we thought for his sake and ours was too much.

So at that time we hired weekend anchors and Dave went back to his Monday through Friday.

- Ron Handberg knew that he wanted an anchor team and he got 150 tapes and he set up two televisions in front of him and he would just select one and select another and put the two together and he would watch the thing and go, "Nah."

(laughing) Take them out, put two more in.

And he went through all of the tapes watching pairs.

- [Pat] And he came upon me and he came upon Don.

- "Yep, yep, that's my anchor team."

- And I thought, well, it's a free trip to go to Minneapolis.

I'll go and take this free trip, never dreaming I would actually take the job here.

Don and I met at the airport and we had a great time and we had fun doing the audition together, and all at once it seemed like might be a good idea to take this job.

- [Announcer] They're working reporters.

- [Don] We were just buddies, just wonderful buddies.

And we told each other our deepest and darkest secrets.

We are still today the very, very best of friends.

- And we really enjoyed each other, we really respected each other, we really learned from each other.

And I just had an amazing time working with Don.

So Ron Handberg was right about that pairing.

- The other half of the weekend anchor team.

But topping the news tonight, Pope John Paul II return to his native- - At that time there was no place I aspired to more than to go to WCCO TV.

There were bigger markets of course, and there were different stations, but this was the place where really good TV news was being practiced.

It was a big jump from Duluth, which was the other reason that I was so excited to be there.

(upbeat music) I remember going down for the interview, driving down to the Twin Cities, feeling like Mary Tyler Moore, you know, driving the freeway, getting lost, (Cyndy laughing) then walking into this building and I'm so excited.

But the further I get into the bowels of the building and the newsroom, the less glamorous I realized this business was gonna be.

- How close are we on 10?

- Dark, (laughing) smokey, crowded, and very, very exciting for a kid like me at the time, it was great.

- We'll go first to a Barry Peterson and Cyndy Brucato who are near the State Capitol.

- Cyndy was a very hardworking, very smart, very ambitious young woman, and she wanted my job, and she made it very clear she wanted my job.

- We weren't rivals, we were just both jockeying for the same position to anchor the five o'clock news.

And it was obvious that only one of us was gonna end up there.

- Cyndy Brucato was at Channel 4 and then she went to Chicago and then went to Channel 5.

So she was lured by Hubbard to be a main star at Channel 5, main anchor with Ron Magers, and Pat Miles was weekend anchor who then got a lot more screen time as a result of it.

- A new town hall.

- The end of a decade is a time- I started out as a weekend anchor and they liked what they saw, and here's where the consultants come in 'cause I'm sure they had a role in this.

Somebody said, "You know, now it's time to put a woman on the anchor desk in prime time, so to speak, and to pair Ron with a woman anchor."

I wasn't gonna turn it down.

- Day 177 of the crisis and Tehran Radio reported that many of the hostages have been moved from the embassy to other places.

- When Cyndy first came, it would not have been my choice.

I would've preferred to remain a single anchor.

But when Cyndy came, I had to learn to make that work.

- It was the way the world was going.

I mean, you were gonna see women on the news and I wasn't exactly incompetent, you know?

So I mean, I wasn't put there just for decoration.

- My job, the reason I'm sitting here, the reason they're paying me the money is I'm supposed to be able to make everybody else look good.

- Well, you're a nice guy, I'll give it to you.

(Ron laughing) - Cyndy was very smart.

Cyndy was a very good co-anchor.

She was really easy for me to accept - Workers and nurses.

I was sitting next to a pro.

I wasn't sitting next to somebody who was worried that someone was gonna steal his thunder.

I wasn't sitting next to somebody who didn't wanna have the desk shared by a woman.

I wasn't sitting next to somebody who was worried about his own ego.

I was sitting next to a professional.

That is what I remember, one of the best professionals I've ever worked with ever.

- We'll be back at 10.

- Good evening.

- There was not a lot of women on TV.

Now we had Susan Spencer here briefly.

So seeing women in a longstanding role and now we have two of our top stations in town, 4 and 5, with their female star on nightly news.

That was new for us.

- There's a lot more to "Eyewitness News" than meets the eye.

- Some of us you see on the air each day, but there are many eyewitness news people you don't always see.

- Reporters- - [Brian] The model for stations everywhere was this still-virile CEO like type character and the woman would be his younger second wife.

- People on the news, Nancy.

(Brian laughing) Let's just call it what it is.

- And finally, Stan, last week- - The wife, the TV wife, except I didn't think of that.

I was too young to be married.

(laughing) I didn't think I wanted to be a TV wife.

