WDIV celebrates 75th anniversary with TV special
Detroit’s oldest television station continues its 75th-anniversary celebration with a new two-hour documentary that hones in on a special era in its history.
Debuting Friday, “Going 4 It. The Inside Story of the Rise of WDIV” shares the station’s decades-long history but focuses on the years between 1978 and 1985, an era when Local 4 regained its footing and became one of the most trusted stations in Detroit.
“If you think about great documentaries, they focus on a narrow topic or a narrow window of time and tell that story deeply,” said Bob Ellis, the station’s vice president and general manager. “That was an important time in our station’s history — new ownership took over that we still enjoy today — a lot of key things occurred that really propelled the station and our role in the community forward. That’s why we focused on that window of time.”
The documentary doesn’t ignore what caused its decline or the station’s broader history, from its beginnings in the early days of television to the present. The history frames a deeper dive into that important nine-year span, an era most will remember as among the heydays of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers, of course, won the World Series in 1984, and WDIV played a major role in their coverage — the only Detroit station broadcasting their games at the time.
“After the Mark Fidrych era in the late 1970s, the rise of the Tigers in the early 80s provided a sense of hope for the city after a downward trend,” Ellis said. “TV was different then. The only place you could see the Tigers on TV was WDIV. As the Tigers got better and improved, it mirrored our ascension as well.”
The documentary will be a walk down memory lane for many viewers, with familiar personalities and news milestones. The documentary shares old film and video clips of shows, and newscasts from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and interviews with former anchors Mort Crim, Carmen Harlan and others.
Viewers will also learn from those who were at WDIV at the time about how they subsequently lifted the station from last to first place in the Detroit television market. Four key elements to that resurrection are shared. They are:
— The “Go 4 It” campaign in 1980 that delivered a message of hope, courage and challenge that caught the spirit of the city.
— NBC, long mired in last place, started producing iconic shows like “Cheers,” “Hill Street Blues” and “Miami Vice,” creating large audiences that stayed tuned to watch WDIV’s news.
— The Detroit Tigers, who were shown exclusively on WDIV, and evolved into a championship team. “When the Tigers won the World Series, it was on WDIV. If you lived here and lived through that, the Tigers and WDIV were synonymous,” Ellis said. “‘Bless You Boys’ was the rallying cry of the city. It was coined by (sportscaster) Al Ackerman who worked at the station.”
— Carmen Harlan, a native Detroiter, joined Mort Crim as the station’s co-anchors and was the catalyst that helped the station earn viewers trust.
“Mort and Carmen arguably became the most popular and famous anchor team in Detroit television,” Ellis said. “Mort’s beginning was rocky and he’s candid (in the documentary) about how difficult it was at the beginning … he tendered his resignation at one point but the station did not accept it.”
As a team, Crim, who was not from Detroit, and Harlan, clicked and went on to great success.
Telling the station’s full 75-year history would have been difficult in a two-hour program, said Ellis, who returned to Local 4 a year ago after several years at a station in Jacksonville, Florida. He had worked in various management positions at WDIV for 15 years before then. “We narrowly focus on an instrumental period of time that led to who we are. We tell that story deeply with a lot of interviews and anecdotes.”
Months in the making, the documentary is narrated by radio legend Dick Purtan, former WDIV Sportscaster Eli Zaret, and current Anchor Devin Scillian. Zaret, former host of the popular Tigers’ pregame shows, served as one of the documentary’s executive producers and played a key role in the months-long process of gathering and organizing footage for the special.
“I was fortunate to work at Channel 4 from 1980 to ’86, an iconic period in the station’s history,” he said. “At the time, I was new to television. Now, to be asked all these years later to help write, produce and even be a part of this story, fills me with pride and gratitude.”
WDIV is the only TV news station that has always been located in the city of Detroit, still on Lafayette Boulevard. Currently, Local 4 News is the number one newscast at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. in Nielsen ratings for the Detroit television market.
While TV viewership and how Detroiters and Americans get their news has changed dramatically since the late 1940s, reporting local news remains important.
“Today, there are a lot of choices to get news … Back in the early days of TV, there were few places to get news and information. Now, we are accustomed to watching anything in the world as it happens and plays out,” Ellis said. “Local news is important today and as relevant as it has ever been. What we do is crucially important.”
WDIV’s story is equally a story of Detroit over the last 75 years.
“The story of WDIV mirrors the story of Detroit. Tremendous early success, followed by some difficult years, and then an epic comeback,” Ellis said. “We never take for granted being Detroit’s favorite TV station and realize that doesn’t happen without the unwavering support of our viewers. Sharing this story reaffirms our commitment to serve this community. We’ve been in the city of Detroit for decades and will be for decades to come. This trip through time is our way of saying thank you for all the support and a way to renew our vows to do our part to make Southeast Michigan a better place for all of us to live.”
'Going 4 It. The Inside Story of the Rise of WDIV'
9 p.m. Friday
Local 4
Streaming on clickondetroit.com