Wayback machine only goes so far for Bill & Walter
Ladies and gentlemen, the winner and still champion is . . . Ron Magers.
Despite all the excitement and publicity surrounding the return of Bill Kurtis, 69, and Walter Jacobson, 72, to the anchor desk for the first time in 20 years at WBBM-Channel 2, the best the CBS-owned station could do Friday night was finish a close second in the ratings at 10 p.m. to ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.
To their credit, Bill & Walter never made any sweeping claims of toppling the market leader. In an interview Friday afternoon with Roe Conn, Kurtis even tipped his hat to Magers and Channel 7, calling them “the Mount Everest of TV news.” Everest still stands.
It was, nevertheless, an unforgettable and uniquely Chicago event. Kurtis set the mood right off the bat, telling viewers: “No need to change the dial. Just turn your clocks back 20 years and hang on.” And in his “Perspective” commentary, Jacobson proved as ornery as ever, taking on Rich Daley for doing “dumb things” and predicting that he might not be occupying City Hall much longer. (Earlier in the week, Chicago Current editor Geoff Dougherty reached a similar conclusion but supported it with more transparent sourcing.)
Not surprisingly, the mayor couldn’t resist firing back at Skippy the next day, telling reporters: “Listen, I’m still here and he’s been out of Channel 2 for a long time. Like anything else, he needs publicity and Channel 2 needs help. I don’t know if he’s helping them.” Then Daley added: “Bill Kurtis is alright.”
Fortunately for Channel 2, Friday turned out to be an exceedingly slow news night, allowing for maximum nostalgia about Bill & Walter and the bygone era they personified. “It didn’t feel like I was watching the news,” one nonplussed colleague confided. “I was watching them.” But many more seemed to echo Dean Richards’ sentiments: “It was a study in the way things should be done.”
It also made for a few awkward moments on the set. At the end of his report, Jay Levine presented Jacobson with a copy of the city budget and Kurtis with an Internet card, making a direct reference to his commercial career. At least they didn’t have AT&T sponsor the whole thing. And octogenarian Harry Porterfield showed up with a “Someone You Should Know” piece about a street magician that he recycled from last April when he was still employed at Channel 7. Talk about sleight of hand.
Throughout the newscast, some of Chicago’s sharpest media observers were sharing instant reactions on Twitter. Tweeted Roger Ebert: “WBBM/2 Bill & Walter reunion. In background of street magician interview, big labor union ad on bus: ‘Channel 5 is Bad News.’ ” And from Time Out Chicago editor-in-chief Frank Sennett: “How did we do without Walter’s perspective all these years? Some things are better left in memory banks . . .” and “Kurtis sez old pic of Baskerville looks like ‘Snoop Doggy Dog as a child.’ And then a blooper reel. All we’re missing is Dom DeLuise laughing.”
Of course, if thousands of Chicagoans are still so gaga over Bill & Walter, it begs the question: Why did the legendary duo split up in the first place? For one thing, by 1989, Channel 2 had been trailing Channel 7 in the ratings at 10 p.m. for three years. But more importantly, Channel 2 bosses were under intense pressure to diversify their white male front line. (Enter Linda MacLennan.) As miserable as Jacobson felt about breaking up with Kurtis, he told me at the time: “Things have to change. We must have a ‘strong female presence’ on our news. It’s just the right thing to do. I agree with the decision.”
For the record, Jacobson continued to deliver his “Perspectives” on the 10 p.m. newscast and to co-anchor with Kurtis at 5 p.m. for several more years. But in 1993, he skipped to Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32. Kurtis quit Channel 2 in 1995.
In the end, Friday night was all about Bill & Walter coming back to take a bow (think Rocky Wirtz and John McDonough inviting Blackhawks icons Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita to skate around the ice) and bestowing their imprimatur on young Rob Johnson (in absentia) and the current regime at Channel 2. It’s no coincidence that one of the first mentors Johnson courted when he got the job was Kurtis.
Will any of it make a difference to Channel 2 in the long run? No more than hearing the voice of Walter Cronkite from beyond the grave introduce Katie Couric each night makes a difference to “The CBS Evening News.” In other words, not so much.
Two other weekend highlights:
- Bill Leff managed to keep a potential train wreck on track in the abbreviated debut of “ChicagoNow Radio” Saturday on news/talk WGN-AM (720). The handful of bloggers he interviewed ranged from “Etiquette Bitch” Marianna Swallow to “CTA Tattler” Kevin O’Neil. Not once did Leff mention that both WGN and ChicagoNow.com are owned by Tribune Co. But at least it didn’t come off sounding like one giant infomercial.