- We are not Hollywood, we're Minnesota.

So we don't have Betty Davis and Joan Crawford, we have Cyndy Brucato and Pat Miles.

- That rivalry then became even more pronounced because now she wasn't one of my fellow competitors in the same newsroom.

She was now at a different station.

So they made a big deal out of it.

(tense music) - Just had these two women, we were the same age, we had the same background, only, oh, get this, one's blonde and one's a brunette.

Oh, that's perfect.

(thunder rumbling) - We both wanted to do well.

I wanted to be number one, she wanted to be number one.

We both wanted to be doing the best job.

So there was that competition.

You know, Cyndy and I are actually good friends, so we made it through that.

(switch clicks) - Kissinger is off the hook.

- Come to Bergstrom's in Buffalo.

- Reporters, film photographers, action cam photographers, photo lab technicians, dispatchers.

- [Cathy] So much was happening in television broadcasting during this time, especially the changes in technology.

- The Hubbard family was very cooperative, always with technology.

Anything we wanted to do that had a chance to improve our look, to improve the way we did business, they would do.

(helicopter whirring) - I think other than the networks, KSTP was the first station that had video cams.

- [Tom] Everyone had a action cam or a mobile cam or a mini cam.

- The first video camera that we had was a Bosch Fernseh built in Germany and it weighed about 75 pounds.

Big camera out here on a brace, a big backpack.

The battery lasted about 20 minutes, so you had to white balance a camera and then shoot everything you could before the battery died.

- [Cathy] Videotape made editing cheaper and faster.

And even though there was no more film processing, videotape had its own issues.

- I was at the Minnesota Press Club back in the day when that was at the old North Star.

There was a guy from Channel 9, so they bought a videotape deck.

The cover has come off his tape deck and the tape is unspooling on the ground.

And he just reaches down and sort of picks up this pile of tape and walks out.

And I felt so bad for him.

(upbeat music) - [Ron] In like 1978, the massive change happened, and everybody had live trucks.

- All the stations kind of at the same time adopted microwave trucks, the trucks with the masts and the golden rods and the dishes and the receive sites.

- I guess.

Let's go to Mike Walcher live at the Civic Center for an update on that.

Mike.

- Steve and Skip- - The fact that you could go live anywhere within 30 miles of your station really or in our case here in the Twin Cities, the IDS had receivers and then the First National Bank building in St. Paul.

That was huge.

Oh my gosh.

And think about the immediacy of that.

I mean, as a journalist, wow, that's like the holy grail, right?

I mean, I'm on the scene.

- By the fire scene with the latest information on the spread of the fire.

Dave.

- This morning- - Once we got the ability to go live from the field, suddenly we had to look at, well, which of our reporters can do that?

We really don't want Reporter C, we need Reporter Y who does that way better.

- That first live shot, that was a killer.

I remember being so nervous.

I remember my heart was just pounding.

Now I just remember physically shaking, you know?

(laughing) (upbeat music) - There was probably moments that you would go live and you really shouldn't have gone live because just 'cause you could go live, right?

- It was our first live camera.

There was a plane circling the airport and they were dumping fuel and they were gonna have to make an emergency landing.

And now people are on the radio going, "What are we gonna do?

Are we gonna go live?"

And I kept saying, "No, I'm not gonna stand here with a live picture showing a plane coming down that could crash and kill all those people.

If that happens, we'll have the video and if nothing happens, we're going away.

We don't have to just because we can, we still have to be responsible about how we use this."

(switch clicking) - [Announcer] Give her a special gift of - Gas mileage European imports.

♪ New RC 100 ♪ - I have survived all these years in this high transiency business because my employers have refused to measure my worth by the fallacious standards of the so-called audience rating system.

In my view, one of social history's classic shams.

- Dave Moore told me the happiest thing in his life was that no one ever brought up ratings to him.

- Any idea that this would happen?

- During the period of time that Ron Handberg was a station manager and news director, we did not feel the pressure of ratings.

But then ratings became very, very important.

- You know, local stations make a lot of money from their news programs.

- [Reporter] The single most profitable program?

That's right.

The news.

- [Cathy] Originally local news was a public service.

And while journalism was and still is very important, local news became a big business.

- How?

There's a one word answer for that.

Ratings.

At some stations, local news made up as much as 60% of all their profits.

- If a newscast has more viewers than other newscasts, the station may be able to charge nearly twice as much for a minute of advertising as it could in a program rated number two.

- Rise of just one rating point can mean more than a million dollars in extra revenue.

- [Reporter] The stakes are high, and competition between the stations is fierce.

- It was a damn good business in those early years.

