PM Magazine

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See also: Evening Magazine
PM Magazine
Format newsmagazine
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
Production
Running time 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel syndication
Original run 1970s – 1990

The PM/Evening Magazine format was created as a locally-produced light news, entertainment, and informational show, and was syndicated to local stations throughout the United States. In most markets, Evening/PM Magazine aired from the late 1970s into the late 1980s.

Contents

[edit] Origins

In the summer of 1976, KPIX in San Francisco, a CBS affiliate then owned by Westinghouse (Group W) Broadcasting, premiered a local weeknight television magazine series titled Evening: The MTWTF Show. The show was designed to add localism as suggested by the newly-enacted "Prime Time Access Rule." At its inception, the rule was created by the Federal Communications Commission to give back the half-hour preceding primetime (7:30 to 8 p.m. in the Eastern and Pacific time zones; 6:30 to 7 p.m. in the Central and Mountain time zones) to local network-affiliated stations in the top fifty television markets, prohibiting them from accepting network-originated programming (and later on, syndicated reruns of network programs) in that time slot.

[edit] KPIX's Evening Magazine

KPIX's Evening Magazine was first hosted by San Francisco radio personality Jan Yanehiro and journalist Steve Fox. It was the first of a new breed of television show shot totally on videotape, rather than 16mm film, taking advantage of new minicam technology. The format called for the local hosts to have on-location wraparounds (in and around their local communities) and introduce short feature stories about ordinary and interesting people doing extraordinary and quite newsworthy things.

[edit] Expansion

At the time, Westinghouse owned four other stations around the country, and with the success of Evening Magazine in the San Francisco market, it was expanded to their other properties. Soon, Group W stations in Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh were all doing their own local versions of the Evening format. The show's format allowed the stations to share their feature stories among each other. For example, a feature that aired in San Francisco could also be shown in Baltimore, and vice versa. The success of the format on the Group W stations gave the company management a bigger idea. Group W decided to expand and syndicate the format to other markets where they didn't own stations. The first market that was interested in producing their own Evening, KING-TV in Seattle, already had a program on the air called Evening Magazine, which airs on that station to this day. However, Group W came up with another title that could be cleared in other markets: PM Magazine.

At the end of 1970s, with Evening and PM now all over the country, Group W Productions created a large production office in San Francisco. Its job was to watch all of the stories being produced by the new local PM and Evening Magazine stations and create a weekly "national reel" for stations to run in local markets. Depending on local station budgets they could produce as much or as little feature material as they wanted, but still have a local show starring local talent. The cooperative production model created by Evening/PM remains unique to this day.

[edit] Breeding ground for television on-air and production talent

Evening/PM was also a breeding ground for television on-air and production talent. Matt Lauer, Tom Bergeron, and Leeza Gibbons were among those who got their big breaks on the PM/Evening formats. In Pittsburgh's KDKA broadcast of Evening Magazine, a young Dennis Miller provided a closing comedic piece, time permitting (sort of like Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes), prior to being tapped for employment with Saturday Night Live. In its more than a decade run, the show's local market producers traveled all over the country and the world, producing fun and memorable television.

[edit] Departments

Two long features were augmented each day by a block of "departments", featuring special tips for daily living -- generally, two or three departments were featured in each program, each with a different host. In the early 1980s, "Captain Carrot" presented the "Self" department, on healthier living; Judi Sheppard Missett presented "Jazzercise" in the "Exercise" department; Dr. James Wasco presented medical issues in the "Health" department; Chef Tell gave new food ideas in the "Cooking" department; the "animal" department featured Joan Embery and animals from the San Diego Zoo; and in the "Travel" department, the host (unknown at present) visits various parts of the globe.

[edit] 1990s-2000s

By 1990, when Group W decided to cancel the format, Evening/PM had been edged out in many of its local time slots in favor of tabloid TV news/investigation programs, many with little or no local content. Shows such as A Current Affair, Hard Copy, and Inside Edition, along with the lighter-edged Entertainment Tonight filled up the prime time access available spots and ended Evening/PM's run, although KPIX would resurrect its own version of Evening Magazine once again, this time in the mid-1990s. During this run, one of the hosts was Mike Rowe, who has sinced moved on to host several cable-TV series, including Worst Case Scenarios and Dirty Jobs, as well as narrating American Chopper and Deadliest Catch. KPIX continued to air its version of Evening Magazine weeknights before CBS's prime time programs up until 2005, when the show's name was changed to Eye on the Bay, and the program's hosts also changed after a short transition.

[edit] Stations that carried Evening/PM Magazine

(a partial listing)
Note: Information on local hosts of this program may be found within the individual station's articles.

This film, television, or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links