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BREAKING: Ed Ansin dead at 84


Georgie56
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Out of respect for the deceased, this is a NO SPECULATION ZONE

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Was working on a twitter thread about this, but it got derailed due to some household drama, so I'll type everything here.

 

Ed Ansin, in my mind, deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Al Primo, Roone Arledge, and Ted Turner.  His stations were that revolutionary and influential, and a lot of people don't know it.

 

In my opinion, local news has three "mother formats".  The first is Primo's Eyewitness News (specifically the version perfected at WABC New York).  The second is the WPVI Action News format.  The third was Ansin's "News Station" format pioneered in Miami then Boston.  EVERY local television station incorporates elements of these three newscast formats.  You can probably see parts of WSVN's DNA in the newscast that airs in your market, even the most conservative one.

 

People forget how risky WSVN's format actually was.  Sure, it joined Fox, but "joining Fox" meant something a hell of a lot different in 1989 than it did even in 1994 when New World shocked the industry.  Fox didn't have the NFL.  "The Simpsons" wasn't even a half-hour show yet.  Fox was five hours of primetime on weekends, that was it.  Even if you were a Fox affiliate at that point, for all intents and purposes you were an independent station.  In fact, WSVN didn't mince words - in its promotion and reporting for its post-switch plans, it referred to its new status as becoming an "independent station".

 

And if you were an independent station, you were what I would call a "Great Entertainer".  Your programming day would consist of cartoons, sitcom repeats, a movie in primetime, sports if you were lucky to have a contract with a team.  Maybe, maybe, maybe you had a half hour or an hour of news at 10pm.  Even ideas like a local morning show from 7am-9am were novel: Good Day New York had been on the air for only a few months at the time of WSVN's switch.

 

You did not do seven hours of news each weekday.  Even if you were a network affiliate this was madness.  Doing it without a net(work) - that was suicide.  This idea was ridiculed in the press.  Ansin might not have had much of a choice here, admittedly - CBS had announced its plans to move to WCIX at the beginning of August.  Four months is not a lot of time to get the inventory you needed to be a conventional independent.  WSVN likely became "South Florida's News Station" out of necessity.  Still doesn't negate how ballsy the plan was.

 

The tone of the newscasts was also wildly different from anything the market - perhaps the nation - had yet seen.  His new news director, Joel Cheatwood, moved the newscasts out of the traditional studio and into the newsroom and control room.  The presentation was also something different - bold graphics filled the screen.  Discordant music opened the newscast and penetrated the proceedings.  Even the station announcer, Scott Chapin, was menacing!
 

It's here that I am going to say it:  Ansin's stations were not paragons of journalism.  Tabloid TV was the order of the day.  "If it bleeds, it leads" was the motto.   One WSVN newscast I have footage of proudly beamed about featuring "THREE BLOODY CRIME SCENES" as the top story.  This was not Peter Jennings soberly reporting on the latest goings on in the Soviet Union.  That wasn't the point.  The point wasn't to just inform, but entertain as well - thus the flashy graphics, the catchy headlines.  This was, I would argue, the first News Product on a TV station - something not as just public service but calling card.

 

It's not wrong to call WSVN the first true "Fox affiliate".  It ran cartoons - Fox Kids was there for a few years - and out of necessity movies were programmed on nights Fox had not yet colonized.  You certainly could not mistake it for a Big Three affiliate.  But the look and feel was not that of an independent/Fox station up to that point.

 

I don't think anyone saw that station lasting more than maybe two years with the News Station format.  Certainly nobody saw the station not only surviving the switch, but thriving - rising to the top spot among English language stations in that market.  The competitors noticed.  In 1988-89 WTVJ had a handsome art deco look lavished on it by its new owners at NBC.  By 1992 that was replaced by cold banks of monitors and theme music straight out of Miami Vice.  

