Ron Kershaw

Ron Kershaw was an American television news executive responsible for some of the television news innovations that we take for granted today.Considered somewhat a genius, [http://books.google.com/books?id=nSWawtYzZEUC&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=ron+kershaw+news+director&source=web&ots=g6tUzeWgIw&sig=vFxSUz2Eytb0INZFNhgps2mvD4o] Kershaw was the news director in several large cities across the United States including New York, Chicago and Baltimore.

Groundbreaking news director

In 1974, Kershaw was hired by WBAL-TV in Baltimore to shore up its sagging news ratings. He introduced the Action News format, hired young, gifted new talent and moved the station from last to first in less than a year. Sue Simmons and Spencer Christian were two of Kershaw's proteges who went on to become big names in TV news.Kershaw moved on to WNBC-TV in New York where he collaborated with Peter Sang in bringing the "control room" set into tv news. The set was large and used innovative lighting to create a look that was new to tv news at that time. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_4_New_York] Kershaw was also mentor to Bucky Gunts, now an award-winning television news director [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=439097&mod=awards] who worked for Kershaw in Baltimore and Chicago.

Not so private life

Prior to his move to Baltimore, Kershaw had been dating Jessica Savitch, a news reporter who had worked for a rival television station in Texas. Kershaw helped develop her skills as a reporter during their stormy 10-year on-again and off-again relationship. [cite web|url=http://www.drbilllong.com/CurrentEventsVIII/Savitch.html|title=The Story of Jessica Savitch |last=Nash|first=Alanna |work=Review by Bill Long|publisher=Bill Long|accessdate=2008-05-13] The relationship was depicted in the made for television movie: "Almost Golden", about the life of Jessica Savitch. [cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112327/|title=Almost Golden|publisher=International Movie Data Base|accessdate=2008-05-13] In 1987, Kershaw met Giselle Fernandez, whom he had hired as a reporter at WBBM-TV. They found they had a lot in common and soon they were engaged to be married. It was never to be. [http://www.giselle.com/gfbook.html] Kershaw died in July 1989 of pancreatic and liver cancer.

Family

Kershaw is survived by his son, Beau Kershaw, an award winning photojournalist at Kershaw's old station, WBAL-TV in Baltimore. [cite web|url=http://www.capitalemmys.tv/_pdfs/2006_Emmy_Nominations.pdf|title=2006 Emmy Award Nominations|date=2006|publisher=National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences|accessdate=2008-05-13] [cite web|url=http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:UKGvTrjQMTIJ:www.capitalemmys.tv/documents/2007_Emmy_Nominations.doc+Beau+Kershaw&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us|title=2007 Emmy Award Nominations|date=2007|publisher=National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences|accessdate=2008-05-13] [cite web|url=http://www.spj.org/mdpro/2005award-winners.htm|title=2005 Award Winners|publisher=Society of Professional Journalist-Maryland |accessdate=2008-05-13] Young Kershaw's awards include seven Emmy Awards [cite web|url=http://www.emmyonline.org/emmy/docu_27th_winners_b.html|title=NATIONAL TELEVISION ACADEMY PRESENTS|publisher=National Television Academy|accessdate=2008-05-13] a Peabody Award and the duPont-Columbia silver baton. [cite web|url=http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/cs/ContentServer/jrn/1175295299883/page/1175295299866/simplepage.htm|title=2007 duPont-Columbia Award winners|date=2007-02-28|publisher=Columbia University School of Journalism|accessdate=2008-05-13]

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