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Remembering newspaper TV & radio critics.

H

hamster

Sure some are still around even though they may not have the power they once had. I remember Tom Shales and "Captain Airwaves" in the Washington Post, Dusty Saunders in Denver's now defunct Rocky Mountain News, Douglas Durden ( a woman..not a man ) in the Richmond, Virginia Times-Dispatch but two I especially remember is Larry Bonko in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and Bobby Ford in the Winchester, Virginia Star.

When WAVY-TV 10 was having issues with it's news back in early 1981 it was Larry Bonko who told WAVY to dump "Area 10 Eyewitness News" and to become "The Daily News". It worked but I think part of that was due to how well NBC was doing in the mid 80s. When WTKR brought back Eyewitness News in 1992 Bonko slammed it. With a year or two WTKR became "NewsChannel 3".

Bobby Ford..myself never had a problem with him but our weekend part-timers did. Ford would make comments such as "..why does this radio station sound so good during the week but goes to hell on weekends ??". I remember we lost a number of part-timers over his comments.

Any critics you remember ??
 
hamster said:
Sure some are still around even though they may not have the power they once had. I remember Tom Shales and "Captain Airwaves" in the Washington Post, Dusty Saunders in Denver's now defunct Rocky Mountain News, Douglas Durden ( a woman..not a man ) in the Richmond, Virginia Times-Dispatch but two I especially remember is Larry Bonko in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and Bobby Ford in the Winchester, Virginia Star.

When WAVY-TV 10 was having issues with it's news back in early 1981 it was Larry Bonko who told WAVY to dump "Area 10 Eyewitness News" and to become "The Daily News". It worked but I think part of that was due to how well NBC was doing in the mid 80s. When WTKR brought back Eyewitness News in 1992 Bonko slammed it. With a year or two WTKR became "NewsChannel 3".

Bobby Ford..myself never had a problem with him but our weekend part-timers did. Ford would make comments such as "..why does this radio station sound so good during the week but goes to hell on weekends ??". I remember we lost a number of part-timers over his comments.

Any critics you remember ??
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Seattle had some strong newspaper media reporters over the years. Seattle Times Victor Streideke reported on Seattle radio throughout the 60's through the 80's, sometimes 2-3 times a week . John Voorhees also with the Times was a tv columnist during this era who wasn't afraid to comment on the local scene. This type of reporting continued into the 80's and 90's, but lately not so much. But Seattle certainly was a market where the newspapers regularly commented on the local electronic media.
 
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Cleveland had two longtime writers (at least during my formative years): Bill Hickey for the Plain Dealer and Bill Barrett for the Press.
 
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