 

So did other stations.  Scott Chapin started picking up station after station starting in the early 90s.  One of my early news memories is of him blaring out "NEIGHBORS FROM HELLLLLLL" in a sweeps promo for WCAU, which he was voicing by the mid-90s.  Other tricks took longer to get to my market - 1997 saw the arrival of "Breaking News" stings and Larry Mendte to WCAU.  In a market where the leading station used magnet boards for weather and a blue background set, the added flash stood out.  Mendte got notice because he would stand up on set for some stories - if you read the local papers you'd think some massive scandal was taking place.  In contrast, I'm usually not sure if Jim Gardner wears pants most nights.

 

Even nationally, the idea of a flashier newscast gained traction.  Before it embraced its conservative bent, you could well argue that Fox News Channel was the WSVN formula applied to cable news.  Even the network newscasts changed.  Brokaw started doing more tabloidy feature stories. Jennings' newscast open went from a simple text overlay to a flashy animation.

 

1993 saw Ansin spread his wings and add WHDH in Boston.  By this point his tactics were well-known.  Boston didn't quite get the massive tone overhaul that WSVN got, but it did get the flashy graphics, discordant music, and menacing announcer.  WHDH might not have exploded like Miami did but what was a perennial doormat became quite competitive.  Moreso when WHDH lost CBS to WBZ and gained NBC's stronger programming.

 

Ansin had to have been a pain in the ass to work with on the network side.  He pre-empted quite a bit when WSVN was with NBC.  The 1989 switch negotiations were so protracted with CBS that instead of that network agreeing to move to WSVN it instead chose to purchase an independent station with substantial signal issues as its new home.  And let's not forget the Jay Leno at 10pm debacle of 2009-2010.  Ansin made the announcement that he was pre-empting Leno and moving his CW 10pm newscast over to the main station.  NBC threatened to revoke his affiliation and he relented - but when that late night arrangement collapsed in flames months later, it was obvious that his concerns were genuinely warranted.  Again, I think it says something that NBC chose to build its own station essentially from scratch over continuing to deal with Ansin.

 

The survival of WHDH post-NBC was his last great accomplishment.  It was the WSVN playbook all over again - news, news, and more news.  It seems to be working, four years into the experiment.

 

Like I said, Ansin was a giant figure in the television business.  Few single stations have been as influential as his were.  He is as major a figure as Ted Turner and should be honored as such.  May he rest in peace.

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20 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

I didn't even realize that Ed Ansin had a foundation set up under his name. From this package about Ed donating a total of $100K to a local food bank charity.

 

This barely scratches the surface. Ansin's philanthropic ventures went a lot more deep up north. At least three buildings within Boston city limits - the Boys & Girls Club in Charlestown, the Fenway Health building in the Back Bay, and a key building at Emerson College on Tremont Street downtown - were funded by contributions he made and bear his name. Add in the heavy involvement he had in Project Bread and the MA/RI chapter of Best Buddies and that's some serious work for the greater good. 

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11 hours ago, Mrtraveler01 said:

The Boston Globe has a nice article about him.

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/26/metro/ed-ansin-local-television-news-pioneer-owner-channel-7-dies-he-was-84/

 

Still waiting for something similar from the Miami Herald.

Not from the miami herald but from the Sun-Sentinel. Not much though.

 

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/miami-dade/fl-ne-ed-ansin-obit-20200727-qrz2u6akifeudjakqxc7ywpdte-story.html?outputType=amp

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1 hour ago, scrabbleship said:

 

This barely scratches the surface. Ansin's philanthropic ventures went a lot more deep up north. At least three buildings within Boston city limits - the Boys & Girls Club in Charlestown, the Fenway Health building in the Back Bay, and a key building at Emerson College on Tremont Street downtown - were funded by contributions he made and bear his name. Add in the heavy involvement he had in Project Bread and the MA/RI chapter of Best Buddies and that's some serious work for the greater good. 

