Channel 7 (WXYZ) rebranding next Monday?

[mtburb]

Zap2It and other guides are all suggesting that after five decades, WXYZ is finally ditching the Action News name effective next Monday (4/22) in favor of a generic "7 News Detroit" branding:


I have yet to see any announcement from WXYZ on this branding yet.

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Zap2It and other guides are all suggesting that after five decades, WXYZ is finally ditching the Action News name effective next Monday (4/22) in favor of a generic "7 News Detroit" branding:


I have yet to see any announcement from WXYZ on this branding yet.

Their promo for being station of the year featured Bob Tracey as a Voiceover… he was their VO from maybe 1998-2005… when they were “WXYZ 7” and had the slogan “where 7 stand for news”… 7 News Detroit isn’t much of a name. I hope that’s not the case. I would much rather see “Channel 7 Action News” return as a tagline. They never should have ditched it to begin with. Tracey as a voiceover would be a vast improvement over the fruity sounding guy they have now. Those morning promos are hard to watch with the current guy being high pitched.

[MWmetalhead]

"7 News" reminds me of the Sunbeam-owned stations in Boston and Miami.

"7 News Detroit" sounds a lot like "CBS News Detroit."

[edj]

Tracey replaced Al Pinter, or was there someone in between?

It'll always be Action News to me, no matter what they call it.

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Tracey replaced Al Pinter, or was there someone in between?

It'll always be Action News to me, no matter what they call it.

They had somebody in 1996 and 97 when they first switched to WXYZ 7 that was neither Tracey nor Pinter. Pinter stayed around until 2014 or 15 or something like that doing commercials and brought to you bys and stuff like that.

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Tracey replaced Al Pinter, or was there someone in between?

It'll always be Action News to me, no matter what they call it.

Here’s the guy between Pinter and Tracey.. this is dated 1996:
https://youtu.be/ZCLXljIn0tI?si=W5bazmRdGqIuUg1j

[mtburb]

Tracey replaced Al Pinter, or was there someone in between?

It'll always be Action News to me, no matter what they call it.

Here’s the guy between Pinter and Tracey.. this is dated 1996:
https://youtu.be/ZCLXljIn0tI?si=W5bazmRdGqIuUg1j

Sounds like none other than CVD himself!

[billmich88888]

who the heck is "CVD"?

[MWmetalhead]

Charlie Van Dyke.

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They are indeed rebranding to 7 News Detroit. They have a promo for a story Brad Galli is doing interviewing MSU Football Coach Johnathan Smith. The end of it has the new logo which actually looks pretty decent if you were going to try to be hard news focused. The current VO guy is still at it sadly.

[BFSEsq]

This SUCKS. I mean, do I have an impression of the new brand? Not really. That's kind of the thing, it's a nothing burger. I don't know how anyone would have much impression, good or bad. But I'm mad! Action News goes back to the 70s!! I think a lot about how downright WEIRD it is they were still using it for all of these decades! It didn't make any logical sense. It was such an oddball name after basically everyone else stopped using it. And then there's 7, still going strong, just out of pure tradition, and likely to keep some sort of little tie to the Bill Bonds era, their most famous era, downright refusing to modernize the name of the newscast. It was just the name, every single other thing changed, but I always felt like it was a miracle to get THAT. Not anymore, I guess. I just hate losing these wonky traditions that seem like so much fun to us who care too much about media history. It slowly gets chipped away, even at a quote-on-quote "legacy" brand. They added the little ABC logo to the Circle 7 (despite not even being an O&O) and now they ditch "Action News." Boo.

I think the only Action News still left, or at least pretty soon this will be the case, is the actual original station to do it, good old WPVI Philadelphia. Using the same opener, with the same music, and the same style of hokey video package, for over 50 YEARS. Never changing a thing as much as they can help it. And God bless 'em, I ADORE it. Haha.

"7 News Detroit" sounds a lot like "CBS News Detroit."

I guess we're lucky it was this over "Scripps News Detroit," then

[MWmetalhead]

I see 7 has quietly stopped broadcasting its weekend morning news from its fish bowl like studio inside the Chase Bank building in downtown Detroit.

I will miss the absurdly giddy Brian Lee voiceover plugging the fact the newscast originates from downtown (where viewers could see deserted streets through the window located behind the newsreader).

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I see 7 has quietly stopped broadcasting its weekend morning news from its fish bowl like studio inside the Chase Bank building in downtown Detroit.

I will miss the absurdly giddy Brian Lee voiceover plugging the fact the newscast originates from downtown (where viewers could see deserted streets through the window located behind the newsreader).

So that’s the guys name… is he capable of sounding like a real news voiceover?

The answer appears to be no…. Even serious as a heart attack there is a feminine tone in the background… I don’t miss Rich Van Slyke but still… when he does the morning promos and tries to sound excited it’s positively ridiculous…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cDZG4ywHS6U

[MWmetalhead]

He is capable of doing some very good stuff, but I agree that the promos featuring his "happy" voice are creepy.

[rugratsonline]

Their promo for being station of the year featured Bob Tracey as a Voiceover… he was their VO from maybe 1998-2005… when they were “WXYZ 7” and had the slogan “where 7 stand for news”…

For a time in the late-1980s to mid-1990s (perhaps earlier), the announcer would simply say "7" in its promos (such as "Monday night at 6 on 7").

This SUCKS. I mean, do I have an impression of the new brand? Not really. That's kind of the thing, it's a nothing burger. I don't know how anyone would have much impression, good or bad. But I'm mad! Action News goes back to the 70s!!

Of course, in Philadelphia, O&O WPVI-TV used the Action News name since the station's final days as WFIL-TV in the late-1960s. No doubt any changes to the "Action News" name there would not go well with viewers (they tried changing to a new version of their "Move Closer To Your World" theme in the 1990s, only to change back after complaints from viewers).