Eyewitness News – From the newsroom

1979 and the Eyewitness News Team has decamped to its newsroom, with an interesting deskless setup. A set change? Actually, more like a building change – ABC was expanding its facilities and 7 was no exception, having outgrown its cramped facilities (the station used a nearby hotel for its Sunday morning Eyewitness News Conference public-affairs programme). A permanent set was being constructed, but for a few months the newscasts came straight from the newsroom. With the new building came a change in open procedure. Rather than the customary wide shot of the studio, a short montage of everyday people on the streets of the city – taking a cue from WPVI's Action News – now opened the newscast. This was short-lived and by the following year it was back to wide shots.