I mean, that was really just backing the truck up to the bank.

You had enormous revenue.

- The sales manager said to me, "We're charging almost Chicago money for our newscasts."

- We were reminded of ratings all the time.

It was very, very competitive.

It was cutthroat, seriously, in a lot of ways.

It was and a little bit scary.

I wasn't equipped to probably handle it as well as some people.

- Sweeps was always crazy.

- I think that's better right now than a lot of programs I see.

- [Ron] Three times a year, it was February, May and November, I think, this is when Nielsen really got serious tracking the data for setting ad rates for the next period.

It's not overstating it to say that they were in a frenzy and they would package all these big investigative things.

(upbeat music) - In May, you would try to put your very best stuff out there, and a lot of promotion, a lot of stuff was running outside the newscast.

- It's a business.

For them, it's about money.

For journalists, it's about integrity.

And they rub against each other sometimes.

There is friction there.

- You make this crap worth my time.

Believe me, I like you.

Watch our news so I can stop doing this stuff all afternoon.

Just watch.

We're honest, we're sincere, and we love you.

(lips smacking) (crew laughing) - There's the old cliche, if it bleeds, it leads.

- They like to cover fires and ambulances fire.

(indistinct) (fire whooshing) They wanted to see danger.

They wanted to see the skies lighting up one way or the other.

(dramatic music) - The promotions all had to do with sex.

It had to do with illicit sex.

It had to do with somebody being exposed doing some kind of sexual thing because that got people's attention.

- I loved it because some of this stuff was just so shamelessly over the top.

Some of it was terrific.

There were great investigative pieces in there, but you know, you can't win 'em all, can you?

You don't hit a home run every time.

(laughing) (tense music) - I went down to do the news break, that little tease at 9:30 for the 10 o'clock news, coming up, and I walk in and sit down in the studio and I looked over at the monitor and I said, "What the hell is this?"

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Hugh Hefner invites you to Playboy's Roller Disco and Pajama Party, - Which was on from nine to 10 o'clock.

That was our lead in.

My mind snapped.

I went somewhere there's an executive who just came up with all these words and it got all the other executives excited.

And they're the ones who never get blamed.

They're the ones who never get identified with what's going on.

They keep their jobs when they put crap on the air.

But I'm now sitting there and I'm gonna have to come up and do a news promo in the middle of the Playboy Roller Disco Pajama Party.

I wanna ensure you that this is a local news cutting.

We have nothing whatsoever to do at the Playboy Roller Disco Pajama Party.

Those of you who've turned off your television sets in disgust, wait about another half hour, we'll be back with the news.

- You know why people are in business.

It's not to lose money and it's not to take the moral high ground because that doesn't make them any money unless it makes you number one.

(dramatic music) - The consulting firms are pretty much the last word when it comes to either why are people watching you or why aren't they watching you?

- The classic in this market was Frank Magid's relationship with Stanley Hubbard.

- He was a genius, just a wonderful person.

- Yes, he's a client, but more than that, he's my best friend.

He responds very well to people who have information and ideas because that's the world that he lives in.

- [Ron] Mr. Hubbard was resolutely loyal to the Magids.

They make good decision, they've given me good advice over the years.

Even while people like me, jackal miscreants are pillorying them.

- Some people always thought Frank Magid was the culprit.

And Magid would always say, we don't tell stations what to do, we just tell them what people want.

- [Speaker] We design research, analyze that research, are concerned with what the population, what the marketplace, the audience responds to.

- Their only job is to come in there and try to make a change.

They're not getting paid to come in and say, "Everything's just fine, let's go home."

- If everybody did everything alike, there wasn't any point in tuning in.

There wasn't any truth left.

There was no heart left.

And certainly there was no brain left.

- Some on air talent were just suspicious of the consultants that they might just be writing reports that the management would like to hear.

- They're full of crap, they're know-nothing dough-heads.

And it's very easy to criticize when you're not involved.

- I think they were paid a lot of money to tell us how to look and how to act.

- Do you want me more intent, more enthused?

- Get 'em a little harder.

The words that you want.

- [Marcia] They were doing research on you.

- Let's grab your script and we'll start- - [Marcia] Finding out in focus groups whether you were worthy of sticking around or be part of the next round of the revolving door.

- We had a consultant come in one time and they said, "We can't figure out how you're getting these ratings with so many people disliking you.

(solemn music) And I thought, "Well, do you want me to go?"

(Don laughing) And the first two years they thought really hard about letting me go.

- There were some kind of scary times about that to be honest with you, where I thought my job was at stake, and I think it was.

