KENS Eyewitness News at 5:00 (Partial), 11/18/1989

Most of a 5pm newscast from the CBS affiliate in San Antonio, Texas, recorded on Saturday, November 18, 1989.

Featuring KENS' long-running open sequence from the 1980s during their heyday of dominating the local news ratings (they'd eventually fall to second in the 2000s which is where they are now). The station then as now is one of the CBS network's strongest affiliates, due to the city's historically older demographics and the CBS programs playing well to this demographic.

This sequence began use in 1983 not long after they moved to their current studio just outside the Medical Center. This particular version began use around 1986 (which incorporates some CGI) and mentions the use of satellite technology to coincide with them launching the market's first satellite truck. It was only a slight update and by 1989 it had begun to look dated. Most of the in-show graphics had updated to a completely different style by this point.

This open was replaced a few months later with a full CGI version that would last until 1994 when this Eyewitness News logo and music was retired for a starkly different and more modern (for the time) look and sound.

The voiceover is Ron Houston, who was local to the area, doing advertisements for many local businesses, some promos, and KENS' news opens from around 1979 through 1994. He would shortly thereafter become KLRN's longtime announcer before he passed away in 2009.

The music was produced by the now-defunct VTS Productions company and is called "Clearly The One", named after an associated image campaign that the station ran alongside the news theme. The news theme was used from 1983 to 1994. The image campaign lasted nowhere near as long, as KENS eventually decided to just localize CBS' national campaigns instead.

Anchored by Kym Benson, weather from Jim Thomas, and sports from Gary DeLaune (who passed away in 2022). Includes reports from Gina Galaviz (later at KSAT, now in communications) and Robert Rodriguez.

Commercials and promos are included:

0:00 - Channel intro
0:04 - News A-block
4:41 - Montgomery Ward Electric Avenue
5:11 - Bonanza
5:43 - News B-block
7:52 - Lancome Noctosone/Dillard's
8:22 - San Antonio Express-News
8:51 - News C-block (includes weather)
10:55 - KENS WeatherTel promo
11:05 - The Men's Wearhouse
11:36 - News D-block (weather continued)
12:32 - Chet Edwards for Lt. Governor
13:02 - Dillard's
13:33 - News E-block (includes sports)
17:23 - Serta
17:38 - Lacks
17:53 - Texas Ford Dealers
18:27 - News F-block (sports continued; partial, tape cuts)

©1989 Harte-Hanks Communications (current owner: TEGNA Media) and KENS-TV, no copyright infringement intended. For educational and historical purposes only. We do not profit off of this video.

Copyrights for all ads remain under their original owners.

[steveboudreaux]

The late Mayor Lila Cockrell (R) 2:19.
12:39 State Senator Chet Edwards (D-Waco), who wussed out of the TX Lieutenant Governor's election because Bullock would've destroyed his *** in the Democratic primary in 1990, so Edwards ran for Congress instead.