Maurice J. "Mac" McGarry (born June 15, 1926) [1] is a retired game show host of the television quiz show It's Academic, which airs in Washington, D.C. on the local NBC-owned WRC-TV. He was the host of the show from the time it started airing on October 7, 1961, until June 25, 2011.
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McGarry joined NBC in 1950 for what was then WNBW located in the Wardman Park Hotel. [2] There he worked as the announcer for the NBC radio show American Forum of the Air. During this time, he was also making his first forays into television covering Truman's presidential inauguration events for NBC-TV and appearing regularly on NBC's The Big Preview. [3] Since then, he has hosted numerous talk shows, including In Our Town, the first weekly television program to be broadcast in color.[4]
Some of McGarry's first assignments included announcing news of the start of the Korean War and introducing President Truman from the White House. In the early 1950s, McGarry was involved in the first color television experiments. [2]
During the 1970s and 1980s, McGarry was the announcer for NBC News Updates that originated from Washington, and over the years also did live booth announcing work for WRC-TV.
In September 2011, McGarry temporarily took a leave of absence when he was suffering from a lingering cold. Hillary Howard, a news anchor of WTOP-FM, began filling in for him. Although McGarry's intentions were to continue hosting the 51st season of It's Academic, he announced in early November 2011 that he would be retiring and that Hillary Howard would be taking over as host.[5]
McGarry is a charter member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' (NATAS) Silver Circle. Other honors include: