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In the summer of 1976, San Francisco's and Mountain time zones) to local network-affiliated stations in the Top Fifty Television Markets , prohibiting them from accepting network-originated programming (and later on, syndicated reruns of network programs) in that time slot. KPIX's ''Evening Magazine'' was first hosted by Jan Yanehiro and Steve Fox. Evening was the first of a new breed of totally videotaped-shot (rather than 16 mm film) television shows that took advantage of new minicam technology. The format called for the local hosts to have on-location wraparounds (in and around their local communities) and introduced short feature stories about ordinary and interesting people doing extraordinary and quite newsworthy things. Two long features were augmented each day by a block of "tips." At the time, Group W owned four other stations around the country, and because of the success of ''Evening Magazine'' in the San Francisco market, they rolled it out to their other properties. Soon, Boston's WBZ-TV , Philadelphia's KYW-TV , Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV , and Baltimore's WJZ-TV were all doing their own local versions of the ''Evening'' format. The show's format allowed the stations to share their feature stories among each other. For example, a feature that aired in San Francisco could also be shown in Baltimore, and vice versa. The success of the format on the Group W stations gave the company management a bigger idea. Group W decided to expand and syndicate the format to other markets where they didn't own stations. The first market that was interested in producing their own ''Evening'', KING-TV in Seattle, already had a program on the air called ''Evening Magazine'', which airs on that station to this day. However, Group W came up with another title that could be cleared in other markets: PM Magazine. At the end of 1970's, with ''Evening'' and ''PM'' now all over the country, Group W Productions created a large production office in San Francisco. It's job was to watch all of the stories being produced by the new local ''PM'' and ''Evening Magazine'' stations and create a weekly "national reel" for stations to run in local markets. Depending on local station budgets they could produce as much or as little feature material as they wanted, but still have a local show starring local talent. The cooperative production model created by ''Evening/PM'' remains unique to this day. ''Evening/PM'' was also a breeding ground for television on air and production talent. Matt Lauer , Tom Bergeron , and Leeza Gibbons were among those who got their big breaks on the ''PM/Evening'' formats. In it's more than a decade run show's local market producers traveled all over the country and the world producing fun and memorable television. By 1990, when Group W decided to cancel the format, the show was edged out by many of its local time slots by tabloid TV news investigation programs. Shows such as '' A Current Affair '', '' Hard Copy '', and '' Inside Edition '', along with the lighter-edged '' Entertainment Tonight '' filled up the prime time access available spots and ended ''Evening/PM'''s run, although KPIX would resurrect its own version of ''Evening Magazine'' once again, this time in the mid-1990s. During this run, one of the hosts was Mike Rowe , who has sinced moved on to host several cable-TV series, including '' Worst Case Scenarios '' and '' Dirty Jobs '', as well as narrating '' American Chopper ''. KPIX continued to air its version of ''Evening Magazine'' weeknights before CBS's primetime programs up until 2005, when the show's name was changed to ''Eye on the Bay'', with the format changing, and the hosts changing completely after a short transition. STATIONS THAT CARRIED ''EVENING/PM MAGAZINE'' (a partial listing, arranged on current Nielsen DMA data)
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