Today, viewers take for granted that every TV station in town will have a brand: "Action News 12," "NewsCenter 4," "News 7," "NewsChannel 5," "NewsWatch 15."

But "Eyewitness News" was the most influential of them all and it was popularized by North Side native Al Primo.

Now 73, Primo writes about his career and the development of the "Eyewitness News" format in his new book, "Eyewitness Newsman" ($24.95, Xlibris). He'll be in Pittsburgh for two book signings today.

Primo self-published "Eyewitness Newsman" in paperback. He said he had offers from major publishers but they were more interested in "the dark side of television," he said. "In my advanced age, I was really more interested in telling the history of how this format and concept were developed."

In many ways it was a happy accident.

Primo began his career in television fresh out of high school in 1953 at WDTV, the forerunner to KDKA, while studying at the University of Pittsburgh.

"I had the benefit of working in every job there was in television: cameraman, film editor, writer, producer, on the air," he said. Through that he learned the importance of using video to illustrate a story and of talking to people who witnessed whatever event was being covered. "Bill Burns was a great believer in talking to people. Very often we'd go out and interview people about their reactions to various stories. It gave me a real understanding of what the impact of journalism is all about: People want to hear from other people."

He continued to work at KDKA after the name change from WDTV, moving up from the mailroom to become a correspondent, producer and eventually assistant news director. He describes in "Eyewitness Newsman" how he went out on an assignment in 1955, flying up to Franklin, Venango County, to conduct an interview. At that time, reporters were not seen on camera, he explained, because to do so would require an appearance-fee payment under union rules.

The photographer who accompanied Primo to Franklin forgot a piece of equipment necessary for recording sound. Scrambling, the pair found a tape recorder in Franklin and were able to record audio for the story but it required editing the piece so viewers never saw the interview subject's lips moving for fear the audio and video wouldn't sync. Primo was shown in the report conducting the interview.

"Bill Burns liked it and they used it on the air and I got paid a talent fee," Primo said by phone earlier this week from his home in Greenwich, Conn.

"He decided not to edit me out of the story, thereby making me an 'eyewitness' for the station," Primo writes in his book. "It showed our viewers one of our people was actually there. They knew it was our story."

Because of union rules and a desire to keep costs down, the "Eyewitness News" concept of showing reporters on TV didn't catch on until later. Primo put it into practice while news director at Philadelphia's KYW-TV after he discovered a new contract provision allowed union members to write, record and appear on air without being paid a talent fee.

"We created the first [television] beat system: a city hall reporter, a science reporter, and in true journalist fashion, these beats started producing exclusive stories," Primo said.

Soon the concept was picked up by stations across the country. KDKA-TV used the "Eyewitness News" tag for a time and Primo said he doubled the ratings of WABC in New York by launching the concept there during his tenure as news director from 1968-72.

Primo said he doesn't earn any royalties from the format that was eventually used by stations nationwide (about 80 stations still use "Eyewitness News," he said).

"I created the 'Eyewitness News' format while I was an employee of Westinghouse Broadcasting, and when you're an employee of a company, the company owns all your ideas and there's no way of copyrighting that," he said.

Today he's executive producer of the syndicated series "Teen Kids News," which airs locally on WTAE at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

Primo will sign copies of his book today at the Barnes & Noble at Duquesne University on Forbes Avenue, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., and at the Borders in Northway Mall on McKnight Road from 4:30 to 7 p.m.

Filmmaker Nathan Southern of Beverly Hills, Mich., is putting together a documentary on the late Johnny Costa, longtime music director of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," and he is seeking any private footage of Costa that Pittsburghers might have. Southern is particularly interested in locating a 3/4" tape of a Dec. 14, 1955, appearance by Costa on Steve Allen's "Tonight Show" and any footage of "Funsville," a Josie Carey program that featured Costa.

If you have any of this footage or know where it might be found, contact Southern at horizons_fw@earthlink.net or 1-248-835-4812.

HBO has renewed vampire drama "True Blood" for a second season. ... After Sunday's fall preview TV Week was printed, ABC moved the season premiere of "Samantha Who?" from Oct. 6 to Oct. 13. ... Prior to Sunday's telecast of the Emmy Awards on ABC, E! will air the "2008 Creative Arts Emmy Awards" (8 p.m. Saturday), including the second Emmy for "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List," which won for best reality program. ... TLC's "Little People, Big World" returns for a new season at 8 p.m. Oct. 13. ... TNT has renewed "Raising the Bar" for a second season and "Saving Grace" for a third. ... The Tuned In Podcast includes a preview of the new fall season, the ick factor of "Fringe" and the season premiere of "Heroes" next Monday (please ignore the one "tonight" typo in Sunday's TV Week preview). Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/tv.

Post-Gazette TV editor Rob Owen answers reader questions online every Friday at post-gazette.com/tv. Here's a question from today's online column:

Question: Any insight on why KDKA has not launched any digital subchannels? WTAE and WPXI have a weather channel and WPXI also has RTN.

-- Mike, 36, McCandless

Rob: I suspect KDKA is waiting for CBS, its corporate owner, to devise a strategy for making use of digital subchannels for all its owned stations.

"At this point we do not have specific plans to launch an additional channel using this space," said KDKA general manager Chris Pike. "We currently plan to begin providing HD local news service very early in 2009."

Ask TV questions at post-gazette.com/tv under TV Q&A.