The papers today are bringing reports of the death of Tom Snyder, former newscaster and former host of Tomorrow. When I was a young boy, I was a fan of Tom and his newscast out here in Los Angeles. I even wrote the following:
| Tom Snyder‘s here on NBC Bob Hale’s the weatherman ABC’s got Joe Benti 5’s got George Putnam An ode to Tom & Tom & Jess The network news on ABC |
But NBC’s a different thing The 6:00 is the best With Ross Porter and Tom Snyder Bob Hale and the rest. Tom Snyder‘s here on NBC |
For the longest time, the NBC O&O here in Los Angeles had a very strong news presence: There was Jess Marlow at 5pm, and Tom Snyder at 6pm. Tom Snyder’s newscast was the strongest, with Bob Hale (a former cartoonist, later on KING in Seattle) doing the weather (he was eventually replaced by Kelly Lange, who went on to anchor the newscast, and thence to mystery writing), and Ross Porter doing sports (Ross went on to be the voice of the Dodgers for a long time). After Tom Snyder made it big, another Tom took over the newscast: Tom Brokaw. He too eventually went on to the big national newscast world. I’m sure you’ve heard of him.
The news in Los Angeles eventually became clones: Paul Moyer is a Tom Snyder look-alike who has been on all the network O&Os; most of the other lead anchors have rotated around (except for folks like Hal Fishman on Channel 5). We’ve lost quality weather-folk such as Dr. George; we’re even seeing less of the next tier of folk like Johnny Mountain and Fritz Coleman. But who watches the local news on TV any more, unless there is a local disaster such as a major brush fire?
So what reporters do you remember from growing up?