 

He had just as deep a philanthropy record in South Florida: he received the Alexis de Tocqueville Award, the highest philanthropic award bestowed by the United Way, and made multiple multi-million dollar capital gifts to the organization. In fact, he's the only person so honored in three cities — Miami, Boston and Fort Lauderdale. He also apparently made a lot of anonymous gifts over the years.

 

We also got a piece from the Miami Herald: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article244513307.html

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10 hours ago, HulkieD said:

Ansin had to have been a pain in the ass to work with on the network side.  He pre-empted quite a bit when WSVN was with NBC.  The 1989 switch negotiations were so protracted with CBS that instead of that network agreeing to move to WSVN it instead chose to purchase an independent station with substantial signal issues as its new home. 

And to think, the trajectory of history for Ansin’s empire may have been set by another station-owning local businessman, Alex Dreyfoos. He owned WPEC, and if he hadn’t agreed to switch his station from ABC, CBS may have had no choice to pair up with WSVN no matter how much they didn’t want to. And if that happened, would The News Station even have been a thing, especially with CBS and their older skewing audience? (It would work on a CBS station, though, and in Boston, no less)

 

But, WPEC did switch, giving viewers in Broward an alternate outlet for CBS programs, thus allowing the network to buy WCIX. Plus, it was a good deal for a moribund WPEC, allowing them to essentially add fast-growing Broward County to its market. And the rest, they say, is history.

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18 hours ago, Mrtraveler01 said:

The Boston Globe has a nice article about him.

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/26/metro/ed-ansin-local-television-news-pioneer-owner-channel-7-dies-he-was-84/

 

Still waiting for something similar from the Miami Herald.

Here's the article from the Miami Herald, and it's a great one. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article244513307.html

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7 hours ago, nickp said:

 WSVN became a model FOX station by not focusing on general entertainment but a more news intensive operation 

More than that, actually.

 

See, Rupert made his mark in the UK and his native Australia with gloriously sensational tabloids. Even when he took over the New York Post, he put his stamp on that paper in a hurry ("Headless Body in Topless Bar") and was poised to do the same in Chicago and Boston.

 

Which brings us to the Metromedia Five: WNYW, WTTG, KRIV, KTTV and even WFLD. Outside of shared logo stylings and the "network + channel number" brandings, not much had changed at that core group since the sale beyond a stateside import of A Current Affair with WTTG's Maury Povich. (WFLD had no news department until 1987 but at launch was set up very much like the other Metromedia stations had been.) None of them ran news in the early evening hours, and (as mentioned earlier) WNYW launched Good Day NY, which was not dissimilar to WEWS's Morning Exchange and WCVB's Good Day! was in creating GMA... a traditional morning show with news updates, light conversation and fluff. Some glitz crept in but Rupert ran them as traditional as you could get. No one thought of doing a rolling hard news block from 6am-9am. Pure folly.

 

Ed Ansin, Bob Leider and Joel Cheatwood basically took the Rupert model of flash and splash in his UK tabloids and New York Post and transferred it to WSVN. It wasn't just that it was news-intensive, it was outrageous, in-your-face and smacking you upside the head. While WTVJ was emulating the Michael Mann glitz and glamour era of Miami Vice with the John Fox Art Deco-esque set and graphics, WSVN went all in with the Dick Wolf nihilism era of Miami Vice. It not only was unlike anything the industry had ever seen, it was such a massive departure from the staid, conservative image WSVN had prior to the summer of 1988; in many ways, they were still seen up to then as "that Wayne Farris station."

 

Ironically, the success of WSVN precipitated the New World group into going all-in on news. Even Virgil Dominic, who loathed at WJW being called "Fox 8" led an investment into the Newscenter 8 ops and launched an ill-fated local morning show, Good Day Cleveland, that ultimately led to WJW becoming an unstoppable dynamo in mornings.

 

HulkieD is right in classifying WSVN as "the first true Fox affiliate." I'll go one further. WSVN was the station Rupert wanted to run but never did. And probably never will. But that's okay, because Ed pulled it off in a way Rupert never could have dreamed of.