- Having to go and listen to these focus groups talk about how you were doing.

And they would be behind a glass panel and you would hear them say, "Well, she's getting a little frumpy."

And you know, I would just go home devastated after these things.

- Well, it's too bad because people on the air don't generally like to hear that what they're doing should be changed.

- Worry about the window dressing- - So when those changes are made, or at least suggested by the consulting firms, that is bound to create animosity in the newsroom.

- I was told at one point that I wasn't being deferential enough.

I remember that was a phrase that was being used.

(chuckles) Can you imagine that flying today?

- Consultants look for chemistry.

Chemistry.

The consultant came in and said the following: "Our research says that you are the highest rated anchor team for chemistry in the nation.

What is the trick you're using?"

- We all get along.

I mean, you can't fake that.

You can't fake it.

And there's nothing they can say to create chemistry among the people who are on the air.

- "Yeah, we just like each other."

And he closes up his briefcase and walks out of the room.

(laughing) One of my favorite days in television.

- There's a lot of good journalism on this desk- - If you are not doing well in ratings, you're gonna start to look at all manner of different things.

And that would include how your set looks.

- [Narrator] 35 feet long and bristling with concealed communication apparatus.

Cost $20,000?

- It's funny, WCCO went through two new sets that year.

- [Narrator] But still it wasn't quite right.

So the current set.

This one cost only about $10,000.

- Changing a set was always like a major deal.

- It was kind of fun to cover that, to tell you the truth.

It just gave you something new to maybe poke a little fun at.

They had these big round wooden desks at WTCN.

I called it Fort Ticonderoga.

There was a Channel 4 news set.

Nick Coleman at the "Star Tribune" called them- - Hot tubs.

These things not only look like hot tubs, they are hot tubs.

- They didn't last very long.

- That's right.

Mr. Handberg, would you punch that jacuzzi button for a moment please?

(water bubbling) - [Reporter] The body of Hubert Humphrey was returned to- (switch clicks) - a Minneapolis domed stadium has been given the go-ahead.

(switch clicks) (upbeat music) - WCCO was always a CBS station, but KSTP was not always ABC, and WTCN was not always NBC.

- Okay.

Standby.

- WCCO was CBS.

KSTOP was NBC.

ABC was Channel 9.

And Channel 11, which at that time was an independent.

- [Cathy] S.E.

Hubbard had such a good relationship with David Sarnoff, the legendary leader of RCA, which created NBC, right?

- America's first all electronic television systems.

- [Cathy] The Hubbards prize loyalty.

And they were very loyal to Sarnoff and RCA and NBC.

- [Stan] But NBC became very arrogant, did not listen, and they wanted to offer money.

ABC was up and coming.

They made you feel you were part of what they were doing.

And they convinced us that they had a better approach.

So we switched from NBC to ABC.

- This is the last NBC report to be seen here on Channel 5.

Tomorrow morning, beginning with "Good Morning America", ABC Network joins us.

- I was scared to death when I found out we were gonna lose NBC and go over to ABC.

It was like blowing the whole thing up if you look at it, I mean we risked everything.

We're going from NBC with Johnny Carson helping us at 10:30 to ABC, which really had nothing at 10:30 at that time.

"Nightline" didn't come until a year later.

- Thanks to Ted Koppel, ABC shot ahead.

(upbeat music) - Recording from- - [Marcia] His show "Nightline" dragged ABC from the basement.

- In the sense that it is permanent and will continue- - And the news department sailed right through it.

We stayed number one.

- [Reporter] KSTP had defected from NBC to ABC.

That left KMSP, which was ABC, without any network.

In the shuffle, WTCN, which was independent, hoped to grab NBC.

So did KMSP.

WTCN won, which left KMSP the new independent.

- I believe that Channel 5's affiliation with NBC is going to Channel 11.

No, Channel 9' affiliation with CBK.

Is that it?

Did I get it right?

(switch clicks) - I don't understand it, but I love it.

- Do it.

(switch clicks) - Now, big cleansing breath.

Let in the good air.

- Most people think that alcohol is a relaxant.

It's actually a depressant.

- I enjoy getting a little depressed now and then.

(audience laughing) - Lou Grant, a nose for news and a taste for booze.

The idea of journalists feeling the pressure and resorting to substance abuse, it's a cliche for a reason.

- We see the worst in humanity.

People do turn to some kind of mind-altering substance to just get through that.

(soft music) (people chattering) The Minnesota Press Club had a bar where people would leave their work and not go home.

They would go and slam a lot of drinks and get home late.

- Hal Scott never drank when he was on the job, but afterwards, oh boy.

