Every day at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., people can tune into an old WNEP newscast that aired on that day in 1983. WNEP is Tegna’s ABC affiliate in Scranton, Pa. The archived newscasts stream on WNEP+, the station’s new app and also on YouTube.
Every day at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., people can tune into an old WNEP newscast that aired on that day in 1983. WNEP is Tegna’s ABC affiliate in Scranton, Pa.
The archived newscasts stream on WNEP+ the new OTT (Roku / FireTV) streaming app and also on YouTube. CLICK HERE to see all the WNEP retro newscasts on YouTube.
Michael Danilowicz, a video content coordinator at WNEP, says he came up with the idea a couple years ago. Everybody liked the idea but it wasn’t until the new app was launched that it became feasible.
The station started streaming the old newscasts on Aug. 3.
Danilowicz says 1983 was the oldest newscasts the station has on DVD, and converting them from DVD to digital was easy.
For the most part, Danilowicz can find the matching newscasts from August 1983 to stream on the same date this year. But not always.
“The one day they recorded the wrong channel and I had Family Feud instead of a newscast,” Danilowicz says. Other days, the archived newscast had no audio.
“That just breaks my heart that we can’t use it,” he says.
Shawn Dunn, WNEP’s digital director, says the station has generations of loyal viewers.
“They like the retro newscasts,” he says. “They like seeing some of the anchors and reporters and it brings back that sense of that connection with our community.”
Even the station’s employees stop to enjoy the retro newscasts.
“It is a really interesting dynamic when you have the tenured employees who actually know some of the reporters and anchors answering questions from some newer employees,” Dunn says.
“It just strengthens that connection to the station from the employees themselves, too.”
Dunn says the weather segments are especially interesting.
“We have the backyard weather where our meteorologists are outside,” Dunn says. “So you will see them out there with the old magnet board where you will see sunny, partly cloudy and some of the graphics at the time were state of the art and you look at them now and it is amazing to see how much has changed.”
Each retro newscast is getting thousands of plays, Dunn says.
“I would say minutes watched, we are pushing into the tens of thousands per newscast,” he says. “That is all organic. People are finding it.”
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