With minimal advance preparation, WSVN relaunched their news department with an emphasis on tabloid journalism under Joel Cheatwood's direction, an unconventional decision initially pilloried by the local media but since been emulated and copied throughout the industry.

[15] Originally a shoe maker from Massachusetts, Sidney relocated to Miami Beach, Florida, in 1941[16] and sold land to Mitchell Wolfson for WTVJ's transmission tower after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rezoned it for broadcasting, which became the source for his interest in the medium.

[67] Bernard Schwartz, recently fired as subcommittee counsel[68] after alleging the committee was "trying to whitewash" behavior by Eisenhower administration officials, told reporters an unnamed commissioner engaged in bribery regarding an unspecified license application dispute.

[66] Subcommittee attorney Stephen J. Angland's testimony on June 2, 1958, revealed that Knight and Trammell met with two Florida Power & Light officials—chairman McGregor Smith and vice-president Ben Fuqua—who in turn approached Mack on Biscayne's behalf.

[40] Having graduated from the Wharton Business School in 1957, Edmund began working with his father Sidney's real estate holdings in South Florida as the region continued to enjoy substantial post-war growth.

"[121] A three-part series in November 1968 over a proposed "power and privileges" bill in the Parliament of the Bahamas—where media outlets accused of "false or misleading" information would be called to testify before Parliament—led the Nassau Guardian-Observer to publish a front-page editorial rebuking "the meddlesome Miami television crew" and advised WCKT to "go home—and stay there!

[128] Competing against Chuck Zink's Popeye Playhouse on WTVJ and The Mickey Mouse Club on WPST-TV,[129] Clayton's friendly demeanor proved to be a hit among viewers[130] and was voted one of the best local TV personalities in a Herald readers' poll.

[153] After relaying the story of a seven-year-old girl reacting with joy to a phone call from M. T. Graves similar to teenage Elvis fans, Herald critic Jack Anderson mused, "Now, what's that again about TV's scaring the daylights out of the very young?

[164] Created by Sidney Ansin, Seven's Circus had high ratings, a loyal audience and fan club boasting 200 members—with Baxter, George DeVries and Bill Barry as successive "ringmasters"—but was cancelled on January 4, 1968, after years of being a loss leader.

[169][170] Even as other locally-produced children's television shows largely ceased during the 1970s due to declines in ratings and advertising,[171] WCKT kept Sunday Funnies on the air under the belief it remained an instructional tool for literacy.

[190] Leider's promotion came after the May 1979 sweeps period showed The Fariss-Hicks Report at 6 p.m. tied for third place alongside Star Trek reruns on WCIX[191] amid a significant overall decline in the station's ratings.

[193] Choate initiated multiple changes that included adopting the NewsCenter 7 brand—already in use among several of NBC's owned-and-operated stations[194]—and replacing lead anchors Constance Hicks and Wayne Fariss with Steve Rondinaro[195] and Donna Hanover,[196] respectively.

[205] Still, station officials were optimistic about NBC's prospects entering the 1982–83 television season, with Edmund Ansin calling newly installed network chairman Grant Tinker "superb" and "the best management team they've had in 20 years".

[215] Chandler's Sunday Funnies co-host Toby the Robot had previously "retired" on April 1, 1984, when Charlie Folds accepted a full-time role as WSVN's public relations director, but the program continued in a modified form.

Long-running public affairs shows Impacto, Perspectives and Florida Forum, which operations manager Dave Bieber called "holdovers from a significant number of years ago", were all cancelled at the end of 1986 in advance of NBC's planned spring 1987 launch of Sunday Today.

"[17] No formal announcement was made to WSVN's staff that day beyond a terse internal memo,[244] with some staffers admitting to checking job openings in Broadcasting magazine amid a combination of anxiety and gallows humor.

[249] In a statement Ansin submitted to various Washington agencies, he likened the nature of the sale to the extortion-driven 1956 asset swap between NBC and Group W for stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia the commission eventually overturned nine years later.

[251] Ansin's visibility protesting the sale was also a marked departure from his reputation as a modest, conservative owner that rarely sought public attention and who barely knew his own station personnel.

[274] Ansin made arrangements to fly to New York City on April 26 to sign a CBS contract at Black Rock when Malara called off the meeting, citing that they were reaching out to other parties regarding a purchase or affiliation.

[264] Initially bolstered by a verdict that awarded $3.5 million in damages to the owner of a former ABC station in Springfield, Missouri, after Capital Cities/ABC Inc. disaffiliated them[260]—which was later thrown out on appeal[277]—Ansin insisted the lawsuit would not hurt WSVN's chances regarding a network contract[275] but talks between him and CBS never resumed.

[308] At years' end, WSVN was in second place against WPLG in most time slots and the 10 p.m. news increasingly visible against the networks,[311] prompting the Sun-Sentinel's Tom Jicha to write, "[I]n this case, the conventional wisdom wasn't wise.

[316] One competing news director claimed to The Christian Science Monitor that WSVN employed inexperienced reporters with little pay, placing them in cars with police scanners in order to "...see how many crime scenes they could get to".

[117] University of Miami journalism professor Joseph Angotti tabulated the amount of airtime WSVN devoted to violent crime, discovering it made up 48.9 percent of their news coverage in the month of November 1993.

[326] WSVN's visual cues were frequently compared to MTV,[317] Hard Copy,[319] Miami Vice,[316] NFL Films, and The March of Time[325]: 45  and were derisively labeled "new wave news"[327] and "all-crime-all-the-time".

[117] Three years later, Soper was replaced by Jillian Warry—who, at age 25, wore short skirts on-air while delivering the weather—under claims his genial personality no longer aligned with the station, with Cheatwood saying, "the Willard Scott era is gone.

[343] By 2002, Applegate, now heading WOIO/WUAB in Cleveland,[340] relaunched the station's low-rated news operation with a slickly produced tabloid style, again drawing comparisons to WSVN's early 90s ascendency and impact on the market.

[344] This included coverage of national and international stories, formerly material seen as network-exclusive, with WSVN dispatching crews to report on the Waco siege, a train wreck in Alabama, and the assault of Nancy Kerrigan.

[347] By 1994, WSVN was generating more revenue that it ever had with NBC thanks to increased control over programming and local advertising via Fox's limited prime time schedule, which was regarded as a factor in the Fox-New World pact.

[358] In 1998, three years after WCIX moved to channel 4 as WFOR-TV,[c] that station's newscasts were reformatted to feature bold colors and a news theme with a salsa feel;[359] by 2004, WFOR and WTVJ employed multiple WSVN alumni.

Deco Drive was a ratings failure at WHDH and removed from that station's lineup within five months, while the format was continually adjusted and subject to staff turnover, including Mitchell's departure in April 1996.