We actually got a tip to this earlier, but hadn’t gotten around to posting until now…just two hours before the show airs.
WNEO/45-WEAO/49 “PBS 45 & 49” will air a special tonight, Tuesday, at 9 PM titled “Akron, Ohio: The City Where Commercial Television News Went Black”.
We’ll presume it delves, in-depth, into the saga most of our readers probably know well…the end of local news on then-ABC affiliate WAKC/23 (nee’ WAKR-TV), which eventually got sold to the PAX TV folks and was stripped of its news and ABC affiliation.
The saga continued, as with help from the city of Akron, local over-air TV news was reborn as “PAX 23 News”, produced by WKYC/3 from a new bureau in the heart of downtown Akron.
That newscast went off the over-air signal last year, when PAX TV’s agreement with WKYC parent Gannett Broadcasting (and many other companies running PAX affiliates) ended.
And to complete the story, of course, the newscast still airs on cable on Time Warner Cable channel 23 – or channel 15 in some of the western Akron suburbs on systems formerly owned by Adelphia.
And to close all the loose ends, WKYC/3 Akron-Canton Bureau chief Eric Mansfield, who helms the “Akron/Canton News” operation on TWC as anchor, is also the newly minted host of… 45/49’s own “NewsNight Akron” weekly news roundtable discussion program.
Whew. We trust it’s all covered in the PBS 45 & 49 special, and in case you miss it, it’ll re-air at 3 AM Saturday, July 14th. Now, THAT time calls for a “DVR Alert”…
Speak Your Mind