Al Primo

Al Primo

Albert T. (Al) Primo (b. 1938-) is a television news executive who was credited with creating the "Eyewitness News" format.

He began in the business in 1953 as a copy boy at WDTV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, moving up the ranks over 12 years as the station switched dial positions (from channel 3 to channel 2), owners (from the DuMont Television Network to Westinghouse Broadcasting) and call letters (to KDKA-TV), working as news writer, cameraman, reporter, anchorman and news director.

In 1965 he went to Philadelphia's KYW-TV where he launched the "Eyewitness News" format (the name itself had been used for some years before that by Westinghouse's TV stations for its local newscasts, and in fact was first used by KYW itself in 1959 when it was based in Cleveland, Ohio), and in 1968 he took the format with him to his new job at WABC-TV, the ABC outlet in New York City. He refined the "Eyewitness News" format at WABC (including the addition of "happy talk"), and the Eyewitness News name and format radiated across the United States from here. He also chose the musical score from the Tar Sequence in the movie Cool Hand Luke (composed by Lalo Schifrin) as the news theme to WABC's "Eyewitness News", a move which also exposed many other TV stations in the United States (and by extension, their viewers) to Schifrin's work.

At WABC-TV, Primo assembled the anchor duo of Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel, which garnered high ratings for 16 years until 1986, when Grimsby was let go from the station.

In 2002, Primo helped launch Teen Kids News as a project to give young people an opportunity to develop an interest in the news industry through delivering news and information to their peers.

ee also

* Eyewitness News

References

* Powers, Ron. "The Newscasters: The News Business As Show Business" (revised edition). New York, Leisure Books, 1980 (pp. 193-203).

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Studio/2020/teams_kyw.html CBS3 Eyewitness News Team] - unofficial site documenting the development of Eyewitness News at KYW-TV
* [http://www.teenkidsnews.com/ Teen Kids News] - Primo's teen newscast project
* [http://streamingmediaworld.com/video/voices/eyeworld/ Eyewitness World] - More detailed biography of Primo, and information on his other latest venture


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