WSVN’s New Set Promises To Be Futuristic

WSVN Miami news viewers might think they’ve turned to the wrong channel when they watch the news this Sunday night.

That’s because the Fox affiliate will unveil a new set, something it hasn’t done in 20 years.

For some, it might be like visiting the parents and walking into the living room with a new paint job and all the furniture replaced.

“Over the years, we tweaked, we changed venues and we updated things,” says Alice Jacobs, WSVN’s VP of news, “but this is the first really big overhaul.”

Over the past few weeks, Sunbeam Broadcasting’s WSVN has been running teaser spots promising “something big is coming.”

And even if you’ve never watched the news on WSVN, the style and tone of the spot gives you a clue as to what you might expect.

“We’ve always been known for bigger coverage, the bolder look, fast paced, high-energy,” says Danny Rendon, WSVN’s promotion manager who, along with the station’s design director, Jason Raizen, managed the project.

“So we want our set to reflect that, so when viewers tune in, you know it’s us.”

The station reportedly spent $500,000 for the set and everything was done in-house.

“We do everything ourselves,” says Jacobs. “We have such talented people here, we all share the same vision. It works better for us.”

Michael Parente, the station’s creative services director, says the set was “planned for the future.
We’re known as the station that’s innovative.”

“We’ve always done a very contemporary newscasts,” Jacobs adds, “and this takes it to the next level.”

Rendon says with the new set, WSVN is “going after an audience that is used to lots of energy and information coming at them quickly. And social media is going to be an aspect of that as well.”

Jacobs promises that the new set will be very visual and cutting edge and that “if the producers can think of it, we can do it.”

(Look for Market Share to update this story after Sunday’s launch.)