TV and Radio Personalities you once loved that are no more

[roadman65]

I miss the duo of Al Michaels and John Maddin on SNF.  Now with Madden retired and living the life he deserves Sunday Night Football is not the same.

Also Ralph Kiner, former Cubs, Pirates, and Met's TV announcer is well missed.  At least he got his wish as years ago long before the Tampa Bay Rays, he always wanted St. Pete to have a MLB franchise because many baseball greats came from St. Pete and never understood why it never got a team.  The Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the time got commissioned into the MLB when he was alive, so at least that wish for him came true.

[Pete from Boston]

There is a void in my life that will never quite be filled, left behind by Phil Rizzuto. 

Much like baseball was a much different, more relaxed, more pedestrian affair in those days, so were the broadcasts done by him and Bill White. You got the feeling that if you sat down to watch the game with Phil Rizzuto, he would sound exactly the same way as he did delivering his stream of consciousness to millions of people on TV, and it would still be just about 40% about the game you were watching. 

He was like our uncle that lived on channel 11.

[OCGuy81]

I really miss the Mark and Brian show which aired for over 20 years on KLOS.  I used to listen to the show when my dad would drive me to school, and I continued listening to them when I was driving to work when I got older.  They became synonymous with my weekday mornings.

Last show was in 2012, and the show they brought in to replace it after was garbage, so I tuned out.  Luckily, by then, I had a car with an ipod jack so I could listen to what I wanted. Still, I do miss that show.

[SidS1045]

In the New York area we used to have a man name Roger Grimsby, who I did not know that well growing up because my parents liked Chuck Scarborough and Rolland Smith. So Channel 7, where he anchored the 6 o clock news, we never watched.

I heard some interesting stories about him and I wish I could have seen them in action.  I cannot say what I heard about him as I have no proof of what he did, if he did them, etc.  Just miss him because he sounded very interesting and he seemed very opinionated at a lot of things that is what made him the talk of the town as it did appear that he had a mouth that got him into trouble at times.

Also I would like to know who the drunk TV news anchor was that got fired in NYC for showing up on the air shit faced and said the wrong thing during the broadcast not allowing him to complete the news for that particular evening.  The person who told me said that his name was at the tip of her tongue, but could not remember. She also said this anchor was also as opinionated as Grimsby was when even sober.

I worked for ABC on the radio side in the 1970's and got to know Roger...well, as much as anyone could.  Roger was not exactly the warmest person on the face of the earth, but what I heard from others at ABC was that if he liked you, professionally and/or personally, there was no better friend one could have.

There is a series of YouTube videos (four, I believe) which are comprised of the various tributes to Roger which aired on NYC TV stations when he died in 1995.  One of them was a tribute done by WCBS-TV in which a former co-worker, Lou Young, related a now famous story about how Roger, with an ad-libbed one-liner, single-handedly saved what could have been a nasty situation.  RoseAnn Scamardella was introducing a report by Mara Wolinsky, and during RoseAnn's intro Mara was on-camera, making gestures at the floor director, and apparently forgetting she was on camera, gave him the middle finger just as RoseAnn was done.  They immediately cut her off and went to the anchors, Roger and Bill Beutel.  Roger, with no prep time whatsoever, said:  "Well, as Mara Wolinsky would say, we're number one."  The entire cast and crew broke up, and it took the edge off what had just happened.  The YouTube clips contain a lot of Roger's memorable moments, but none so memorable to me as when he was asked what was his worst on-air mistake:  "I mispronounced 'count.'"

The drunk person you are probably referring to was WABC-TV's long-time weatherman Tex Antoine.  Unfortunately he was an alky and had this bad habit of coming to work "in the bag."  What got Tex fired was his reaction to a story Roger Grimsby had just read on the 6PM Eyewitness News about the particularly vicious rape of an eight-year-old girl.  Roger then intro'd Tex, and Tex's first words were:  "Well, with rape so predominant in the news lately, it's well to remember the words of Confucius:  'If rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it.'"  The ABC switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree, Roger aired an apology at the end of the 11PM newscast and Tex was "sentenced" to answering all the complaints.  Five days later, Roger introduced Antoine's replacement, Storm Field (son of long-time NYC weatherman Dr. Frank Field), with the line "Lie back, relax and enjoy the weather with Storm Field."

[bing101]

From the SF Bay Area:

Thuy Vu, with the coolest name in the news business and a very smooth NPR delivery. (I think she's still around; I just stopped getting news from TV and radio many years ago).

Not loved but notorious from the past: helmet-haired Terilyn Joe, who had many admirers and detractors.

Also: Alex Bennett, Mark Hamilton, Steve Masters and Big Rick Stuart at Live 105 (alternative rock back in the day; sadly they have decayed into pretty much a clone of Mix 106)

Thuy Vu is now on KQED 9 and 88.5 FM in the San Francisco area and does KQED Newsroom since 2013. Also Thuy Vu May also do reports for PBS Newshour as the West Coast Correspondent.

http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/newsroom/

[bing101]

In the New York area we used to have a man name Roger Grimsby, who I did not know that well growing up because my parents liked Chuck Scarborough and Rolland Smith. So Channel 7, where he anchored the 6 o clock news, we never watched.

I heard some interesting stories about him and I wish I could have seen them in action.  I cannot say what I heard about him as I have no proof of what he did, if he did them, etc.  Just miss him because he sounded very interesting and he seemed very opinionated at a lot of things that is what made him the talk of the town as it did appear that he had a mouth that got him into trouble at times.

Also I would like to know who the drunk TV news anchor was that got fired in NYC for showing up on the air shit faced and said the wrong thing during the broadcast not allowing him to complete the news for that particular evening.  The person who told me said that his name was at the tip of her tongue, but could not remember. She also said this anchor was also as opinionated as Grimsby was when even sober.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVpX5y381sI

Before ABC Moved Roger Grimsby to New York. Roger Grimsby did the KGO 7 News in San Francisco in the 1960's.
Roger Grimsby's San Francisco Replacement was VanAmburg.