Roger Grimsby

Roger Grimsby (September 23, 1928 – June 23, 1995) was an American journalist, television news anchor and actor. Grimsby, who for 18 years was seen on the ABC Television Network flagship station WABC in New York City, is known as one of the pioneers of local television broadcast news.

Early life

Roger Grimsby was an orphan who was born in Butte, Montana and raised in Duluth, Minnesota, by a Lutheran minister. After graduating from Denfeld High School in 1946, he attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, before studying history at Columbia University in New York. Grimsby was a U.S. Army veteran who was stationed in Germany before serving in the Korean War. It was during his stint in the Army that the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) sparked his interest in news broadcasting.

Career

Grimsby returned to his native Duluth, Minnesota, where he began his anchoring career in 1954, serving as an announcer for WEBC Radio. Shortly thereafter, he decided to switch to the growing medium of television, working as a correspondent and news director at various television stations around Minnesota and Wisconsin, including WEAU-TV Eau Claire, WISC-TV Madison, and WXIX-TV (now WVTV) Milwaukee. He then spent two years (1959–1961) at KMOX (now KMOV) in St. Louis, before becoming the anchor and news director at ABC-owned KGO-TV in San Francisco, in 1961.

In 1968 Grimsby was brought to WABC-TV in New York City by recently hired news director Al Primo, who the station imported to bring his Eyewitness News format to New York. Grimsby's initial co-anchor was former WCBS-TV newsman Tom Dunn but the man who was most closely identified with him was Bill Beutel, who replaced Dunn in 1970 and co-anchored the news with Grimsby until 1986.

A six-time Emmy Winner, Grimsby was fired from WABC in 1986 and, in an incident recounted by several of his colleagues, including Tom Snyder (who reported the incident on The Late Late Show soon after Grimsby's death^[1]), ABC further punished Grimsby by buying a building across from WABC's Lincoln Square studios where three bars Grimsby often frequented stood and evicting the bar owners from the building.

Grimsby was hired by WNBC-TV shortly after his WABC departure, where he served as anchor and reporter. In 1990, he relocated to California where he and George Reading of KMST became the first anchor team on KUSI's newly launched newscast.

Death

Roger Grimsby died on June 23, 1995, in New York City of lung cancer, at the age of 66.

Filmography

• Bananas (1971) - Himself
• The Exterminator (1980) - Himself
• Ghostbusters (1984) - Himself
• Turk 182 (1985) - Himself
• Power (1986) - Commentator
• Nothing but Trouble (1991) - TV Anchor (final film role)

Footnotes

References

External links

• Roger Grimsby on IMDb
• UHF Nocturne - print ads for KGO featuring Roger Grimsby
• Broadcast legends - Roger Grimsby Biography
• Carter, Bill (June 24, 1995). "Obituary: Roger Grimsby, 66, Anchor And Initiator of 'Happy Talk'". The New York Times.