All ABC-owned stations, such as Detroit, began to see local news as the future in local programming. Consequently, they "beefed up" their news operations. It made sense economically, but also rang the death knell for any non-news local programming. Also, ABC began developing more of its own programming. And they started taking more risks.
In 1966 they aired the very controversial film Lolita, starring Sue Lyons, James Mason, Shelley Winters and Peter Sellers. The ABC movie garnered a 70 percent share, an astonishing leap for a network that until then had always been in third place. National and world news was also evolving at the network. This was reflected at Channel 7, where the small but fast-growing news operation was handled by Bill Fyffe, a Pival hire. Bill was a hard news-oriented director and would become a key player in the stations future. For years, newsman Dick Femmel acted as reporter, anchor and news director.
Sports became a higher priority. Sportscaster Don Wattrick did the play-by-play Lions and NCAA college games. High hopes, good times and prosperity marked the Detroit scene in the 1960’s. Motown dominated the local and national music charts. Muscle cars such as GTOs and Mustangs began appearing along Woodward and Jefferson Avenues on Saturday nights. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began attracting northerners to civil rights issues in the south. Many Detroiters responded, since the United auto Workers (UAW) financed much of his movement.
By the mid 60’s, the war in Vietnam began to draw opposition. As Channel 7 expanded its news coverage, it hired a young radio reporter who would one day come to dominate news in Detroit for an entire generation. That radio reporter, the future legendary Bill Bonds, was also hired at WXYZ-TV as a part-time TV booth announcer. One day, the regular news anchor became ill and Bill was asked to substitute. Bill Fyffe noticed quickly that Bill Bonds really had that special something that connected with the TV audience. Detroit’s new team of Barney Morris and Bonds was born. Fyffe also hired ? Herrington from the Flint TV market as a reporter. When the riots erupted in Detroit in 1967, there were only three street reporters along with Bonds and Morris in the studio.
Despite the small staff, Channel 7 was the only Detroit station that was really covering the riots in-depth. Other stations had been asked to NOT cover the riots, or were only attending press conferences. Only WXYZ-TV was out on the streets - where the action was. The riots produced powerful, even frightening footage and reflected the dangerous, dramatic and courageous coverage by Ken Thomas, Herrington, Mike Kalush, Dave Diles and others.
Bob Hynes was a Channel 7 morning show host, but the show did contain a news segment as well. When the rioting began, they went down to 12th Street to do a report from the devastation. As Hynes was reporting, a shot rang out right behind them! They hit the ground, crawled back in their vehicle and dashed to safety. The riots lasted another six days. It wasn’t until the violence had subsided that they realized the momentous impact of their coverage. That single news event propelled Channel 7 into local news dominance in Detroit for the next 25 years.
