Strap in, folks! Got a lot to talk about!
It's another "NewsCenter 6 New at 11" show, complete with the hallmarks of mid-90s WRGB. WRGB (channel 6) is the CBS station for Albany, New York, located in nearby Schenectady.
Jack Aernecke and JoAnne Purtan anchor the news, with meteorologist Scott Stevens, sports director Ric Renner, Ed O'Brien from the "Sky Center," WCBS' Arnold Diaz with a "Scam Busters" report, and other reports from Darcy Wells and Marianne Worley. To ice the cake, WGY's Mike Gallagher has a commentary on Henry Foster. Foster (who died in 2022) was under fire for performing abortions at his OBGYN job.
The big story (which comes with flashing Channel 6 logos) is on a fortune teller (Dorothy Lee) who (according to WRGB's "Scam Cam") illegally took money at tarot card readings. The actual "Scam Busters" report (wonder if Ray Parker Jr. got his royalties for them using his song, probably not) is on a $200 oxygen tank rip-off, and a woman who fell victim to the scam. The tank hadn't been filled since 1988, and she was still getting bills in the mail seven years later. Oh, and if you don't know who Arnold Diaz is, he did "Shame On You" consumer reports for WCBS, which were just as flashy. February was "Scam Busters Month" in fact.
The other stories covered are all over the place. A fire burns in Seward (Schoharie County), William Burdick confesses to murdering his niece and hiding her in the basement (watch them zoom the camera tight on his car window!), an ex-Vietnam veteran testifies at the trial of Colin Ferguson (no, not the actor; this one killed people on a train in Long Island), the Thruway changes some speed limits to 65, a real "Schindler's List" survivor speaks at UAlbany, a woman in Maine talks about her "Tightwad Gazette" newsletter and how she lives life on a tight budget, and in the next day's papers: "Bring Out Your Dead" as the Grateful Dead head to Albany in June (a few months before Jerry Garcia died). They also do a rapid-fire check of stories while the Channel 6 logo flies across the screen as a transition.
Next we have Scott Stevens, who would find himself jobless the following week. Stevens was rumored to have lied on his resume, and didn't have a meteorology degree. Speaking of degrees, Old Man Winter hits the entire East Coast (Florida saw a high of 31!) and Albany is stuck in the teens. The next week, temperatures would go as low as -11. Steve LaPointe, now the station's longest-tenured personality, would be appointed to chief meteorologist after Stevens was fired.
Also for those trying to go to sleep, Ric Renner's got you covered! That was sarcasm, as the jovial new sports guy (he had been on the air for exactly a month) talks about the Albany River Rats vs. the Adirondack Red Wings. No, he's not talking about JoAnne Purtan's basement, he's talking about the 518's two big hockey teams tying up at 5 in overtime. For NHL, the Rangers play the Capitals (feat. RPI "native" Joe Juneau, who's actually from Quebec), the Syracuse Orange beats Providence 100-76 thanks to Lawrence Moten's 32 points (we sadly lost Moten back in September), and two Bishop-Gibbons students are selected as McDonald's All-Americans. One of them, Antoni Wyche, returned to Albany eventually as the assistant coach for Siena basketball.
This is the pinnacle of tabloid WRGB. Tight camera shots, flashy graphics, tight Action News-like story pacing, some rip-offs of WNYT (like "Flash Forward" and the political commentary) and probably unintended, production issues. A few times the tape cuts off early, or glitches (like during the Bishop-Gibbons story). Jack Aernecke also repeats a few lines in his voice-tracked story on the Tightwad Gazette. Maybe that was the synonym for WRGB's newscasts at the time!
The man behind all of this was Neil Goldstein, former husband of Tracy Egan. The tabloid format alienated viewers, who once hailed WRGB as the number one station in the market. My two complaints: 1) where's Liz Bishop and 2) that Sky Center is really just above the studio. It's like Ed O'Brien is FaceTiming the anchors from a floor above. Also I bet the shots of him talking on the phone during the bumps to break were staged.
Goldstein left that summer for WFOR in Miami (when they swapped channel numbers). The news theme (Making a Difference) and graphics initially stayed the same, but the format was toned down. It still didn't work, and WRGB was in third place by 1997. Charlie Van Dyke voices everything except the sponsors, voiced by Walt Fritz.
(C) 1995 Freedom Communications; WRGB is now owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. No copyright infringement intended. For educational and historical purposes only. We don't profit off this video.
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