GNF pays tribute to those men and women who come into our lives and homes everyday to deliver the local, national and international news

No one remembers Richard Hubbell but if you were one of the very few people in New York during 1941 with a television set, you could have watched his 15-minute program, Richard Hubbell and the News. He was one of the first TV news anchors. His small audience watched the show twice a week on experimental CBS television station WCBW. However, his early chapter in broadcast history came to an end with WWII and the emerging television industry was put on hold while the nation focused on the war. Movie newsreels occasionally aired on TV during this period, but for the most part, radio reported the broadcast journalism stories from WWII. Although radio networks had been in existence since the 1920s, large television networks really did not start until 1948 when coaxial cable began connecting major TV markets. One of the first things network stations shared was news and during the late 1940s and early 1950s television viewers began watching the news on four television networks: NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont. These were the early days of television news. Remember, as of 1950, only nine percent of American homes had a television. A few stations around the country experimented with television programming during the 30s and periodically radio announcers would do voice-over work for TV news reports with wire copy and still photographs. Beginning in 1947, John Cameron Swayze, who worked in radio for many years, had done voice-over work for Camel Newsreel Theatre became the television anchor of Camel News Caravan. His credentials were thin but he created an on-air personality that viewers liked. He became famous by ending his program each night with the line, “Well, thats the story, folks.” He also appeared in Timex watch credentials and a generation of viewers grew up remembering his slogan: “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” The Huntley-Brinkley Report with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley replaced the Camel News Caravan in 1956 with one reporting from New York and the other from Washington, D.C. During most of the 50s and 60s NBC led the network evening news ratings race. CBS was a respectable second and ABC a distant third. That, however, began to change in 1967 when Walter Cronkites ratings improved. The end of the one of the first and most successful anchor teams in television history ended when Chet Huntley signed off with “Be patient and have courage – there will be better and happier news some day, if we work at it.” Since that time all three major networks and multiple cable networks produce all types of news programs but broadcast news is still dominated by the big three – ABC, CBS, and NBC.