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I'm Van Amburg, and Here's what's Happening

L

LKellerIII

I had not realized (Fred) Van Amburg had passed away last week. I'm surprised it wasn't posted here before now. He was 86, and had been retired from KGO-TV news since he was let go by the bean-counters at Capital Cities (owners of ABC at the time), for making too high a salary - in the mid 80s. He was replaced by Pete Wilson.

In the 70s and into the early 80s, Channel 7 News Scene with co-anchors Van Amburg and Jerry Jenson was - by far- the top rated newscast in the San Francisco Bay Area. The SF Chronicle would post the Top 10 Neilson rated shows of the week - mostly network shows, of course. But it wasn't unusual for News Scene at 11:00 to make the Top 10 on a big news night. Amburg and company were given credit for both the Action News style format (though it was never called Action News at KGO-TV), and the "if-it-bleeds, it-leads" philosophy. Prime-time teasers from Van were legendary. One often quoted is "Severed penis found on railroad tracks. Details at 11:00." (para-phrasing - not sure of the exact quote).

Prior to his fame at KGO-TV, Amburg was the sports anchor at KPIX (IIRC), and before that, reported and did play-by-play sports for KNEW radio, and was a disc-jockey at 610/KFRC, prior to their Top 40 format. I'm probably missing some of his resume.

From the ABC7 website.
http://abc7news.com/news/legendary-kgo-anchorman-van-amburg-passes-away-at-86/2169199/

If I'm not mistaken, David Louie has been at KGO-TV long enough to have worked with Van Amburg. Don Sanchez (recently retired) did as well.

From the Mercury News:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/30/bay-area-tv-news-legend-van-amburg-has-died/
 
Well Wasn't Van Amburg the San Francisco version of Ron Burgundy though? I remember hearing stuff that Van Amburg had the ego among the management.

It's incredible though that Van Amburg replaced another legend on KGO Roger Grimsby. Grimsby was a KGO anchor in the 1960's before Grimsby was moved by ABC to anchor the WABC 7 eyewitness news in New York and they tried to play the Newsscene format in New York.

Wow Van Amburg's best clips happen to be the time when he had to do breaking news about the Jonestown Massacre in 1978 though.

I'm Van Amburg here's what's happening. That line is very similar to "I'm Roger Grimsby Here now the News"
 
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RadioPatrol said:
Well Wasn't Van Amburg the San Francisco version of Ron Burgundy though? I remember hearing stuff that Van Amburg had the ego among the management.

It's incredible though that Van Amburg replaced another legend on KGO Roger Grimsby. Grimsby was a KGO anchor in the 1960's before Grimsby was moved by ABC to anchor the WABC 7 eyewitness news in New York and they tried to play the Newsscene format in New York.

Wow Van Amburg's best clips happen to be the time when he had to do breaking news about the Jonestown Massacre in 1978 though.

I'm Van Amburg here's what's happening. That line is very similar to "I'm Roger Grimsby Here now the News"
Click to expand...

Yes, Fred...er..."Van" had a reputation for being difficult, though others will contest that, saying he was a stand-up guy. Another tidbit I missed was that he was also a talk-host at KNEW during their 60s talk format, and was billed "The Militant Moderate."

There are a number of Van Amburg clips on You Tube, and a mid 70s 60 Minutes segment on the era's "Happy Talk/Action News" type formats, including an interview with Van.

If I had to pick a Bay Area version of Ron Burgundy, it wouldn't be Van. I'd nominate Allen Denton at KNTV, before and for a few years after the station became NBC. Allen sort of shouted the news in dramatic tones, with a sincere, serious furrowed-brow look. IIRC, his co-anchor for awhile was the strangely repulsive (IMO) Terilyn Joe. They were quite the team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVV85jATa-U
 
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LKellerIII said:
Yes, Fred...er..."Van" had a reputation for being difficult, though others will contest that, saying he was a stand-up guy. Another tidbit I missed was that he was also a talk-host at KNEW during their 60s talk format, and was billed "The Militant Moderate."

There are a number of Van Amburg clips on You Tube, and a mid 70s 60 Minutes segment on the era's "Happy Talk/Action News" type formats, including an interview with Van.

