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Bill Beutel
William Charles Beutel1 (December 12, 1930 – March 18, 2006) was an American television reporter, journalist, and anchor. He was best known for working over four decades with the American Broadcasting Company, spending much of that time anchoring Eyewitness News for WABC-TV in New York City. He also was an ABC radio network newscaster before ABC Radio split into four networks in January 1968. After the split he reported on the American Contemporary Network and occasionally substituted for Paul Harvey, while his Eyewitness News partner Roger Grimsby presented a daily afternoon radio newscast on the American Entertainment Network.
After a stint in the Army, Beutel graduated from Dartmouth College and then studied law at the University of Michigan Law School, though he left without obtaining his degree. While Beutel was in law school, he wrote Edward R. Murrow a letter saying, "I very much wanted to be a radio journalist." Beutel received a letter back advising him to go to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His first broadcasting job was for WGAR in Cleveland, then joined WEWS-TV as a news editor and anchor in July 1959. Beutel moved to New York City in January 1960 as a newscaster for WCBS, the flagship for CBS Radio.
Beutel moved to ABC in October 1962 as a reporter with ABC News and as an anchor at the network's New York flagship, WABC-TV. WABC-TV built on its three-year ratings success with newscast Report to New York anchored by Scott Vincent, and expanded the format to a one-hour 6:00 p.m. newscast called The Big News. That expansion was not without risk, and the new format struggled in the ratings. Among the hundreds of famous personages who were interviewed by Beutel was the African American Muslim and black nationalist leader Malcolm X.2 Beutel left his WABC duties for two years in April 1968 to join ABC News full-time as their London bureau chief.
In 1970, he got a call from Al Primo, who had taken over as news director at WABC after Beutel left. Primo had brought the Eyewitness News format, in which the reporters directly presented their stories, along with him from KYW-TV in Philadelphia. He wanted Beutel to return to New York as co-anchor alongside Roger Grimsby, whom Primo hired away from KGO-TV to serve as WABC-TV's main anchor. Primo remembered Beutel's solo anchor run in the early 1960s. Since Grimsby had already established a powerful presence after just two years in New York, Primo wanted a co-anchor "who could be his own man." Beutel assured Primo he could be. [citation needed]
Beutel rejoined WABC-TV in September 1970 as Grimsby's co-anchor on Eyewitness News. The two worked together for 16 years, most of which was spent going back and forth with WCBS-TV for first place in the New York ratings. In January 1975, Beutel was reassigned by ABC News and became the co-host, along with Stephanie Edwards, of a new morning show called AM America. This show, ABC's first attempt at a morning news program to compete with NBC's Today and CBS's combination of network news and Captain Kangaroo, lasted ten months on the air.
AM America was replaced on November 3, 1975 by Good Morning America, originally anchored by David Hartman and Nancy Dussault. Beutel returned to WABC-TV and Eyewitness News, though he maintained a presence on the network as the anchor of its 15-minute late newscasts on Saturday and Sunday nights through the late 1970s.
The reformed Grimsby-Beutel team kept Eyewitness News on top of the ratings through the middle 1980s, when it briefly fell to last place. Though the ratings drop was mostly associated with ABC-TV's poor primetime performance during that time, it led to Grimsby's firing in 1986. Within a year, WABC-TV had shot back to first place and has been the ratings leader in New York ever since. After Grimsby's firing, Beutel was joined at 6:00 p.m. by Kaity Tong and John Johnson in a rotating anchor arrangement and was permanently joined by Johnson beginning in 1988.
In 1990 Beutel began a long stint anchoring the 6 p.m. news alone, which ended when his 11 p.m. co-anchor Diana Williams joined him in 1999. He would close each broadcast with a brief commentary on the issues covered that day.
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Bill Beutel
William Charles Beutel1 (December 12, 1930 – March 18, 2006) was an American television reporter, journalist, and anchor. He was best known for working over four decades with the American Broadcasting Company, spending much of that time anchoring Eyewitness News for WABC-TV in New York City. He also was an ABC radio network newscaster before ABC Radio split into four networks in January 1968. After the split he reported on the American Contemporary Network and occasionally substituted for Paul Harvey, while his Eyewitness News partner Roger Grimsby presented a daily afternoon radio newscast on the American Entertainment Network.
After a stint in the Army, Beutel graduated from Dartmouth College and then studied law at the University of Michigan Law School, though he left without obtaining his degree. While Beutel was in law school, he wrote Edward R. Murrow a letter saying, "I very much wanted to be a radio journalist." Beutel received a letter back advising him to go to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His first broadcasting job was for WGAR in Cleveland, then joined WEWS-TV as a news editor and anchor in July 1959. Beutel moved to New York City in January 1960 as a newscaster for WCBS, the flagship for CBS Radio.
Beutel moved to ABC in October 1962 as a reporter with ABC News and as an anchor at the network's New York flagship, WABC-TV. WABC-TV built on its three-year ratings success with newscast Report to New York anchored by Scott Vincent, and expanded the format to a one-hour 6:00 p.m. newscast called The Big News. That expansion was not without risk, and the new format struggled in the ratings. Among the hundreds of famous personages who were interviewed by Beutel was the African American Muslim and black nationalist leader Malcolm X.2 Beutel left his WABC duties for two years in April 1968 to join ABC News full-time as their London bureau chief.
In 1970, he got a call from Al Primo, who had taken over as news director at WABC after Beutel left. Primo had brought the Eyewitness News format, in which the reporters directly presented their stories, along with him from KYW-TV in Philadelphia. He wanted Beutel to return to New York as co-anchor alongside Roger Grimsby, whom Primo hired away from KGO-TV to serve as WABC-TV's main anchor. Primo remembered Beutel's solo anchor run in the early 1960s. Since Grimsby had already established a powerful presence after just two years in New York, Primo wanted a co-anchor "who could be his own man." Beutel assured Primo he could be. [citation needed]
Beutel rejoined WABC-TV in September 1970 as Grimsby's co-anchor on Eyewitness News. The two worked together for 16 years, most of which was spent going back and forth with WCBS-TV for first place in the New York ratings. In January 1975, Beutel was reassigned by ABC News and became the co-host, along with Stephanie Edwards, of a new morning show called AM America. This show, ABC's first attempt at a morning news program to compete with NBC's Today and CBS's combination of network news and Captain Kangaroo, lasted ten months on the air.
AM America was replaced on November 3, 1975 by Good Morning America, originally anchored by David Hartman and Nancy Dussault. Beutel returned to WABC-TV and Eyewitness News, though he maintained a presence on the network as the anchor of its 15-minute late newscasts on Saturday and Sunday nights through the late 1970s.
The reformed Grimsby-Beutel team kept Eyewitness News on top of the ratings through the middle 1980s, when it briefly fell to last place. Though the ratings drop was mostly associated with ABC-TV's poor primetime performance during that time, it led to Grimsby's firing in 1986. Within a year, WABC-TV had shot back to first place and has been the ratings leader in New York ever since. After Grimsby's firing, Beutel was joined at 6:00 p.m. by Kaity Tong and John Johnson in a rotating anchor arrangement and was permanently joined by Johnson beginning in 1988.
In 1990 Beutel began a long stint anchoring the 6 p.m. news alone, which ended when his 11 p.m. co-anchor Diana Williams joined him in 1999. He would close each broadcast with a brief commentary on the issues covered that day.