- At midnight Friday, WLIT-FM (93.9) flipped the switch on its adult-contemporary format and turned into an all-Christmas music outlet. Premature as it seems, the Nov. 13 kickoff was far from the earliest for the Clear Channel station. In 2006 and 2007, “Lite FM” turned on “The Holiday Lite” just two days after Halloween — on Nov. 2.
16
11 2009
blogs.vocalo.org
Watching Bill and Walter was great nostalgia. I had not watched Channel 2 news since the 1980s. I enjoyed the presentation, except for Harry Porterfield’s contribution. The Perspectives segment was fine, along with a short weather forecast and an even shorter sports report. I think a hard hitting no-nonsense news cast could work. I don’t want restaurant reviews or Cheryl Burton’s special reports or extended useless health reports.
I would like to see more Bill and Walter. No one seems to be shaking the city hall tree these days. Nothing wrong with a little humour and natural chemistry. Maybe a once a week Friday might be the solution – not too much – but just enough.
I tuned in to see how Bill & Walter were doing and it was the end of the Levine piece. While Jay was doing his bit giving Bill & Walter his gifts, there was this infernal beeping going on that annoyed the heck out of me and I decided that WBBM still doesn’t have it’s act together and tuned out again. So much for trying to get more viewers.
BIll and Walter were fun but they were pretty horrible in their delivery. It felt more like a college news broadcast. I know they are rusty….it showed.
How about THIS weekend ‘highlight’?
At 1:40am (or so) Monday, Nick Digilio (on his WGN radio program) wondered out loud if ROGER EBERT and Michael Phillips “were DRUNK” when they reviewed the recently released “2012″. Digilios opinion differed from theirs…
Speculating out loud whether or not Ebert was drunk ??? VERRRRRY CLASSY !
After looking at ratings in this market for way too many years I’m guessing that the 50+, 55+, and 65+ demos were huge. A 40yr old was 20 and a 30yr old was 10 when they quit.
I have to agree with Dean Richards. Perhaps it’s because we are both men of a certain age, or perhaps because we both take news and broadcasting seriously, but I really feel in my gut and in my bones that hard-hitting investigative reporting is good for the media and vital for democracy. Enough he-said she-said, let’s put on an insane person to provide “balance”, infotainment as a substitute for news programming. Bill and Walter showed how it should be done. And as a chap of a certain age, I have developed a great deal of respect for the value that is brought by experience.
I watched three-quarters of the newscast and enjoyed the nostalgia of it, especially when they handed off to Harry. Reminded me of watching with my parents back in the late 70’s. Yes, they were rusty…Walter far more than Bill;Skippy looked like he just climbed out of bed. They also had little to do, in part because it was a relatively slow news day but also because Channel Two reports so little hard news amidst all the glossy features these days. It would have been great to see how Bill especially handled a tough, breaking story.
In all, it was fun but in no way will it draw me back to watching Channel Two in particular or local TV news in general.
Was out of town over the weekend, so I just watched it on the station website.
Maybe I’m getting old(er), but Bill & Walter looked pretty damn good. During the ‘Perspective’, I actually felt that Walter was right back in the middle of the mayoral stuff again. And no, I wasn’t drinking any Kool-Aid either…
They had a 3-way remote interview with Bob Sirott this morning on WGN, and while they were understandably talking over one another at times, there was no doubt they were thrilled & juiced up over doing the show, ratings or not. At 69 & 72 years old, that’s really neat.
I would definitely watch them again. Oh…and Anne State looked luminous…
Bill and Walter did a great job. Watched them back then and would watch them back now. Lets hope the bosses @
wbbm gets some “religion” and have them back often. And I would be the first to say they need Walter’s Prospectives back on a regular basis; say 3x a week? They are thought provoking, well written and produced. If Walter can get under Daley’s skin that easily, we need Walter to stir things up in Chicago again. Walter teamed with Pam Zeckman and Dave Savini could prove quite potent to get things done. Bill Kurtis should be welcomed back again and again to CBS2. I thought that bill and walter’s broadcast was so perfect; as you quoted Dean Richards (another consumate pro) they ARE what TV news should be; no BS, but delivered professionally and with the compassion missing in today’s anchors.
I don’t think there was that much publicizing on this pairing, outside of industry people, geeks and nostalgia minded people, how many knew to make that much of a difference in the ratings? Only way we can know is a comparison on ratings between other Friday nights, if CBS2 increased while ABC7 decreased.
Outside of that, nice to see Walter can light the Mayors a*s on fire in a heartbeat. Daley’s statement the next day proved the validity of Bill & Walter.
Finally, I am saddened reading others opinions elsewhere on the internet that 2 mature (they used the word old) white men can’t make it today as newscasters. Since when does credible, reliable, professional, reporting anchors have to be a certain sex, color or nationality?
Warm Regards,
PP