History
NBC News at Sunrise debuted in August 1983 with Connie Chung as anchor and Joe Witte as weather reporter. The program replaced Early Today, which had been NBC's early-morning newscast since July 1982 and was hosted by Today anchors Bryant Gumbel, Jane Pauley and Willard Scott. Early Today ratings had been lagging behind those of the two competing early-morning reports on ABC and CBS, and at the same time, the flagship Today program had lost viewers. Chung was hired to replace Gumbel and Pauley, who returned to full-time duty at Today.
In the late 1980s, NBC News at Sunrise consisted of six segments during a half-hour broadcast. The first segment was news. In the second segment, the anchor introduced an NBC Sports personality who offered a summary of the previous day's sports action. Don Gould, Jimmy Cefalo and Don Criqui were among those who filled this duty. In the third segment, meteorologist Joe Witte provided his first national weather forecast. The fourth segment was a five-minute local cutaway. Some NBC affiliates filled the slot with a local newscast. Sunrise filled the time with "Another Look," a re-run of a story that ran on the previous edition of NBC Nightly News. In the fifth segment, the anchor recapitulated the headlines and interviewed a business analyst. Alan Abelson of Barron's magazine was a frequent guest. Before the last commercial break, graphics highlighted the ten most active stocks the previous day on the New York Stock Exchange. In the final segment, Joe Witte offered another look at the weather. In summer, a regular feature was "Sun and Swim," a look at air and water temperatures in U.S. beach communities. In fall, Witte often did a "Foliage" report. In late fall and winter, Witte provided a "Ski Report." Also in the final segment, the Sunrise anchor introduced a Today anchor, usually Bryant Gumbel, who provided a preview of the upcoming Today program. In the 1980s, Sunrise used a different rendition of John Williams' NBC News theme "The Mission" than NBC Nightly News.
Connie Chung left Sunrise to co-host the NBC News prime time magazine 1986 with Roger Mudd. Bob Jamieson was the interim anchor until January 1987, when he left to host Before Hours, a fifteen-minute early morning business program produced by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. Transferring from NBC's Chicago station WMAQ-TV, Deborah Norville was Sunrise anchor from January 1987 to September 1989, when she switched jobs with Today news reader John Palmer.
When Sunrise debuted in 1983, the program ran in most markets at 6:30 a.m. because few television stations had early morning local newscasts. In the late 1990s, Sunrise was broadcast live at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time and re-broadcast on tape until 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time, when the program was re-created for viewers in the Pacific Time Zone.
The Program's lights were dimmed on and off in the open, after the mid-break, and at the close of the show from up until 1999.
Sunrise's final broadcast was Labor Day, September 6, 1999, and anchored by Gulstan Dart (formerly of MSNBC, Weekend Today, WSB-TV, KIRO-TV and now at Sacramento's NBC affiliate, KCRA-TV.)
Read more about this topic: NBC News At Sunrise
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