Independent Network News (U.S.)
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The ''Independent Network News (INN)'' (later retitled ''INN: The Independent News'' and ''USA Tonight'') was an American syndicated television
news program News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televi ...
that ran from June 9, 1980, to June 1990. The program aired seven nights a week on various independent stations across the United States and was designed to serve those stations in the same manner that the " Big Three" network news programs – ''
ABC World News Tonight ''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening television news program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting ...
'', ''
NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...
'' and the ''
CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
'' – served their affiliates.


History

The program debuted on June 9, 1980, under its original title ''Independent Network News''. The newscast was a production of
Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United St ...
's
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station
WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of Th ...
, and was distributed by Tribune's syndication division as one of the first programs that the company produced for the syndication market, and it was first transmitted via Westar. As ''INN'' was produced at WPIX, that station's on-air news staff presided over the broadcast. The nightly broadcast was helmed by a three-anchor team consisting of Pat Harper,
Bill Jorgensen Bill Jorgensen (born 1927) was the founding and longtime anchor of New York City's WNEW-TV's (now WNYW Fox 5) ''Ten O'Clock News'' from its inception on March 13, 1967, until he left in the spring of 1979. Jorgensen moved to WPIX-TV, also in New Y ...
, and Steve Bosh with Jerry Girard reporting on sports and Roberto Tirado providing national weather forecasts (Tirado would later be replaced by Bob Harris), and WPIX's local reporting staff was also utilized for the program. Saturday and Sunday editions of ''INN'' were added to the schedule in October 1980. ''INN'' also used reports from its member stations, the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
,
United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...
,
Visnews {{nofootnotes, date = March 2016 Visnews was a London-based international news agency. It began as the British Commonwealth International Newsfilm Agency (BCINA), which was setup with help from The Rank Organisation when that company closed its cin ...
, and later
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
to supplement its own coverage. WPIX transmitted the national show's live feed at 9:30 p.m.
Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...
. In the New York City area, WPIX paired a replay of the national ''INN'' broadcast at 10 p.m., with its own local newscast at 10:30, called the '' Action News Metropolitan Report''. The newscast carried three minutes of national advertising and three minutes for local ads. As part of a midday expansion of ''INN'' starting in 1981, WPIX also experimented with a half-hour midday newscast at 12:30 p.m. that was co-anchored by Marvin Scott and Claire Carter; this followed the national broadcast which aired at noon. During the decade, WPIX also offered the business-oriented news program ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
Report'' (which continues to air today in syndication and also airs on
CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
, albeit under the name of '' On the Money''); and the Sunday newsmaker show ''From the Editor's Desk,'' hosted by Richard D. Heffner, to stations carrying ''INN''. Bill Jorgensen left the program (and WPIX) in 1983. Bosh and Harper continued to anchor together for another year until Bosh departed in 1984 to join
KDFW-TV KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNe ...
in
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
. Brad Holbrook, who joined the operation a year earlier after anchoring at
WNAC-TV WNAC-TV (channel 64), branded on-air as Fox Providence, is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with Fox and The CW. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) ...
/
WNEV-TV WHDH (channel 7) is an independent television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is owned by Sunbeam Television alongside Cambridge-licensed CW affiliate WLVI (channel 56). WHDH and WLVI share studios at Bulfinch Place (ne ...
in
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, became co-anchor with Harper. Also in 1984, WPIX dropped its '' Action News'' branding for the station's local newscasts and decided to rebrand its 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. newscasts as ''INN: The Independent News''. The midday newscast continued (now under the title of ''INN: Midday Edition'') until the fall of 1985, when it was replaced by the lighter-toned ''Inday News'', which focused upon consumer news and human interest stories. Holbrook and
Donna Hanover Donna Hanover (born Donna Ann Kofnovec; February 15, 1950) is an American journalist, radio and television personality, television producer, and actress, who appears on CUNY TV in New York City. From 1994 through 2001 she was First Lady of New Yo ...
anchored this newscast, which was part of a syndicated block called ''Inday'', a co-venture of Tribune,
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and
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, designed to provide stations with a two-hour block of news and "infotainment"; ''Inday'' was cancelled by 1986. In January 1985, Holbrook's duties were reduced to the early local newscast on WPIX and the midday bulletin; he was replaced on the national ''INN'' broadcast and the late local newscast by veteran CBS News correspondent Morton Dean. Four months later Pat Harper left WPIX to join competing New York station
WNBC-TV WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo statio ...
, necessitating replacements for her on all three of WPIX's news productions; on the national broadcast, Sheila Stainback, formerly of
WBAL-TV WBAL-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the flagship property of Hearst Television, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to the company's sole r ...
in
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, was brought in to be Dean's new co-anchor. Beginning on January 12, 1987, the national ''INN'' newscast was renamed ''USA Tonight'', keeping that name for the remainder of its run (WPIX, in turn, renamed the local broadcast that followed to ''New York Tonight''), though the INN name continued to be used in voiceovers, graphics and microphone flags. The anchor team was also split up, as Sheila Stainback was reduced to anchoring the WPIX local broadcast that followed the national news, which Morton Dean began anchoring himself. An increased focus was placed on features in the retitled program. A year later, Brad Holbrook returned to ''USA Tonight'' after Dean signed with
ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, and shortly thereafter Stainback returned to the co-anchor position alongside him. ''USA Tonight'' continued to air into 1990, although by then far fewer stations were carrying the broadcast, partly as more focus was being placed on their own local news operations (by this point, the number of independent stations had decreased to some extent due to the earlier 1986 launch of the Fox network). With this in mind, Tribune Broadcasting entered into a collaborative agreement with CNN, which essentially made the then-six station Tribune group news affiliates of the then-
Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...
cable channel. The final ''INN'' newscast aired on June 23, 1990; through its initial deal with CNN, Tribune retained some of the program's staff as Tribune Broadcasting's
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
bureau. On March 13, 2009, Tribune Broadcasting officially closed the Washington bureau as an effect of the
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and the sale of Tribune to
Sam Zell Samuel Zell (born Shmuel Zielonka, September 28, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. A former lawyer, Zell is the founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm, founded in 1968. He ha ...
afflicting the company with a heavy debt burden which required severe company cutbacks.


Stations airing ''INN''

When ''INN'' premiered, the program aired on Tribune's three television stations at the time—WPIX, WGN-TV in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, and
KWGN-TV KWGN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KDVR, channel 31 (and its Fort Colli ...
in
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
—and 21 other outlets at launch, a number that rose from 24 stations to 41 before the end of 1980. By the start of 1983, INN was being aired by 78 stations.


See also

*
All News Channel All News Channel (ANC) was an American satellite television news channel that was owned by CONUS Communications, a joint venture between Viacom and Hubbard Broadcasting. The channel was carried mainly on direct-broadcast satellite provider D ...
*
Independent News Network News HUB (formerly known as Independent News Network) is a production company based in Little Rock, Arkansas, which syndicates "localized" news programs for broadcast television stations in the United States, that have budgets limiting their ...
* NewsNation * '' NewsNation Prime'' *'' The National Desk''


References

{{reflist 1980s American television news shows 1990s American television news shows 1980 American television series debuts 1990 American television series endings First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Television series by Tribune Entertainment