The problem with that scenario is that Frank McGee became ill in 1973 and died shortly thereafter, so his tenure as the anchor would have been brief at best.
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Huntley/Brinkley vs. Cronkite
- Thread starter installLSC
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Brokaw was only 34 years old in 1974, young to be anchoring a nightly network newscast, especially in those days, when network anchors were older - or at least looked older. Cronkite was actually only 58 in 74, and only 47 when he began anchoring the CBS Evening News, but he had serious gravitas, a sonorous voice, and that mature face. Same with Huntley, Brinkley, and Howard K. Smith. Critics might have made fun of Brokaw if he had been anchoring that young...I recall they made fun of his very slight speech impediment years later.
When I left LA in 1973, Tom Brokaw was still anchoring the 11:00 PM broadcast of KNBC News. FYI - Tom Snyder was also anchoring at KNBC then.
In fact, at the time, he was viewed by serious journalists as a "pretty boy." It took a few years at the White House to build his credibility.
Plus Frank McGee was regarded as NBC's "space analyst", and there were an awful lot of launches and missions
to keep him busy on that beat back then.
to keep him busy on that beat back then.
I've heard that Brokaw left Today for Nightly News was because he didn't like the showbiz aspects of Today. Of course what resulted when he went to the evening news was a long tenure in the anchor chair- and after a slow start, no.1 ratings by the late 90s.
Peter Jennings was only 28 the first time! Of course, it didn't work out very well for that very reason.
I think the lesson here is that age has never been an issue with network tv. Jennings in his 20's? Wow. But I guess ABC was in last place and they had nothing to lose. Brokaw, somewhat different, but NBC took a major gamble on a younger reporter/anchor. I guess as some of us age we can't accept this "younger" approach, but it is certainly not without precedence.
That's what Jennings himself said: "ABC was in bad shape at the time," Jennings said. "They were willing to try anything, and, to demonstrate the point, they tried me." The year was 1965. He lasted 3 years, and quit to become a foreign correspondent.
I saw an ad in an old magazine from 1966 announcing that the ABC News with Peter Jennings
was expanding from 15 minutes in black-and-white to a full half-hour in color. Wish I had kept that.
At our house it was pretty much Cronkite. That is because KDKA dominated local news, and they were a CBS affiliate. The NBC affiliate, WIIC, was pretty much a joke in the news biz. The ABC affiliate, WTAE, did not come in well at all at our house in the Rabbit Ears era.
was expanding from 15 minutes in black-and-white to a full half-hour in color. Wish I had kept that.
At our house it was pretty much Cronkite. That is because KDKA dominated local news, and they were a CBS affiliate. The NBC affiliate, WIIC, was pretty much a joke in the news biz. The ABC affiliate, WTAE, did not come in well at all at our house in the Rabbit Ears era.
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I remember thinking he was a "pretty boy" too - but I was watching the KNBC News Service (I think that was the title in those days) at 11:00 the day Nixon sent bombers into Cambodia, effectively widening the Vietnam War - at least that was the worry. I just Googled it - May 20, 1970.
Outside of the pompous and overbearing George Putnam on KTLA, local newscasters in Los Angeles did not editorialize in those days. But that night, Brokaw must have gotten special dispensation from his bosses. He delivered an impassioned editorial - not really taking sides politically, but looking at the escalation and potential loss of life from a moral perspective. Brokaw then closed the broadcast about 3 minutes early, and KNBC ran the News Service logo by itself, accompanied by a rather tense piece of classical musice - not their normal closing theme. It was very impressive, made the point he wanted to make, and I recall thinking that Tom Brokaw was definitely more than a pretty face.
As a sidebar, KNBC NewsService was the same concept as KING NewsService circa 1971. Both had the famous "living room" sets, basically sitting in comfy chairs with no desk, just a coffee table in front of them. I can't speak for who started it first, but I know by 1975 KING has moved to a newsroom set. Now back on topic...
KNBC was the news I watched in those days, and I don't recall a "living room" set, comfy chairs, and no desk. I'm pretty sure the Toms (Snyder & Brokaw), and Jess Marlow worked from a desk. Just checked YouTube, and the closest I could find was Kelly Lange in 1977, but they were NewsCenter 4 by then.