If I had to pick a Bay Area version of Ron Burgundy, it wouldn't be Van. I'd nominate Allen Denton at KNTV, before and for a few years after the station became NBC. Allen sort of shouted the news in dramatic tones, with a sincere, serious furrowed-brow look. IIRC, his co-anchor for awhile was the strangely repulsive (IMO) Terilyn Joe. They were quite the team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVV85jATa-U
Click to expand...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OapPeL-69Ns

Well Allen Denton Later went to San Diego but back to Van Amburg. The best Van Amburg Clip here is when he had to do breaking News about Jonestown.
 
Whether you liked him or hated him, he was a Bay Area institution. After all, everybody was tuned to KGO so everybody watched him. You can compare him to Pete Wilson (also at KGO but also at KRON), Dave McElhatton (KPIX), Dennis Richmond (KTVU) and Pam Moore (KRON) as one of the Bay Area's all-time greats. He will be missed.
 
RadioPatrol said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0r-bXnpSNs

Van Amburgs Final public appearance was on KPIX5 News interview where the Late Dave McElhatton interviewed Van Amburgs life after KGO-TV.

Wow crazy to think that Former KGO-TV Anchors Roger Grimsby and Van Amburg got fired at the same time due to CapCities cuts.
Click to expand...

Yes. After his firing, Van was interviewed on KGO radio by Ronn Owens. Van stated that he might have been willing to stay for less money, but they didn't ask him. I kind of felt sorry for him, though I'm sure he had a VERY comfortable retirement.

That was the era in which they jettisoned anchors pretty quickly if their ratings weren't stellar. Both KRON, and KPIX (until Dave McElhatton) seemed to have revolving anchor chairs. By the time Cap Cities fired Van, his ratings were still good, but in decline. KPIX made a great choice in McElhatton. Viewers knew him from his decades at KCBS radio, and KPIX marketed him as kind of an anti-Ron Burgundy. Overweight, balding and rumpled..."a great face for radio," and all that. It worked, and Dave took a significant chunk out of Van's ratings. KRON didn't recover until much later, when they lured Pete Wilson (Van's replacement) away from KGO-TV.
 
Grimsby was essentially a direct inspiration for the 'Ron Burgundy' character, and was a more logical choice than Van Ambug to be considered as a 'Bay Area Burgundy'(and Pete Giddings was probably the biggest prima donna of all, he just hid it on the air...kind of like Tommy Smothers actually being the antithesis of a naive bumpkin).
 
Was he the inspiration for the Ted Baxter character on the MTM Show?
 
Baxter has been called a 'composite' of longtime Los Angeles anchors Jerry Dunphy and George Putnam(particularly the latter, who hailed from St. Paul, Minnesota, had distinctive silver hair(as did Putnam) and was known for injecting glib catch phrases into an otherwise serious approach).
For years, Putnam disliked the 'Ted Baxter' character, and turned down occasional offers to appear with Ted Knight in interviews. Eventually,Putnam was persuaded to change his mind, and actually got to be friends with Knight.
 
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onairb2014 said:
Baxter has been called a 'composite' of longtime Los Angeles anchors Jerry Dunphy and George Putnam(particularly the latter, who hailed from St. Paul, Minnesota, had distinctive silver hair(as did Putnam) and was known for injecting glib catch phrases into an otherwise serious approach).
For years, Putnam disliked the 'Ted Baxter' character, and turned down occasional offers to appear with Ted Knight in interviews. Eventually,Putnam was persuaded to change his mind, and actually got to be friends with Knight.
Click to expand...

Yes - MTM producers always said Baxter was a "composite," but his whole pompous demeanor, and standing on the news set, was Putnam all the way. All Baxter shared with Dunphy was the white hair, and Dunphy's reputation (possibly not deserved) for being kind of stupid. Also, the name "Baxter" may have come from KABC-TV anchor Baxter Ward, who left TV for politics around the time the MTM show premiered. I saw Mary Tyler Moore interviewed during the run of her show on Johnny Carson, and she indicated it was Putnam, all the way.