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It's very encouraging to hear that the next generation of the Ansin family is poised to keep things going, so that we don't have another James Rogers/Intermountain West situation. 

 

If they are truly in it for the long haul, they will still be the forces that they are, and could benefit in the future WHEN the affiliate model begins to fall apart, and these corporate stations will have to do what Ed Ansin did decades ago with WSVN and recently with WHDH.

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You know I think cause NBC did him over twice with WSVN in 1985 when it yanked the affiliation for them so they could make WTVJ (Also in Miami) an NBC Owned Station am flip that station from a CBS affiliation to an NBC affiliation and there short time being a CBS NBC O&O station and again in 2017 when WHDH Boston his Boston station did him wrong again when NBC was so determined to have its own NBC O&O in Boston I gotta say. I think NBC is what made him great he knew still how to make these stations strong no matter where the affiliate deals may lie for both stations. He knew the business he knew the brains and I’ll miss him he never went down without a fight he even when WNEU was in contention to be the station to take the New NBC Iogo though we all know it would be WBTS-CD to become Boston’s  new NBC station an O&O and Boston new station, he fought to the point that he even   pointed out there signal doesn’t even have half the power of WHDH. And then in 88 with WHDH and at a time when they were both independent cause WSVN is still they only out of the two with a network affiliation  since WHDH is not he did so well he didn’t care about the Network Obligations he was catered to the viewer and building the station around the viewer and making the station profitable and made the station his way not the networks way and that what made the network so reluctant and jealous of him in my opinion. and was a nice, patient man.

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On 7/27/2020 at 10:21 PM, tyrannical bastard said:

It's very encouraging to hear that the next generation of the Ansin family is poised to keep things going, so that we don't have another James Rogers/Intermountain West situation. 

 

If they are truly in it for the long haul, they will still be the forces that they are, and could benefit in the future WHEN the affiliate model begins to fall apart, and these corporate stations will have to do what Ed Ansin did decades ago with WSVN and recently with WHDH.


He cared about the station catering, profitability building it around the view making it the way for the viewer and making the station his way with the viewers not the BIG 3 network (Especially NBC) way he struggled with that cause he didn’t go corporate or mainstream he went the way viewers taste it and made it that way profitable something untraditional with the networks I think that’s what  made them jealous and reluctant to work with him. That why they wanted traditional station and they showed that in 1988 with Miami WSVN loosing it longtime NBC affiliation become briefly Ind before become FOX strongest and most establishments and charter affiliate Pickup. And then the Boston situation in 2016/2017 when It came to Boston and they lost there affiliation to NBC so they could create there own station and they became independent.it made him who he was. That’s what made him so unique... Obviously he did someone well with them cause except WSVN switch from CBS to NBC in 1995 he had both major stations on respective big 3 affiliation for 20 years so some synergies had to be good at times where WSVN Miami was FOX and WHDH was NBC it was that way for 20 years until 2016 with the Boston situation.

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So I was rewatching an old clip from 1987 about Ed Ansin challenging the sale of WTVJ to NBC... and something dawned on me.

 

 

Note the scenes in which he's interviewed in his office, which was apparently the quietest room at the studio complex.

AF004ACC-02B4-4DC7-8FF9-CCA4D9C540F9.jpeg.d8e88a63231925a9ac3af70a5fdf50c3.jpeg

 

...it never changed.

654DA9F6-F083-4C12-9DC2-D0ABBB603014.thumb.png.7b41cad39e3156a18fb3d4b4ad0e6cac.png

6ABD32A7-ABC8-447E-B039-41B93A363709.thumb.png.22c6b26674c5c579afe78f1580e3c44d.png

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17 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

So I was rewatching an old clip from 1987 about Ed Ansin challenging the sale of WTVJ to NBC... and something dawned on me.

 

 

Note the scenes in which he's interviewed in his office, which was apparently the quietest room at the studio complex.

