By 1978, the bulletins had developed into a magazine programme entitled Grampian Today, initially broadcast from Wednesday - Friday before expanding to every weeknight.

The programme was relaunched as North Tonight on Monday 7 January 1980 in an effort to reflect the Northern Scotland region as a whole - its first presenters were John Duncanson and Selina Scott.

The launch of North Tonight coincided with the opening of a new remote-controlled studio at Albany House in Dundee (an event broadcast live on the first programme) and an expansion into Grampian's use of Electronic News Gathering (ENG) cameras.

Significant points in the history of the programme included extensive coverage of the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988 and the resignation of Grampian Police chief constable Dr. Ian Oliver in 1998.

North Tonight also covered the murder of Aberdeen schoolboy Scott Simpson in the mid-1990s and the bird flu incident in Cellardyke, Fife in April 2006.

Contracted freelance correspondents and cameramen provided news coverage from the outer regions of Shetland, Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland.

On 8 January 2007, viewers of North Tonight began to receive two different programmes - those in the Dundee, Angus, Perthshire and north-east Fife area received a dedicated bulletin within the main North Tonight programme featuring the day's news from the sub-region, presented & produced from STV's studios in Dundee and directed from a technical gallery in Aberdeen.