It's amusing what tacky news sets were attempted back in those days. The worst I can recall was KPIX 5 in San Francisco about 1973-74. They were being slaughtered in the ratings by Van Amburg on KGO-TV, so they fired Ron Magers (who ended up being a very successful and distinguished long-time anchor in Chicago), and hired a pretty boy airhead named Gene Tuck. His co-anchor was actually a guy with gravitas - bearded Andy Park, who went on to success at other stations. The KPIX set was supposed to remind you of The Front Page, I think - or some other old film about newspapers. They sat at beat up old wooden desks, with 40s style office chairs - teletype in the corner, etc. If they had worn snap-brim hats, it would have completed the picture. It was laughable.
Now I'm in full nostalgia mode - their new sports anchor was a "super-fan" kind of guy named Milt Kahn, who, I understand, was a staple on the local sports talk radio station, but had no TV broadcasting experience, and couldn't read a prompter without stumbling over his tongue. On the day in April '74 that Hank Aaron beat Babe Ruth's homerun record, Kahn opened the sports report by saying, "Babe Ruth has broken Hank Aaron's long-standing homerun record..." Milt was gone the next day.
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I can't vouch for how long KNBC ran the "living room format", but I am certain they tried it for awhile as I remember some "stills" from that era. Obviously, the format never took off to any great extent.
The "Tom's" were certainly bigger than life back in the day, and LA news in general set the tone for what was considered the cream of the crop in the 1970's. Today, LA news looks pretty much like every other market, with perhaps prettier faces and more risque outfits, but beyond that could be anywhere USA. From a journalistic standpoint, they miss the mark, instead rushing to any shiny news story that will attract attention, but then again, that is nothing new with LA news.
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As us "boomers" will recall, Tom Snyder got his try at the big time, with The Tomorrow Show - then an interview show - generally not oriented toward Hollywood, and no audience - out of NYC. There's lots of old YouTube clips of Aykroyd on SNL, but oddly, none of him doing Snyder. But here's a still pic of Aykroyd as Snyder, interviewing Carrie Fisher:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/photos/photo-dan-aykroyd-tom-snyder-carrie-fisher-linda-45037051
And just for juxtaposition, here's the REAL Snyder interviewing the original cast of SNL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7gvTEA2uT8
The man certainly smoked like a chimney. He died from leukemia in 2007 at age 71. And final piece of trivia - The Tomorrow Show was cancelled to make way for Late Night with David Letterman.
It's funny the trivial crap one recalls. In keeping with it's image as a news "service," KNBC ran an early version of a digital clock at the bottom of the logo screen - to segue to commercials, and over the end credits. You'd watch the clock 11:29:57...11:29:58, 11:59:19, 11:30:00 - cue Tonight Show music, Ed McMahon. My young brain always thought that was cool.
And some might not remember after Snyder left "Tomorrow", he anchored at WABC New York, then hosted an afternoon talk show at KABC Los Angeles. Eventually back to late night on CBS following Letterman in the mid-90's.
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WRC-TV in Washington had a living room set in the early 60s. In one of their anniversary specials ( 60th ? ) they showed a clip of Jim Gibbons doing sports. Not only was it a living room set but there was a fireplace in the background and oh yes Jim was smoking a pipe.
Not a word about Snyder's days at KYW in the City of Brotherly Love? I was in the single digits when he was there.
ixnay
Between KABC and CBS, Snyder had a syndicated nighttime radio show, which was replaced for a short time by a simulcast of the 'Late Late Show'.
Yes Tom did and I remember it well. Our station carried it for awhile. It was a good show BUT Tom Snyder ran into major problems with the Howard Stern crowd. Such people would call in and was serious at first then they would ask a question that is so off the wall and weird. I can remember when Tom Snyder had Florence Henderson from the Brady Bunch as guest and some guy called in ( they were always males ) and at first was serious and then the question was about John Holmes the porno actor. Florence said she didn't know him and the caller called her a "liar". Tom Snyder went off !!! He screamed those folks are paying with fire and he will press charges and I assume these people were probably laughing at him. I think not too long after this incident Debra Norvell took over.
Never heard Snyder's radio show, but Florence was pretty far removed from Carol Brady in real life. She had a real career...mostly as a singer, both before and after Brady. She was certainly no naïve innocent - and could be pretty salty on occasion.
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