Walter Cronkite Dies at 92

[radioman148]

Frank McGee was a superb reporter who knew his stuff when anchoring the early space flights for NBC. Another excellent reporter on the spacebeat for NBC was Roy Neal. NBC beat CBS solidly in the ratings for space coverage in the 60's.

Huntley and Brinkley did not do space flights until 1965 due to a sponsor conflict. As you probably remember, Texaco was the sponsor for the Huntley-Brinkley Report and Gulf was the sponsor for the NBC live space coverage (or for any other breaking news event.)

In 1965, CBS came close to NBC in ratings for coverage of the Gemini 3 flight. For subsequent flights, with Texaco no longer sponsoring the news, NBC assigned Huntley and Brinkley to anchor the broadcasts. Neither Huntley or Brinkley had much interest in Space Flight and it showed -- they didn't do their homework. After a while, it got to the point where Chet & David's main duties on the broadcasts seemed to be introducing McGee and Neal who were much better versed on the subject than Huntley and Brinkley were. At that point, NBC's ratings for the broadcasts deservedly went into the crapper. Two excellent reporters, McGee and Neal, were exiled to the sidelines and viewers were the big losers.

McGee & Neal were a must watch for me whenever there was a space flight. There was nobody better than those guys IMO.