Triton College - Chicago Celebrities with Mel Novit - "Bill Kurtis" (1982)

Here's another Chicago Celebrities with Mel Novit interview from the studios of Triton College, this time with WBBM Channel 2's dean of television anchors, Bill Kurtis. (This was just before Mr. Kurtis would head off to New York to co-anchor the CBS Morning News for a spell, as Mel notes outright in the open; his start date was to be March 25th.)

(Theme music: "From East to West" by Voyage.)

Includes:

Mel starting off about how some national news anchors first gained prominence in Chicago, in his introduction of Bill; topics discussed include his background and growing up in Kansas, how their roads led to Chicago, where he started in broadcasting while studying law, the challenges in moving to New York and network TV (to which he said he was returning), the Big Apple's "real estate gridlock," how he plans to help put the Morning News at or near the top and how he (and Walter Jacobson) helped do the same at WBBM, his assessment of Walter personally and professionally and how the team evolved, his opinion of the TV camera, his philosophy of TV news and reporting, his role in starting Channel 2's Focus Unit, the process of writing and editing for TV news, his particular input on a newscast (with his reports on Agent Orange, Vietnamese children and cancer cited), the growth of other news sources including cable, how he'd differ from Charles Kuralt on the Morning News, the changes in Channel 2 News structurally and otherwise since he and Walter first came together, how his stature may affect what he reports in the future, a network anchor's salary vs. a local anchor's, how he came to the network level (Van Gordon Sauter and Ed Joyce, both WBBM alumni), how he sees the challenge to bring the Morning News up in ratings, the business of ratings "sweep" periods and the tyranny of ratings, how his "special assignments" came about, the issue of carcinogens from the time of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" on, the role Walter plays on their newscasts, the secret to how he did things (on Agent Orange, his audiences of influential politicians and the Veterans Administration), how his investigative reporting is a "two-edged sword," and his attribution of his success in his field. (Mel also brings up Bill's having represented Walter in a libel suit as a lawyer, and once working as a photographer.)

Ending credits:

Talent Coordinator - Mel Novit
Lighting - Chip Kopp, Kurt Werner
Camera - Darryl Krall, Jim Mikalsen
Floor Manager - Rochelle DiMaso
Graphics by Lori Gragnani, Cathy Kenyeri, Walter Myers, Mike Stanley
Producer - Joan Etten
Director - Chip Kopp
A Triton College Media Center Production
River Grove, IL (C) 1982

"I'm a native Midwesterner. . . . We have an electronic pencil - cameras."

This aired on local Chicago TV (via cable) some time in 1982.

About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:

The Museum of Classic Chicago Television's primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s and early 80s, primarily) recorded off of any and all Chicago TV channels (or other cities occasionally); footage which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to DVD, and to view more of the 4,700+ (and counting) video clips available for viewing in our online archive, please visit us at:
http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/index.php...