I've heard that Ted Knight was actually invited on the Putnam's newscast once, and they would take turns announcing stories. I don't know how long this went on - probably just a few minutes. I'd love to see a tape of that!
 
onairb2014 said:
Grimsby was essentially a direct inspiration for the 'Ron Burgundy' character, and was a more logical choice than Van Ambug to be considered as a 'Bay Area Burgundy'(and Pete Giddings was probably the biggest prima donna of all, he just hid it on the air...kind of like Tommy Smothers actually being the antithesis of a naive bumpkin).
Click to expand...

Well Roger Grimsby supposed has huge ego when he was at KGO and WABC when it came to contract negotiations between the News Director and General managers of both ABC Owned stations. VanAmburg was basically Roger Grimsby's ego that stayed in San Francisco.

But wait I thought Ron Burgundy is a composite of Chris Harris, Paul Moyer and Harold Greene.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Well Roger Grimsby supposed has huge ego when he was at KGO and WABC when it came to contract negotiations between the News Director and General managers of both ABC Owned stations. VanAmburg was basically Roger Grimsby's ego that stayed in San Francisco.

But wait I thought Ron Burgundy is a composite of Chris Harris, Paul Moyer and Harold Greene.
Click to expand...

My memory is that when the MTM show premiered, Moyer wasn't much of a thing yet - or Harold Greene. IIRC - Tom Snyder was still a primary KNBC anchor at 6:00 (pre-Tomorrow), along with Jess Marlow at 5:00, and Tom Brokaw at 11:00. Greene also came along a few years later. He was co-anchor with the famed Dave McElhatton in San Francisco for a year or so on KPIX, but flamed out. His replacement - Larry Moore - was much better.
So I was surprised to hear about Greene's success in LA.

This was still the day of all-male anchor teams. In fact, since this thread's supposed to be about Van Amburg...I recall that after Jerry Jensen died, KGO-TV teamed Van with Suzanne Saunders (later "Shaw"). Van was reportedly angry about that - presumably because the lovely and talented Saunders would command more attention than the capable but rumpled Jensen.
 
Well I remember there was a clip of Mike Wallace of CBS showing up at the KGO studios back in the 1970's and question the integrity of the KGO staff at the time. This was when Van Amburg, Jerry Jensen and Russ Coughlin the News Director/GM of KGO at the time were all confronted over how news content was handled at KGO and ABC O&O's at the time. This includes Mike Wallace showing up at Now CBS O&O KPIX at the time and confronting the News Directors pre-Dave McElhatton at the time. I think this was early 70's and that news director of KPIX at the time sounded dumb when he talk to Mike Wallace. Also you had Van Amburg and Russ Coughlin go on the defensive at Mike Wallace at the time saying ratings was a factor here.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Well I remember there was a clip of Mike Wallace of CBS showing up at the KGO studios back in the 1970's and question the integrity of the KGO staff at the time. This was when Van Amburg, Jerry Jensen and Russ Coughlin the News Director/GM of KGO at the time were all confronted over how news content was handled at KGO and ABC O&O's at the time. This includes Mike Wallace showing up at Now CBS O&O KPIX at the time and confronting the News Directors pre-Dave McElhatton at the time. I think this was early 70's and that news director of KPIX at the time sounded dumb when he talk to Mike Wallace. Also you had Van Amburg and Russ Coughlin go on the defensive at Mike Wallace at the time saying ratings was a factor here.
Click to expand...

It was a 60 Minutes segment. I watched it a couple of years ago on You Tube, but it looks like it's been taken down. IIRC, it was a fairly softball story for the intrepid Mike Wallace, who often camera-ambushed the miscreants he did stories about. Wallace just laid out the facts, the quest for ratings, and the cynicism of local news rooms at the time.
 
onairb2014 said:
Grimsby was essentially a direct inspiration for the 'Ron Burgundy' character, and was a more logical choice than Van Ambug to be considered as a 'Bay Area Burgundy'(and Pete Giddings was probably the biggest prima donna of all, he just hid it on the air...kind of like Tommy Smothers actually being the antithesis of a naive bumpkin).
Click to expand...
I heard Ron Burgundy was a parody of Harold Greene during his time at KABC-TV Los Angeles as a fill in anchor for Jerry Dunphy and a main talent in San Diego.



 
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