- Well, the Twins lost a close one last night.

- We'd do the news on Saturday night.

He and Hal Scott would go out to these tippling houses.

And I would come in on Sunday and Don would be asleep on the desk in the same suit that he had worn Saturday night.

It was bad.

It was bad.

- You're getting into some areas that I did not know I was going to go to.

11% across the board pay hike is in store for the Stokely-Van Camp workers who have been strike.

I made the error of being drunk on the air in 1980 and a million people watched my crisis.

And Ron Handberg, who loves me, was livid.

'Cause usually you would get fired for doing that.

But the law had recently changed where alcoholism and chemical dependency was considered a disability.

And you couldn't fire someone.

You had to offer them treatment.

And I don't think he was very pleased with that.

He said, "Will you therefore go to treatment on our dime and get sober?"

And I said, "Can I have a couple of days to think about it?"

(laughing) I could get another job, but I couldn't get another companion that would take the pain out of my life like alcohol had done.

- I was hurting because I was taking all these pills.

Vicodin, Percodan, Percocet, oxycodone.

I got hooked on 'em.

Public safety.

You're stupid, Neil.

You're gonna kill yourself if you keep doing it.

(solemn music) - I'm debating how I can say this because it's too personal to make sense.

Alcoholism and chemical dependency and drug addiction, it was in me and it was gonna come out.

I was the subject of an intervention.

They said, "We think you have a problem."

I got to treatment and the first night I was there, I realized I like all these people in here better than the people on the outside.

And the only thing that we might have in common is they're all alcoholics and drug addicts.

What the heck am I?

So I stayed.

And that was in July of 1979.

And thankfully I'm still in recovery.

- I had to struggle a little bit to get clean.

So I stayed in the house for five weeks and cold turkeyed off of all these pills.

- I did go to treatment.

So I've got 43 years of sobriety now, so.

- This is the good as you're gonna get.

You grow as you go till you can't grow no more.

- I have great respect for anybody who survived this business.

(laughing) And I truly mean that.

(switch clicks) - But I will faithfully execute the- - The Ayatollah no longer- (switch clicks) - [Cathy] For seven years, Twin Cities viewers loved Ron Magers.

KSTP had a good news product, but Magers, who was one of the best anchors in the country, was the reason why so many people watched.

So it was a shock when he left.

(suspenseful music) - We found Ron Magers, made him a star, and he went to Chicago and double-crossed us as far as I'm concerned.

- SS Hubbard and I were both unhappy with each other.

- He was not happy with the consultant interference in the newsroom.

And he wasn't happy with the direction that the newsroom was going in general.

You couldn't put the genie back in the bottle.

It just wasn't gonna work.

- Ron became the show.

He was the face of the station.

This is where the revenue is coming from.

- Stanley felt like he made a mistake with Ron Magers, treating him like the most important part of the whole operation.

And he told me that one time.

- Marcia Fluer tries to sneak through the studio during the bleeps.

It didn't work.

Details at 10.

- He didn't wanna get caught in that again.

So if the anchor talent was a little less stellar, a little less engaging, he could live with that.

- Tonight, some victims- - I can't even remember all the names.

So many different anchors.

And it was a revolving door.

(soft music) - [Tom] Stan Turner, Bob Vernon, Stan Turner again, Randall Carlisle, Mark Suppelsa.

- When these people would come in and they would audition with you, and so you'd sit there, kind of try to get this rapport going with these guys.

It is a totally artificial situation.

- They had good anchors.

Stan Turner.

He was a great anchor.

- [Tom] Stan Turner, I think that he was a loyal employee to the Hubbard Organization.

- Schools today.

- Was it ever.

- 1968 to 2002.

A utility player, a writer, a reporter a news director, and a main anchor.

Anchored the news I think three separate times as the main anchor.

I personally think that he did not get the credit he deserved.

- They didn't gel as an ensemble cast.

- Not only do you know it when you have it, but you also know it when you don't have it.

- The desire to have a Ron/Cyndy team was never gonna be fulfilled.

The newsroom wanted their leader back.

Ron was a newsroom leader, and after he left, I think Stanley kept looking for somebody like that again and again and never found him.

- This would be the challenge of a lifetime.

- I would have panic attacks.

- We had a long ways to go.

We were number four.

- If this thing blows up, you are all down the tubes.

- It is better to be lucky than good.

- All I want is a normal life.

- That hurt me so much from inside out.

- Our backs were against the wall.

We're gonna show 'em.

- My goodness.

No one saw them coming.

And somebody should have seen them coming.

(dramatic music)