AF004ACC-02B4-4DC7-8FF9-CCA4D9C540F9.jpeg.d8e88a63231925a9ac3af70a5fdf50c3.jpeg

 

...it never changed.

654DA9F6-F083-4C12-9DC2-D0ABBB603014.thumb.png.7b41cad39e3156a18fb3d4b4ad0e6cac.png

6ABD32A7-ABC8-447E-B039-41B93A363709.thumb.png.22c6b26674c5c579afe78f1580e3c44d.png

 

Those images speak volumes.

 

Same desk, same chairs, same lamp, same portrait on the wall over 30-plus years. It speaks to not only what may have been Mr. Ansin's own frugality, but on two more important themes: Simplicity and stability.

 

With all the money he had, he could have easily upgraded his office furniture and design on numerous occasions. It's safe to assume that the phone was one of the few items there to have changed over the years.

 

WSVN and WHDH were lucky to have a guy like that for an owner.

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RIP.  He created a distinct style! The tabloid format isn't always the best but the way WSVN did it was solid! WSVN's news center, boisterous graphics, and hard hitting news themes created an awesome flashy attitude hype around news.

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On 7/30/2020 at 4:30 PM, Big Rollo Smokes said:

 

Those images speak volumes.

 

Same desk, same chairs, same lamp, same portrait on the wall over 30-plus years. It speaks to not only what may have been Mr. Ansin's own frugality, but on two more important themes: Simplicity and stability.

 

With all the money he had, he could have easily upgraded his office furniture and design on numerous occasions. It's safe to assume that the phone was one of the few items there to have changed over the years.

 

WSVN and WHDH were lucky to have a guy like that for an owner.

Having lived in Florida for 16 years of my life and helping my dad fix and install HVAC at some elderly people's homes, I can only imagine what that office smells like with the old furniture in it. Not just Florida but anyone who has had a elderly relative that never modernized or updated their home. Haha! 

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I think this confirms what we've been expecting, but here are some official articles published today discussing the new leadership at Sunbeam:

1) https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/251937/new-leadership-at-sunbeam-television-corp/

2) https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article244695077.html

  • Andrew Ansin (Ed's oldest son) will become CEO.
  • James Ansin + Paul Magnes will be co-presidents.
  • Ownership remains with the Ansins.

I think it's fair to say that Ansin solidified his legacy, building a company with a uniquely strong foundation that itself will also only die with its boots still on.

Corporates will have to put up a war if they really want to take a bite.

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On 8/3/2020 at 8:36 PM, Roadrunner said:

I think this confirms what we've been expecting, but here are some official articles published today discussing the new leadership at Sunbeam:

1) https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/251937/new-leadership-at-sunbeam-television-corp/

2) https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article244695077.html

  • Andrew Ansin (Ed's oldest son) will become CEO.
  • James Ansin + Paul Magnes will be co-presidents.
  • Ownership remains with the Ansins.

I think it's fair to say that Ansin solidified his legacy, building a company with a uniquely strong foundation that itself will also only die with its boots still on.

Corporates will have to put up a war if they really want to take a bite.

Ed saw first-hand what happened when Mitchell Wolfson died in 1983. There was no corporate succession plan to be had in his will, and not only did Wometco get broken up, WTVJ—who Mitchell built from almost nothing in 1949—was sold to NBC and... well, you know the rest.

 

It's very heartening to see that Ed's intentions all along—to have his kids take over the reins—is indeed being fulfilled. They have a tough act to follow but one helluva running start.

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On 8/3/2020 at 12:53 AM, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

Why? I doubt he was the kind of guy who enjoyed learning new things.

I'm sure he did. A part of me pictures him having checked up on all the chat forums and FTVLive (given that Scott Jones worked for him).

 

Just that he kept it so shockingly simple and straightforward in his office, which spoke immeasurably about himself and the company... that there indeed was so much substance behind all that style. We just never realized it because he was that humble.

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